Starting a Web Design Business – Complete Guide for Quick Start in 2022

As a web design business, your website serves two purposes:

• It acts as a primary touchpoint between your business and clients.
• It helps you showcase your skills.

Have you ever visited an architect’s office? Would you consider working with them if their office was poorly designed?

Your website helps you create a solid first impression on a potential client. Be sure to put a lot of effort into your site to make sure it reflects your abilities.

If your friends or family members have a business, offer to create a website for them for free. It’s an easy way to build your portfolio. However, don’t leave any loose ends just because you are working for free. Give your best, as your prospective clients will refer to it to judge your work quality.

Lastly, you can always build websites for small businesses for cheap or free.  In this digital era, every small business, from bakery to salon to restaurant, needs a website, but they can’t afford web design companies. You can build websites for them and make them a part of your portfolio.

You may start your business as a sole proprietorship, but registering it as an LLC has numerous benefits. It makes you look more credible, and you can also avail yourself of tax benefits. However, registering your business will require a small fee.

Estimated Cost: $40-500

Hardware includes the equipment you will use to run your business. A good-quality laptop is enough, but as your business grows, you’ll need to buy more equipment, such as computers and tablets, printers, etc. Also, there are certain software tools every web design service provider should have in their toolkit. InVision, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Sketch, and Proofhub are some must-have tools for each web designing business.

Estimated Cost: Specific to each business

You can manage without a website as a freelancer, but when you start a business, having a website is essential. This means you have to pay an annual web hosting fee, which could vary depending on your hosting provider and plan.

Estimated Cost: $5-10 per month

Most web design businesses rely on inbound leads. But investing in outbound marketing, such as cold emails and paid advertising, can help you get an edge over your competitors and get more clients. It is better to put aside a small budget for marketing.

Estimated Cost: 2-5% of your revenue

If you hire employees, you’ll need to pay for their salaries and benefits. You can do only so much alone. If you want to scale your business, you’ll need a team of skilled individuals.

Estimated Cost: Depends on the team size

Knowing your “why” before doing anything is important. Why do you want to start a web design business? Is it because it is a lucrative business and web designers are in high demand? Or is it because you are passionate about turning your creative and critical thinking skills into a location-independent business?

Remember that running a web design business, like any other business, is hard work. Don’t get started unless you are certain that this is what you want to do for the many upcoming years of your life.

If you have a regular web designing job, you are at an advantage, as you don’t need to undergo the rigorous process of learning the skills from scratch. You probably already are an expert. However, if you plan to quit your job to start a business, there are a few boxes you must tick. These include:

• Build a professional portfolio website
• Build proposal templates
• Invest in social media branding, especially on LinkedIn
• Set aside an emergency fund for 6-12 months

Most importantly, don’t have bad blood with your boss when you quit your job. If your business initiative doesn’t work out, you should be able to pick up where you left.

The first step in starting any business is to create a business plan. Your business plan should answer at least the following questions:

• What will be the costs involved in starting the business?
• Who are my potential clients (target market)
• What is your pricing model?
• How will you position your brand (name, logo, tagline)?

New web designers tend to have their fingers in every pie. They approach all sorts of clients and try to offer services in every niche, from eCommerce to healthcare to finance.

Choosing a niche might feel like limiting your potential, but it can go a long way in getting high-quality, niched clients. It’s better to be an expert in one field rather than being average in all fields.

Determining your ideal client is a crucial step in starting a web design business. Clients looking for web design services can be:

• Enterprises and large companies
• Small and medium businesses (SMBs)
• Startups
• Web design companies and digital agencies looking to delegate work

You can’t sell your services to everyone. Decide which type of clients you want to work with as early as possible.

Before you kickstart your business, determine the goals you want to achieve. Of course, you want to generate revenue and make money, but your goals need to be more specific. Some goals to set are:

• When do you want to get your first client?
• How many clients do you want to get by the end of six or 12 months?
• How many clients do you want to work with every month?
• How much revenue do you plan to generate by the end of six or 12 months?

Your brand will help you stand out from your competitors. Don’t think that branding is only for big-budget companies. With the digital marketplace being so competitive, every small business needs to have a branding strategy.

The key elements of any brand are:

• Business name
• Logo
• Colour guide
• Slogan/tagline
• Voice/tone/personality/messaging

Deciding how much to charge for services is often a tricky choice for new business owners. Here is a simple approach to pricing you should follow.

First, find out the industry-standard rate. The average web design cost is about $500 to $1000 per website.

What most new businesses do is reduce their rates to look more competitive. This is not the right approach, as you are not only undervaluing yourself but also giving an impression that you are not as good as your competitors.

A better approach is to offer extra services for the same rate. So, if your competitors charge $750 for designing a website, you can offer website designing and five social media post designs for the same price.

Setting up a new business may have some legal requirements, such as:

• Acquiring licenses
• Getting insured
• Developing and signing contracts

Additionally, you need to set up a tax account and manage local, state, and federal taxes. It’s better to work with a legal expert to take care of all the legal stuff.

Since your website will be the main touchpoint between your brand and clients, building your design business website should be one of the first things you should do. Get a custom domain name for your business and build your website in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or other website builders.

Building strong relationships with clients is the key to success for small business owners, and it boils down to creating a smooth project workflow. Be sure to implement project management tools like Proofhub and Trello to streamline communication and collaboration between your team and clients.

Finding new clients is one of the biggest tasks for a new web design company. Here’s how you can simplify this process and get high-quality clients that help you grow.

How Do I Get My First Web Design Client?

There are numerous ways to get your first client and possibly many more. Here are some useful ways and platforms:

• Freelance websites, like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer
• Social media platforms, mainly LinkedIn
• Web design forums and social media groups
• Referrals from friends and family

How to Get High Paying Web Design Clients?

Everyone wants to get high-paying clients, but don’t let that be your driving force. When starting, focus on giving your best to every client. Once you gain experience and strengthen your portfolio, you’ll be able to attract high-paying clients via organic search and on LinkedIn and freelance platforms.

How to Get International Clients for Web Design?

Thanks to the internet, you don’t need to do anything different to get international clients. Social media and freelance platforms allow you to connect with clients across the globe.

Everyone wants to get high-paying clients, but don’t let that be your driving force. When starting, focus on giving your best to every client. Once you gain experience and strengthen your portfolio, you’ll be able to attract high-paying clients via organic search and on LinkedIn and freelance platforms.

How to Get International Clients for Web Design?

Thanks to the internet, you don’t need to do anything different to get international clients. Social media and freelance platforms allow you to connect with clients across the globe.

Scaling up is the key to growing your business. In the initial days of your business, you might be comfortable handling everything on your own. However, there might come the point where you will want to scale up your business strategically.