How much do freelance web designers really earn & work these days? (770+ designers answered!)

 
 


I was recently on a live video chat with a group of eager new web designer hopefuls, giving a training on Finding Clients As A New Designer (👈 you can find a replay of that here if ya like)...

And it never fails, when we get to the Q&A portion there’s always one question on everyone’s mind:

“How much can I actually earn as a web designer?”

Followed by, “…and how long before I can quit my day job?”

So I happily tell the story of how I got started as a web designer, charging peanuts for projects on Etsy, to quickly making $10K+ months my new norm.

But that is just one person’s story!

And while I absolutely love sharing everything I’ve learned from my own experience and the experiences of all my lovely past students, I thought it was about time our industry had some legit, unbiased, data-based answers to the questions aspiring web designers are asking!


Questions like…

  • ‘How much can you earn as a freelance web designer?’

  • ‘How long does it take for most new web designers to start landing clients? Or before they can ditch their day job and go full time with their new hustle?’

  • ‘How much do web designers really work? How much time do they take off?’

  • ‘How many people who start freelance web design businesses are actually successful?’

  • ‘And most importantly…are web designers actually happy? Or do they secretly wish they had chosen a different career path?’


So my team and I got to work, reaching out to all our friends and leaders in the web design industry, asking them to share the survey with their audiences!

And thanks to the 770+ web designers who generously took the time to tell us about the ins and outs of their web design businesses, we now have this super insightful report to be sharing with you!

We asked them to spill the beans on everything from their annual web designer income, to what products & services they offer, to who they serve, to where they find clients, and even what they’ve struggled with most since starting their business.

(Plus, what motivates them to keep going when the going gets tough!) 💪

If you’re an aspiring designer, we hope this report helps inspire you with just what’s possible when you take the leap to start your web design business!

If you’re an industry leader or educator, we welcome you to share our findings with your own audience! We simply ask that you point back to this post whenever sharing so others can enjoy the full context of the report!

Ready to find out what it’s *really* like to start a freelance web design business these days? 👇

I’ll be sharing the exact questions we asked, how our web designers responded, and what we make of the data…including what impact some of these factors seem to have on their success when we go to chat $$$ a little later on in this post!

(Though it goes without saying that money isn’t the only measure of success! So we will be sure to touch on other aspects too!)

PART 1: EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

Average years experience as a freelance web designer

We asked “How long ago did you start your web design business?” and about 95% of web designers surveyed shared they have been at this less than 10 years!

Why?

Because up until recently, the options out their for building a custom website that didn’t require you to be an actual coding genius were slim.

Web development jobs were reserved for people with mind-blowing resumes, who had dedicated years of theirs lives to earning some sort of fancy computer sciences degree. 👩‍🏫

But they weren’t designing websites for the average small business—since most businesses back then didn’t even know you needed a website, whereas today it’s pretty much a given—they were sitting in high rise buildings designing for companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.!

So what does this tell us?

Web design platforms have come a long way in the past 10 years, making it easier for the average Jane to learn the skills needed to start and run a successful freelance web design business!

So if you’re just getting started as a web designer and you are worried you’re late to the party, good news! You’re actually at an advantage! 💃

You have wayyy cooler web design tools at your disposal, you have more clients than ever to choose from, and you can do what you love without having to go sit in some cubicle farm somewhere to do it.

There is literally no better time than now to be starting your web design business! 👏

Average age of freelance web designers

We asked “What age were you when you started your web design business?”

I wasn’t surprised at all to see that the 25-34 crowd took the cake when it came to deciding to start a freelance web design business.

Not only are they a generation raised on tech, they’ve also lived just long enough to get a taste of what it’s like to work the 9-5 and know they want something different!

But if you find yourself falling outside what’s typical, don’t believe for a second that you’ve gone and missed the boat! 🚢

I love hearing stories from past students who have stumbled upon web design at an unexpected point in their journey and am always blown away by how they’ve been able to apply their unique set of experiences and lessons in life to their new business!

More often than not, the unique challenges these students are facing that they worry will keep them from ever landing clients end up being the thing that makes them most relatable in their client’s eyes! And the reason they end up choosing them over another designer!

