Many aspiring web designers are true artists at heart, not business savants. To these graphic designers, the idea of creating a business plan feels about as easy as landing on the moon. And performing the day to day business tasks like analyzing financials, improving marketing results, and cutting expenses might be like the Apollo 18 moon mission. In other words, it ain’t happening.
Because of this business aversion, many web designers choose to seek employment with larger web design firms. Joining the ranks of an established company removes the barrier to entry and allows a new web designer to begin generating an income from their craft.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the design side of web development is not growing as fast as the developer/coding side. See the charts below for a quick summary and notice the Job Outlook over a 10 year period where the red arrows are pointing.
Programmers Needed – Designers? Not so much…
So if you’re a programmer, the outlook for getting a job and making a good salary is promising. Not so true for graphic designers.
This is probably why it’s common to see web designers and graphic artists gravitating towards creating their own businesses and working for themselves. The benefits of working for yourself are obvious, but even getting the basic logistics setup can be daunting.
I’ve spoken to other web designers launching businesses and many of them are pondering the same questions like:
- Should I sell hosting?
- What web design software should I use?
- Should I use pre-designed themes or create custom designs?
- Should I use a content management system so clients can easily maintain their sites?
All great questions – and critical to starting off your business in a direction that focuses on your core competencies and goals.
Many blossoming web design businesses will die out at this point and never get off the ground.
Cause of death: drowning in decisions
The Cure: Answer Many Questions at Once
Many aspiring web designers view website builders like IM Creator and Wix as the competition – easy DIY options gobbling up all the small business owners looking to create basic websites.
What many web designers don’t realize is that many website builders have tailor-made developer platforms designed especially for them.
These developer platforms are literally a website business in a box, and they may be just what you need to launch your web design business and answer all the tough questions at once.
Here are a few standout features that make using the developer plans on some popular website builders THE answer for starting AND growing your web design business.
- Website Builder Access
The beauty of using a website builder platform is you have access to software that probably cost hundreds of thousands to develop. Not only can you use this powerful software to build your clients’ sites quickly, but your clients will be able to use it to maintain their sites and make updates with ease.
If you’re not spending time maintaining sites for clients, you can spend more time acquiring more clients and building new sites.
- White Label & Brandable
Many web designers may shy away from using a website builder because they don’t want to promote a third-party brand like IMcreator, Weebly, or Wix when building their business. With a white label solution, you can promote your own brand.
White label works like this. I have Budweiser send me bottles of beer with no label. I then slap my label on it and sell it as Ryan’s Brew. My own label…my own brand.
White lable website builder solutions like IM Creator’s PRO platform work the same way. You can build sites and give your clients access to an all-in-one solution including website, domain, hosting, and email all in one place. And all with YOUR name on it.
- Simplicity
Simple is IN…so I’ll keep this explanation short and sweet.
I’ve conversed with hundreds of website clients over the past couple years. Most of them are confused and overwhelmed by all the options for creating a website.
Many will drop money on the spot just to get everything they need from one provider.
A website builder developer solution empowers you to provide everything your clients need in one package.
Domain…check
Website…check
Hosting…check
Email…check
New Client…check
- Your Own Hosting Business
Aspiring web designer, I hate to break it to you, but the real money in the website industry is hiding in hosting. That’s where the cash changes hands on a monthly basis.
Many web designers don’t include web hosting because it can be a headache or it simply doesn’t cross their minds. They just build sites for clients and then upload to the client’s hosting account.
Using a website builder developer platform will streamline the hosting process and give your clients unlimited professional hosting in most cases. It’s the easiest way to get into the lucrative hosting business.
You can charge your clients whatever you’d like for hosting. Which leads me to my next point…
- Set Your Prices
When using a website builder, the expectation is that you’ll be able to build sites faster and charge lower prices. But this is entirely up to you. It’s your business. You can charge what you want.
If you’re new to designing websites, start out cheap to attract more clients build your business faster. If you’re an experienced designer or offering value-adds to your clients like copywriting, SEO, or consulting, bundle these with the website package and charge an appropriate higher price.
To discuss…
Let’s continue the conversation. Are you more of a designer or developer? Prefer to work for yourself or for a larger firm? What unanswered questions are keeping you from starting your own web design business?
