I am contemplating starting a web design business and although having a website I would concentrate on finding custom from local businesses. However there are already a few web design companies based locally and I dont want to be wasting my time with setting up a company, marketing etc to get 1 project and that be it. I live in quite a rural area although there are some busy towns and a small city, its also a very touristy area (but hundreds of sites have been made about visiting the area already so dont really want to go into that). A lot of the businesses already have websites built years ago so I could always target these with a redesign/update marketing strategy I was thinking of offering base packages then an extra fee for SEO, yearly/monthly maintenance and hosting. Other than having the lowest prices, which I dont want to do what can I do to make myself stand out?
I don't think your local market is over saturated with designers. There is always room in the world for talented designers to make their mark. I think you best bet would be to target organizations and committees in your area. A lot of organizations are looking to move some of there stuff online to share meeting minutes, schedules, news, etc. You could also look into partnering with a local ISP and setting up and promoting free city wifi. If the area you live in is really touristy I can see free Wi-fi being a great way to draw attention to you.
If you have a good product to sell/offer, there is plenty of room for entry. There is a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of crap out there, so offering a better product or service than those others will get you noticed. It won't happen overnight - but it will happen.
There are a lot of people in the web design market, however I don't think it is too saturated yet since the need for websites is increasing as businesses and people are getting a feel for the internet market. So the need is becoming greater, so it balances out the amount of website design businesses coming out there. If you have the confidence to come out with a website design business that is better than what is out there, then you can definitely over-ride and survive in this market. Of course you need to figure out what will make you stand out: - Competitive pricing? - Quality? - Years of experience? Or you can specialize in a certain niche that relates to website design (such as designing only blogs, business sites, musician sites, etc) Good luck
I agree with the niche approach. I am also a web designer living in a rural area. The main problem I have is that many local businesses just don't have the money to spend and you can end up working for peanuts if you are not careful. I get enquiries all the time, but my prices are too high for most. However, I give everyone a package of written information with every estimate and spend time helping people who don't use my services with 15 or 20 minutes of high quality free advice. A surprising number of people come back to me after going to someone cheaper a year later or so. What I am saying is your niche can be your personality, your helpfulness and your attention to detail. Always carry some well designed (but plain) business cards. You meet people frequently and they always ask you what you do. Give them a card. You'll get enquiries months later from someone who knows someone who has your card.
Agreed. People do eventually learn that if they pay less, they will get unsatisfied work and return to you. There are always higher paying clients (even though there are less), who wouldn't rather work less for higher pay than take on several projects for the same pay?
There are a lot of web designers out there, but there is also a very high demand for the services. Just about every business wants to have a web site.
There are a lot of web designers out there, but there is also a very high demand for the services. Just about every business wants to have a web site.
I would agree that there is plenty of need for good design help (just by seeing how many bad designs are in place). But just because people need help doesn't mean they know they do (which is an important thing for them to know before they would pay for help).
Well if your local area is saturated why not work on a global level? You can advertise on the internet.
You will have to show the site owners value in putting up new sites. Offer a couple of discounted projects to build a portfolio and make sure that you have your site in the footer to compensate you for the discount. Word of mouth can work wonders.
Web design is a very difficult business these days. Even if you can make the sales pitch locally, a lot of business owners will just be happy with the horrible template-based designs offered by GoDaddy. And you'll be facing competition from very cheap overseas web design. Do you have real excellence in graphic design? Make some really amazing graphic samples and you might convince the local businesses that you're the right person to do it. They'll be less impressed with lots of technical acronyms.
The graphic design, content creation and seo are were the money is. A local blog and directory can help attract clients and show case your seo skills. Offshore designers can be hired to keep costs down. However a small local market may not have enough business to build a company.
My advice for designers like stormweather is to have more than one site up. One site is to target your local area, where the prices are a lot cheaper and another site targeting marketers who can afford to pay more money. This way, you're hitting all income levels. Large corporations do it all the time....You never know it because they just use another name. You'll see that you'll make more money this way as well. You'll hit and miss all day long with the super high prices, but if you're hitting all income levels, then at the end of the month, you'll have a lot more money in profits.
I'm basing all I say off of a few years of personal experience in the web design game but I can warn you right now that the local market is a tough hill to climb. That will probably be twice as true if you live in more or a rural setting. Local clients tend to want more for as little cash as possible. They eventually become incredible time and money drains for little reward. Again, that's based solely on my own personal experience but I had enough bad projects that I no longer accept work from local businesses.
Well I personally think, that if you can target the audience well with your Quality products, noone stands a better chance against you. Like my Company works for Small and Medium Enterprises only, so we keep our Prices adequately and Promote it on forums where you can actually get those kind of customers. But we are in no way comprising on quality so that ensures that we are chosen over others. However as bjplink said those people would try to use you more, that is where you should practise to say a simple NO. Otherwise thats a Loss to you. Hope you get what I mean. I also like the idea of my fellow posters, about Niche. Like some people just do mySpace Profile Pages and Earn alot.
The design market isn't too saturated I don't think - every designer has his/her own style and local market. The web hosting industry is the overcrowded market.
Maybe my situation is going to help you I have a good site and I need upgrades every moth, security, design, new features... I don't find a good company, yeah all companies say that they are the best but it is not true. They do a 25% of work or bad, I need to optimizate the new code because suck... if you are good company you will not have problems