I would like to know wat the steps are for setting up a web design business,presently am reading this book although not the full version :The Web Design Business kit 2.0 which i downloaded from the sitepoint website. The Book is a nice place to start.
I would like to know from some of us that might presently have a Web Design business already :Advice and resources to start a web design business.

Depends what kind of "web design business" you want to run really

Would you work from home as a freelancer for local clients? Or would you spend all day posting on the boards trying to find a few small jobs?

What experience do you have with web design?

Find a niche in your local area and exploit it. For example if you're pretty good with xhtml/css why not look at the websites for loads of local businesses... check all of the sites for validation errors, cross-browser displays errors etc. By fixing small errors on a lot of local clients websites at a dirt cheap price you might find a lot of them come back with more work in the future.

For free advice on setting up a business in Scotland you should check out "The Business Gateway". Im sure the rest of the UK have similiar schemes, they basically help you write a business plan and give you startup capital.

How to start a web design business? Start it like any other business.

Step one, identify your potential customers. Get a legal pad and make a list of potential clients.
Find out who your competitors are, write them down.
How are you going to sell your service better than the competition?
Start working on a business plan.

to toot my own horn, give this a read, it contains plenty of links to get you started

Thanks for the response.I am still working on my web design and development skills. I am still learning the curves.

Originally Posted by larry007

Thanks for the response.I am still working on my web design and development skills. I am still learning the curves.

I hope this doesn't sound callous but, step zero for any business is know something about the business you want to start.

Thanks for the advice....

Just a few advices to think about when you make your business plan, (willcode4beer is right, you need one).

Think about working local. Do not try to get your customers on the net first, those who are looking for something that way are often broke and are looking for some cheap work. Local people in your area are probably ready to pay big bucks if your are good.

Second, don't just design. when you do this, you just get paid for a job and after that it's over. Buy a reseller plan to start with a trusted provider and sell hosting for a year at the same time. Don't try to compete with regular hosting companies on the net, sell a managed service to your customers. When you work local, you can sell hosting for $50 or more per month. Of course you have to choose your host carefully, someone working with professionals. When you do this, you keep your customers, they are not going somewhere else and when next year comes, you charge them again for hosting.

Third, always do more than what the customer is expecting. A satisfied customer will bring you more customers. build your reputation.

If you have the skin, find clients, and get to work. :P

I Thank u all for ur insight and quick response. I would also like to learn from you guys that already have a Web design and development business. The PRO and CONS of the Web Design business,The Dos and Don'ts of the business.

A few words of advice for when you do get clients:

• Use a contract. Every single time. No matter who it is.
• Take incremental payments. As an example: 50% up front, 25% halfway, 25% upon completion. Otherwise, people will try to take advantage of you and you'll spend all of your time trying to track down the rest of your money. With incremental payments, if they don't pay, you stop the work until they do. If they decide not to pay you or to hold out at the end, you'll still at least have your 75% (which is better than 0%).
• Don't quote a set price on your website unless it is an hourly rate.
• Don't be afraid to charge high. People are willing to pay a higher price, but the kind of clients you'll attract with lower prices won't be the kind of clients you'll enjoy working with.
• To figure out your hourly rate, decide what you need to make per year, divide that by the number of days you want to work per year (be realistic), divide that by 8 hrs. That's your hourly rate. As an example, suppose I want to make $60,000 per year. I also want to work an average Mon-Fri work week, with 5 weeks vacation. The total number of days I would work would be about 235. $60,000 divided by 235 days is around $255 per day, which would give me an hourly rate of just under $32. However, you'll also need to factor in your time for getting and meeting with clients, which will be unpaid. And what about the periods that you don't have clients lined up? You also need to consider business expenses. In that case, I would bump the hourly up to at least $40-45, if not higher.
• In quoting a price for a project, determine how many hours you think it might take you to complete the project and then multiple those hours by at least 1.5. The price of the project will be that number of hours times your hourly rate. The reason that you should do this is because everything always takes longer than we think. You need to give yourself some wiggle room for error.
• The same principle should be used in determining a deadline. Overestimate your time and give yourself plenty of room to breath. If you finish on time, the client will think you're professional. If you finish before, they'll think you're amazing.
• Figure out beforehand how much leeway you're going to give your client to make changes and then put it in the contract. Clients will often want drastic changes to their sites that weren't part of the original deal and they will expect it to be done at no extra cost. Lay out exactly what you're going to do and make it clear from the beginning that any additional changes beyond what you've agreed upon will be extra. You should charge them your hourly rate and also make sure to communicate to them that extra time will be needed to make the changes.
• If you're planning to make a lot of websites, you'll probably want to reuse your code at some point. This also needs to be in the contract. You can get in trouble if a client thinks that the code you used to create their website is owned by them and they see it on another site.
• If you're using 3rd party templates, scripts, or code, you also need to specify that in the contract and make sure the client understands that you are doing so. You can explain both code reuse and third party scripts as a time saver which ultimately cuts down development costs. Your clients will understand that and most of them won't have a problem with it.
• Don't be afraid to walk away from a potentially difficult client. Some people are more trouble than they are worth, so if you have a feeling that someone is going to be difficult, don't go into business with them. There are a couple of ways that you can do this gracefully: 1) Double or triple your price (this is another reason not to post your prices on your site). If they still want to business with you, the extra money will help ease over their difficulty. 2) Suggest that your company may not be the best fit for their particular needs and recommend one of your competitors (you should know who your competitors are).
• When you are first meeting with clients or potential clients, do everything you can to find out what it is that they really want to do with their site. For clients who don't have a lot of technical experience, they may already think they know the best way to do what they really want, but it's up to you to educate them on what will actually get them their desired result. This is a good way to show that you really know your stuff. However, don't argue with them. If they are insistent upon doing things in a way that doesn't make sense or isn't good practice, you can either give in and do it their way or you can handle them according to the difficult customer rules. You can have standards for the type of work you will do. As a word of caution, however, be careful in subjective areas like design.

