How To Start A Successful Web Design Business (IN 3 MONTHS)

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If you're an aspiring web designer, then look no further. You have found the exact video to help you learn what you should be doing from one month to the next when you're building and launching a web design business.

The truth is really all you need to do is answer three questions when you're becoming a website designer.

what am I offering?
who to
how will I reach that person?

When you answer these three questions, you basically complete the Venn diagram of any business circle, one is your offer circle, two is your ideal client. And circle three is your marketing strategy.

Venn Diagram - Offer, Ideal Client, Marketing Strategy-min.jpg

Because you’re reading this I can tell that you've already basically decided what it is you're going to offer. And that is web design services.

But what you might not have yet is the actual skill of website design.

If you're like me, you never actually went to college or university for computer science or anything tech or graphic design related.

And so you might have a few valid fears around what would happen when a client asks you what your degree is in and where you went to school for website design.

Well, I'm happy to report that that's fear that a lot of aspiring website designers have, and the truth is that I actually got asked a grand total of zero times by clients, those questions. And since then I've gone on to teach over 5,000 people how to be website designers.

It’s a very common thing for new students to be really worried about what to say when someone asks them “where did you go to school for web design?”

So I chatted with a ton of past students about this.

And every single time all the past students say, no one's actually ever asked me that.

So it looks like it's something which a lot of us worry about, but isn't actually a very, let's say grounded in reality type fear!

My past students who became website designers literally started off as past figure skaters and accountants and stay-at-home moms.

You can check out past student success stories here!

They have all become website designers because truly it is something that you can learn from home in an online course or some tutorials.

So let's talk about how exactly to learn the skill of website design.

If you have some budget to put behind it, then definitely a course is the fastest way to get going as a website designer.

My Square Secrets™ course is open for enrollment a couple of times a year.

However, there are many different web designer courses out there, so you can actually learn the technical skills.

It is also dependent on which platform you want to learn as to which course you should actually take.

The other thing you should really make sure of is that you actually like the teacher who you're learning from.

You want to be sure that you can stand to listen to them for 10+ hours because to learn the skill truly and thoroughly, a lot of courses tend to be that long!

The other thing you want to make sure of is that you actually personally vibe with the person who you're learning from and you maybe find them entertaining because you're about to spend a lot of time listening to that person talk in their videos.

So I would recommend you think about that too.

I find that actually a lot of people who decide to get into the website industry decided to do so because in some other job or role that they had, they were just handed the task of like,

“Hey, go edit this website or update this thing”.

And then they got into a website builder and realized they actually loved playing around with the website and redesigning things. 💃

And so that is often why they have the idea that maybe they should be a website designer.

So oftentimes a lot of you might even have more skills than you realize of this because you have actually potentially been practicing this already!

Now we talked about what to do if you have some budget to put behind it, but if that is not the case, no worries. You can still get going.

There are some incredible web design tutorials on YouTube, so definitely recommend binging those.

I have a whole Youtube Playlist on everything Squarespace here!

Then of course you can also just go into the actual website builder, that you've chosen and start practicing on the thing!

Chosen my one true love Squarespace? You can get 10% off your first year with code PAIGE10 (yup - that’s an affiliate code!)

Making demo websites on your platform of choice is a totally valid way of starting to learn and is definitely something I did at the beginning.

Coz honestly, back in the day, there weren't any courses to help! (Hence why I created my web design course Square Secrets™ so you’re not in the same predicament!)

Even if you are doing it the budget friendly way with tutorials and practice, I would definitely recommend taking a course at some point, but maybe you've taken on a few projects and therefore you've made some income that you can invest.

Why?

Because tutorials will teach you a lot of the tech stuff, but not so much the strategy behind websites and the conversion and design best practices. And that tends to be the thing that people are often missing if they don't take a course.

So at some point when the budget allows I would highly recommend jumping into a course like Square Secrets™.

Okay. So let's say that you're doing some sort of online course right now, or maybe you just binged every single tutorial on YouTube and then gone and done some practice with making some mock trial websites, then…

The second thing that you need to do in that first month is answer the question of who you want to serve with your services.

Now I am not telling you to pick a niche from day one, but what I am saying is you want to get an idea of the direction you’d like to go in and I have a really easy way for you to figure this out.

Look around at other website designers and other website agencies that are out there right now and think about if you wanted to go get a job, if you don't want to run your own business, but you want to work for someone else, who of all of those website agencies would you want to work for the most and then take note of what are the projects that they're working on.