So even if you feel far from ‘fitting the mould’, if becoming a freelance web designer is your goal, just know it is 100% possible for you!

Ok, so now let’s look at the type of work experience people tend to have prior to taking the leap to become their own boss and start their own web design business…

We asked people “What type of work were you doing before becoming a web designer?” and “Which industry were you working in?”

Here’s what they shared! 👇

Average source of income before becoming freelance web designers

Average Industry background before becoming freelance web designers

Why is this important?

Because again, the biggest thing that keeps designers from ever getting started is the myth that in order to start a successful web design hustle, you must come from a background in tech, and possess some sort of degree in business!

But as you can see from the lovely 770-something designers who took part in our study, less than 17% were previously self-employed and had some sort of experience running their own business!

And less than 9% had worked in tech in some way…25% if you count digital marketing which naturally requires at least some level of tech-savviness.

So that leaves 75% of today’s featured web designers who came from some background outside of tech.

And just how many of those ‘decently-techy’ people had actual experience in building websites? Let’s take a look-see… 👀

Average level of design experience before starting a freelance web design business

Less than 15% of web designers surveyed had any formal education in their field!

Around 24% had gained some web design skills at a previous 9-5, but that leaves over 60% of our designers who either had nada for experience, or were completely self-taught through the DIY route!

So this is just your friendly little reminder not to let a little detail like lack of relevant degree keep your from pursuing your dreams. 🙌

Alright, so when we say ‘self-taught’ are we talking complete trial and error, or have there been some helping hands and resources along the way?

We asked our group of designers if they had ever taken online courses or online coaching programs for learning:

A) The actual technical skills needed to be a web designer

B) The business-running side of things.

And here’s what we found!

Average percentage of web designers who have taken online courses in design


Average percentage of web designers who have taken business-related online courses

As you can see, the percentages are nearly identical for both groups.

Basically, pretty much everyone who had paid for some sort of course or coaching to improve their design skills also decided to invest in the knowledge needed to turn those fancy new design skills into a successful business designing for clients!

Next, we asked our designer friends to share how much money they’ve invested into online courses since starting their freelance web design business.


Average amount of money freelance web designers invest in professional development

While bootstrapping your business is definitely still an option, an overwhelming 85% of web designers shared they had made the decision to invest in their business in some way…with over 50% of those designers spending at least $2,000 to get help from other ‘been-there-done-that’ designers.

So how did their investment impact their outcomes as web designers? We’ll be getting into some of those side-by-side comparisons in just a moment.

But first we need a little better look behind-the-scenes at how designers are opting to run their businesses!

PART 2: WEB DESIGN BUSINESSES MODELS

Not all freelance web design businesses are run the same way!

The best part about ditching the 9-5 and becoming your own boss is that you get to build a business that fits the way you want to work and live!

Some designers exclusively take on projects where they get to design a complete custom website from scratch, while others (like talented past student Katelyn Dekle) love the thrill of swooping in to save the say with VIP or designer day rates!

Some web designers love the recurring income of monthly retainers, while others prefer not to work with clients at all, opting to set up shop selling web design templates, plugins, or other digital products instead.

We asked designers to share which web design related services or products they currently offer in their business, and here’s what we discovered…


Most popular products & services offered by freelance web designers

While designing full custom websites of offering site refreshes for clients seems to be the most popular, 1:1 custom website design is not the only model for creating a successful freelance web design business!

Other potential web designer revenue streams include:

  • Sales or landing page design

  • Offering custom coding services

  • Blog or Ecommerce design

  • Online course or membership area design and integration

  • Selling website templates or plugins

  • Hourly support

  • VIP days or half-day rates

  • Recurring monthly retainer income

  • Website consulting

  • Offering website audits

(And the list goes on!)

Many web designers also choose to package their web design offers together with additional related services in order to increase the value of each project they are taking on!

According to survey responses, here are the additional services most commonly offered by web designers these days…

Additional sources of revenue for freelance web designers

I was not at all surprised to see graphic design and brand design services at the top of our list!