Hopefully that will give you at least a heads up on some issues and help you avoid some of the beginning mistakes that many of us go through.

Thanks to VirtuosiMedia for this great article, even some of us with experience will greatly benefit from your advices. It is always good to be remainded of good business practices.

The best way to start your design bizz is to go local. There is a lot of money to be made here as most designers try to go global straight of and end up loosing money on the advertising campaign.

Just put an add in your local newspaper is a start. This will cost you about (in Uk) £70 if you just get one sale that will pay for your add.

I started with bizz cards went round every local industrial estate it was great because they new I was local and could actually talk to me.
I also put my hosting domain on the back and sides of my car this has earned me a lot when am shopping with the wife peps are reading it.

Very well, to start with if you are confiedent enough with your designing skills, I advise you to go with freelance sites where you will find projects on variety of webdesigning projects. Start doing projects their till you make enough money and to know what world requires from you.

I Thank u all for all for response,9ice one.
I am about getting my first official project,how do you guys advice me to handle it, the reason am asking this was that i had a project which i did not sign a contract with the client cos he was my friend,bcos i could not meet Up ,it was given to another person.
Need Advice from drawing up contract to ,drawing a quote,pls bear with me if my questions are getting too much.am a newbie,ready to learn...

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

• Use a contract. Every single time. No matter who it is.

this bit of information is invaluable.

What about the process of actually starting the business itself like license and all of that, what are the steps of doing that?

Originally Posted by Aggression

What about the process of actually starting the business itself like license and all of that, what are the steps of doing that?

That all depends on where you want to conduct the business. Laws vary. In many places, even if you just do web design out of your home you have to make sure your home is zoned correctly too.

Best bet for these kind of questions is your local SBA (small business administration) they'll give you lots of free help. You can even find mentors (successful business people in your area) to help guide you through a lot of that.

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

That all depends on where you want to conduct the business. Laws vary. In many places, even if you just do web design out of your home you have to make sure your home is zoned correctly too.

Best bet for these kind of questions is your local SBA (small business administration) they'll give you lots of free help. You can even find mentors (successful business people in your area) to help guide you through a lot of that.

Thank you, thats the answer I was looking for. Its crazy how buried and scattered a lot of this information seems to be when your just starting out.

I just want to do this the right way as I only plan on doing a home based web development with just myself doing small local businesses for now.

Thanks again...I really appreciate it! I was looking for the getting started point.

Originally Posted by Aggression

Thank you, thats the answer I was looking for. Its crazy how buried and scattered a lot of this information seems to be when your just starting out.

I just want to do this the right way as I only plan on doing a home based web development with just myself doing small local businesses for now.

Thanks again...I really appreciate it! I was looking for the getting started point.

When you can afford it, I'd recommend incorporating. It'll probably cost about $1500 or so, but you'll be able to pay yourself in dividends from shares rather than through salary. Dividends are generally taxed at about half the rate of salary. That's why you see Steve Jobs and a whole bunch of other corporate bigwigs set their salaries at something ridiculous like $1 per year. It isn't because they're altruistic, it's because they want to pay half the taxes they normally would. Incorporation will also help protect your personal assets in case anyone sues (though you'll also want to look into business insurance).

Make sure that you will put a business in a legal way.