Who are the clients that they're working with?

That can give you a really good idea of what is the niche direction.

Think about what is it about this specific web designer who I would want to work for?
What is it that attracts me to their business?
What is it about the work that they're doing or the personality of the brand that I really like and that appeals to me?

I would say that answering those questions are probably the easiest way to start getting an idea of who it is that you might like to work with.

Now I'm not saying that you have to choose something super specific right now, but let's be real.

There is a big difference between designing websites for people in the construction industry versus people in the natural wellness business industry or designing websites for corporate accountants or dentists.

Or minimalist businesses or businesses with a really bold, colorful, like look and feel like say, Drunk Elephant.

So while you do not need to pick and marry a niche today, what I will say is that picking a niche direction is a very useful thing to figure out in month one and making this decision is really going to help with the work that you have to do in month two and three (which will all make sense in a moment!

So month number two, let's get you some real actual projects to work on.

Now the absolute easiest way of doing this is reaching out to your friends and family and anyone who you've ever met basically and letting them know what it is that you're starting to do.

And that is that you're offering website services.

Now in an ideal world, you would find some sort of friend or family member who is a business or needs a website in the general direction of the type of people or industry or design style or niche that you’re interested in.

Because this project, which you're about to do, can be a portfolio piece for you.

And if you want to work with bright and fun and colorful and young brands like Drunk Elephant, and you have a friend or family member who wants a website with that style and vibe, then that is the perfect project to take on!

And so if that’s your niche direction, that’s definitely worth your time doing versus maybe your Uncle Gary who wants a website for his woodworking business.

However, if rustic and natural is your vibe, then you would be a lot better off choosing to do Gary's project than Jane's playful, colorful, personal brand.

Now, a good starter portfolio for a website designer could have three pieces in it.

Struggling to find “real” clients? Mock portfolio pieces can also work beautifully! Grab my portfolio polishing mock project briefs below to get the inspiration to get started!

CTA Graphics for summary blocks

As you build these different websites out, I want you to start observing what is it that you liked about serving, for example, Aunt Stacey as opposed to Cousin Sarah.

You're always going to be reflecting back & developing your understanding of what you like & what you don’t like to determine which niche direction would you like to go in.

Do you want to stay in the one that you already picked or did you learn something in this project, which makes you realize, Oh no, actually want to take a hard right.

The goal is to always be informing yourself through these projects of exactly what it is that's bringing you joy and what you want to do more of in the future.

Now I know, I know it can be very scary to reach out to people and then tell them that you're starting to offer this, but truly, I think you're about to find that so many of your friends and family are going to deeply appreciate and love the fact that you are now offering this.

You don't even know until you get into it, just how many people need a website these days, and they're going to be exceptionally grateful to have someone to help them with it.

I’m imagining you’re asking yourself how much you should charge for these first few projects.

Really it’s up to you!

So you can do these projects paid and you can do them for free. You can do them for discounted rates.

The most important thing, however, is that you are getting a testimonial and a portfolio piece.

And of course you’re also building up confidence in yourself.

That is also a major part and reason to do this.

Okay. So let's say it's the end of month two and you have a whole portfolio of fabulous pieces now, and so let's move on to month number three.

In month three, you want to answer the question, how will I reach my ideal clients?

So you pretty much want to pick your marketing strategy and get started with it.

Now, depending on how well socially connected you are, you might find that you can just get a good number of projects just from your own friends and family, but let's be real. That method is not something to count on forever.

A little while back, I did a survey of 770 website designers and I asked them the question

How did they get clients in their business and how do they market their business?

Here’s the results!

Table showing how web designers get clients in their businesses

10% did it through Facebook
16% through Instagram
3% through LinkedIn
3% through freelancer websites
34% through referrals
6% through networking events
3% through cold pitching
12% through SEO/ blogging and content marketing
2% through Pinterest
5% also got clients through other methods. These are typical things like speaking or business networking groups or PR.

You can see the full breakdown & answers to a ton of other fascinating questions by checking out the full survey here!

I do want to let you know of something fabulous coming up soon - the Profitable & Productive Web Designer Bootcamp! Inside I'm going to share with you three days of amazing trainings and one entire day is literally just dedicated to helping you figure out which marketing strategy is right for you.

It’s a live training so click the link below ASAP and get yourself registered and together we will figure out which of all of these different marketing options is actually going to be the one to lead you to an avalanche of clients.