Many designers love the idea of having complete creative control over the entire project and becoming a one-stop-shop for their clients, while other designers are happy to specialize in just one service, outsourcing or referring to other creative professionals for things like copywriting, graphic design, brand photography.

Again, YOU are the boss, and if something brings you joy, do it! If it doesn’t, then stick to what you love!

Keep yourself and your clients happy by finding a finding a trusted source to refer them to for the other stuff!


We were also curious to see which platforms web designers tend to reach for when designing for clients!

We asked designers, “Which platforms do you offer web design on?” asking them ONLY to select those platforms that they were actually currently marketing and selling services for (even if they *technically* knew how to design in all of them).

Here’s what they shared…


Most popular website building platforms used by freelance web designers

I’m definitely not surprised to find that Squarespace is popular among freelance web designers for just how easy it is for clients to be able to edit and manage their own websites post launch!

Many of the functionalities the average web design client will be needing are natively built in (meaning fewer plugins and third party subscriptions to manage) and it’s possible to build completely custom, nothing-like-the-template websites without the use of code.

Suggested reading:

But I imagine the results of this particular question are a bit biased given that most of my connections in the web design world also happen to be Squarespace lovers!

Whichever platform you choose, I’m a huge fan of choosing ONE and becoming the go-to gal for that thing (I share why in this post!) so I was at tad surprised to learn that over 42% of our respondents selected at least two or more platforms that they market & offer services in!


PART 3: WEB DESIGNER INCOME & PRICING

Ok, now for the part you’ve all been waiting for…

What are web designers charging for their services these days? And how much money do designers really earn?

We’ll kick it off with how much designers are charging per project. We asked, “How much does the average project cost your clients (USD)?”


Average price per project charged by freelance web designers (USD)

So looking at this chart, it’s clear there is no one ‘going rate’ for web design.

We have designers charging as little as $250, all the way up to $20,000+ per project depending on the scope of what’s being offered, and their experience level, etc.

So if you’ve ever worried about pricing your services too high, just know you are far from the most expensive designer out there (and you probably haven’t even come close to the limit of what business owners are willing to pay for a website!)

On the other hand, if you are trying to compete on price, keeping your rates super low in the hopes of outbidding other designers and landing more clients, there will always be someone cheaper!

So it’s better to price your packages based on value! I love what brilliant designer and past student Mariana Durst had to share about deciding what you’ll charge as a web designer:

“Never ask your clients to pay more than you have invested in yourself.

I think that’s a good measure of value.

If I’m asking somebody to invest in me, it’s because I’m also investing in my expertise, and becoming faster, better, and more well-rounded!” - Mariana Durst

But in terms of what’s ‘average’ it appears the $2,500-5,000 range is the currently the most standard rate, followed closely by the $1,000-$2,500 crowd.

Next, we compared how much web designers were charging vs. how many years experience they had as a freelance web designer.

Average price per project vs. years experience as a freelance web designer

We can see that most new designers surveyed were charging in the $2,500 and under range depending on the project.

Those with at least 1 year of experience were averaging more in the $2,500-$5,000 ballpark., and designers at the 2+ year mark were more consistently hitting that $5K+ benchmark!

We can also see that with each passing year of experience, the number of members in the coveted $10,000+ project club was slowly creeping up! But what I didn’t expect to see was that designers in our 5+ years experience category actually had fewer total people in the $5,000+ arena.

This likely points to two things:

A) They’re offerings may change the further along they are in business (ie. instead of charging $5K for a two-week website project, they are now offering $1K VIP designer day rates).

So the cost per project may go down slightly, but the number of projects they can fit on their calendar goes way up, making their business model much more scalable. And/or...

B) It may be time for some of these designers to seriously consider raising their prices!

Alright so next let’s look at the effect investing in online courses & coaching programs tends to have on the average price per project being charged by web designers.

Average earnings per project vs. investment in professional development as a web designer

If you’ve followed along with me for any length of time, you’ll know that when it comes to learning a new skill in your business, I’m a hugeeee fan of skipping the expensive trial and error period and heading straight to the source (A.K.A the expert) for that thing!