(Pst - if you missed the training, you’ll see a pretty sweet secret Youtube vid below you can catch that’ll also help!)

CTA Graphics for summary blocks

So picking the marketing strategy is just one thing, but actually implementing it is quite another.

Now this is again, where it comes down to the question of how much money do you have to put behind this?

If you do have some budget, then this is what I would highly recommend.

Go find a course from the expert on whatever the marketing strategy is that you have chosen to do.

So for example if it's blogging, go find the expert on blogging.

If you've chosen Instagram, go find the expert on Instagram.

If you've chosen referral networking, then go find the expert on referral networking to give you a proper marketing plan that you can just stick with and actually implement the strategy.

Now, if of course, you're building the business on a budget, then similar to learning the web design skills that we talked about earlier, you can find so much good free content online these days to help you get started.

And then of course you want to dedicate your time to actually practicing the strategy that you've chosen.

Now if you’re still struggling to decide which marketing strategy is for you, or you started one but you’re not loving it - I’ve got something else that’ll help! My “Which Client Finding Method Matches your Personality Type” quiz is a sure-fire way to find your perfect match!

CTA Graphics for summary blocks

Now, the next thing that I want you to do is to pick a cadence and frequency of your marketing strategy.

Committing to doing your marketing strategy (however much you can realistically fit into your life) is typically the clearest route to success.

Just doing your marketing strategy, however often you just kind of get around to it, isn't really as clear of a route to success as picking an actual frequency and trying your darndest to actually stick to it.

Now, when it comes to your marketing strategy, one way in which most new business owners often make mistakes is they set goals on the outcome of the marketing strategy.

For example, I want to get 3000 Instagram followers by the end of three months.

Now, the problem with this is pretty obvious.

You don't actually have a ton of control over whether or not you hit that goal.

But what you do have control over is how much input you put in.

That is how many reels you post or how many stories you put out there.

And that frequency is what you can actually control.

So pick your cadence and frequency and then judge yourself, not based on the outcome, but based on the input.

Now, the reason that I say this is because so many business owners have highly unrealistic expectations at the beginning as to how quickly they can grow something, a following, for example, and then they get really discouraged when it doesn't happen when it truly wasn't that they're not doing a good job. It's that they maybe picked an unrealistic number, that they wanted to hit, which just anyone would fail at achieving.

Of course, over time, you will want to start tracking and recognizing is the amount of input, which you're putting in leading to the results that you want.

If not, then that might be time to readjust and figure out how you can change the level of input or improve on the strategy, but truly don't beat yourself up for the result because it is a road leading to a lot of hard feelings.

So now you know your steps of what you want to be doing each of the first three months of launching your web design business!

But what about figuring out your process and your pricing and whether you want to offer some services other than one-to-one custom full website builds?

Now, those are some really good questions, which you should start thinking about right now, but I realized that figuring them out can be a little bit difficult to do solo.

So again, know that on days one and two of the Profitable and Productive Web Design Bootcamp, we're actually going to talk about determining your offerings and your pricing and setting a process and setting boundaries with your clients and managing all the content collection process and all of those little things that you need to think of when you set up a new business!

Again, the event is live April 15th, 16th and 17th. Grab your spot below!

CTA Graphics for summary blocks

How To Start A Successful Web Design Business (IN 3 MONTHS)

Prefer to watch?

Here’s the video!

Mentioned in the Video:

Rather read all about it?

The truth is really all you need to do is answer three questions when you're becoming a website designer.

what am I offering?

who to

how will I reach that person?

Because you’re reading this I can tell that you've already basically decided what it is you're going to offer. And that is web design services.

But what you might not have yet is the actual skill of website design.

My past students who became website designers literally started off as past figure skaters and accountants and stay-at-home moms.

They have all become website designers because truly it is something that you can learn from home in an online course or some tutorials.

So let's talk about how exactly to learn the skill of website design.

The other thing you should really make sure of is that you actually like the teacher who you're learning from.

The other thing you want to make sure of is that you actually personally vibe with the person who you're learning from and you maybe find them entertaining because you're about to spend a lot of time listening to that person talk in their videos.

Now we talked about what to do if you have some budget to put behind it, but if that is not the case, no worries. You can still get going.

Then of course you can also just go into the actual website builder, that you've chosen and start practicing on the thing!

The second thing that you need to do in that first month is answer the question of who you want to serve with your services.

Now I am not telling you to pick a niche from day one, but what I am saying is you want to get an idea of the direction you’d like to go in and I have a really easy way for you to figure this out.

Who are the clients that they're working with?

There is a big difference between designing websites for people in the construction industry versus people in the natural wellness business industry or designing websites for corporate accountants or dentists.

So month number two, let's get you some real actual projects to work on.

And that is that you're offering website services.

Now, a good starter portfolio for a website designer could have three pieces in it.

Do you want to stay in the one that you already picked or did you learn something in this project, which makes you realize, Oh no, actually want to take a hard right.

The goal is to always be informing yourself through these projects of exactly what it is that's bringing you joy and what you want to do more of in the future.

You don't even know until you get into it, just how many people need a website these days, and they're going to be exceptionally grateful to have someone to help them with it.

The most important thing, however, is that you are getting a testimonial and a portfolio piece.

In month three, you want to answer the question, how will I reach my ideal clients?

So you pretty much want to pick your marketing strategy and get started with it.

Go find a course from the expert on whatever the marketing strategy is that you have chosen to do.

And then of course you want to dedicate your time to actually practicing the strategy that you've chosen.

Committing to doing your marketing strategy (however much you can realistically fit into your life) is typically the clearest route to success.

Just doing your marketing strategy, however often you just kind of get around to it, isn't really as clear of a route to success as picking an actual frequency and trying your darndest to actually stick to it.

So pick your cadence and frequency and then judge yourself, not based on the outcome, but based on the input.

But what about figuring out your process and your pricing and whether you want to offer some services other than one-to-one custom full website builds?

You’ll Also Love...

NAVIGATE

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How To Start A Successful Web Design Business (IN 3 MONTHS)

Prefer to watch?

Here’s the video!

Mentioned in the Video:

Rather read all about it?

The truth is really all you need to do is answer three questions when you're becoming a website designer.

what am I offering?

who to

how will I reach that person?

Because you’re reading this I can tell that you've already basically decided what it is you're going to offer. And that is web design services.

But what you might not have yet is the actual skill of website design.

My past students who became website designers literally started off as past figure skaters and accountants and stay-at-home moms.

They have all become website designers because truly it is something that you can learn from home in an online course or some tutorials.

So let's talk about how exactly to learn the skill of website design.

The other thing you should really make sure of is that you actually like the teacher who you're learning from.

The other thing you want to make sure of is that you actually personally vibe with the person who you're learning from and you maybe find them entertaining because you're about to spend a lot of time listening to that person talk in their videos.

Now we talked about what to do if you have some budget to put behind it, but if that is not the case, no worries. You can still get going.

Then of course you can also just go into the actual website builder, that you've chosen and start practicing on the thing!

The second thing that you need to do in that first month is answer the question of who you want to serve with your services.

Now I am not telling you to pick a niche from day one, but what I am saying is you want to get an idea of the direction you’d like to go in and I have a really easy way for you to figure this out.

Who are the clients that they're working with?

There is a big difference between designing websites for people in the construction industry versus people in the natural wellness business industry or designing websites for corporate accountants or dentists.

So month number two, let's get you some real actual projects to work on.

And that is that you're offering website services.

Now, a good starter portfolio for a website designer could have three pieces in it.

Do you want to stay in the one that you already picked or did you learn something in this project, which makes you realize, Oh no, actually want to take a hard right.

The goal is to always be informing yourself through these projects of exactly what it is that's bringing you joy and what you want to do more of in the future.

You don't even know until you get into it, just how many people need a website these days, and they're going to be exceptionally grateful to have someone to help them with it.

The most important thing, however, is that you are getting a testimonial and a portfolio piece.

In month three, you want to answer the question, how will I reach my ideal clients?

So you pretty much want to pick your marketing strategy and get started with it.

Go find a course from the expert on whatever the marketing strategy is that you have chosen to do.

And then of course you want to dedicate your time to actually practicing the strategy that you've chosen.

Committing to doing your marketing strategy (however much you can realistically fit into your life) is typically the clearest route to success.

Just doing your marketing strategy, however often you just kind of get around to it, isn't really as clear of a route to success as picking an actual frequency and trying your darndest to actually stick to it.

So pick your cadence and frequency and then judge yourself, not based on the outcome, but based on the input.

But what about figuring out your process and your pricing and whether you want to offer some services other than one-to-one custom full website builds?

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