And according to our study, I might just be onto something!

So of the 771 web designers surveyed, 449 (over 58%) said they had invested money in some sort of professional development when starting their web design business.

Looking at our self-taught crew (web designers who had invested less than $500 in professional development, or hadn’t taken any paid courses or programs at all) 73% were still charging clients less than $2,500 per web design project.

Compared to those who went ‘all-in’, investing $5,000 or more to learn the skills they needed to run a successful web design business, where just 38% fell in that sub $2,500 range.

Now let’s talk premium prices!

Those who were considered ‘self-taught’ had less 2% of designers charging $5,000+ per project whereas our highest-investing group had over 23% in the high-end designer price-range.

Meaning they were 11.5X more likely to be charging premium rates for their services!

The initial investment feels scary for someone just getting started on a baby-business budget, but thankfully becoming a freelance web designer isn’t like getting started in other careers where you must first go to school for years to get a degree in your field, and then spend another 5+ years paying off student loans (whether or not you actually ended up getting hired for that field!)

If you’re smart about how you price your packages and services as a designers, you can make back your investment with your first 1-2 clients!

So why spend months and years trying to figure out how to reinvent the wheel, right?

Someone, somewhere has already learned those lessons the hard way and has condensed everything they know into an easy-to-digest resource or step-by-step program that will take you just a few days or weeks to complete. 👌

Alright, so you may be wondering what this all breaks down to in terms of how much designers earn per hour, and what the average yearly salary is of a freelance web designer!

When asked “How do you charge clients for your web design services?” over 91% of designers responded that they charged per project, rather than hourly.

Even so, we asked designers to do a bit of math and breakdown approximately what they were charging per hour.

Average hourly rate of freelance web designers

According to our study, the majority of web designers (over 90%) are charing more than $30/hr for their services.

Over 65% charge their clients at least $50/hr, and over 40% bringing in at least $75/hr for client work.

What does this work out to in terms of yearly salary?

Average annual salary of freelance web designers

Notice anything unusual about these numbers? 🤔

Yep! The average annual salary for full-time freelance web designers vs. part-time web designers wasn’t really all that different.

The average annual salary for freelancers working more than 30 hours a week in their web design business was $47,867.95, whereas those devoting just 30 hours or less brought home $44,148.54.

Moral of the story?

You do not have to have endless hours to devote to making your web design business a success!

With proper systems & processes in place, you can literally half the number of hours you spend working in your business to achieve the same revenue goals.

(Which is why web design, IMO, is the perfect online business idea for designing a business that fits with your other commitments in life!)

Suggested reading:

Speaking of building a business that fits with your life, let’s look at how many hours web designers tend to spend working, including both client work and the BTS management of their own business.

We asked “How many hours on average do you tend to devote to your web design business?”

Average number of hours worked per week by freelance web designers

If you work a 9-5, or multiple day jobs, chances are you are putting in a solid 40 hours no matter what’s going on in the business that week. That doesn’t include late nights at the office, or work you end up taking home with you so you don’t fall behind!

Starting a web design business and becoming your own boss means setting your own hours, deciding when, how (and how much) you’ll work!

Some weeks you’ll work more, some you’ll work less depending on how you decide to fill your books (and whether or not you decide to take the beach vacation you’ve been saving up for! 🏖 )

But the potential for working ‘overtime’ is still high! Separating work-life from home-life gets tricky when they both happen in the same place, and it can take getting super intentional about your time if you want to maintain a healthy balance.

So let’s see how our designers are handling this new found freedom…

Around 40% of designers devote just 20 hours or less to their web design business each week.

Just over 41% shared they work 20-40 hours per week on average, approx.

16% of web designers shared they are spending at least 40-60 hours in their business any given week, and the remaining 2-3% admit they work upwards of 60 hours!

So if you’re currently operating in full-speed ahead burnout mode, just know you are not alone…but also that it doesn’t have to be this hard!

As we learned from our annual average salary comparisons, more hours does not necessarily mean more income.

If you find yourself overworked and underpaid as a web designer, it may be time to consider raising your prices, but also looking long and hard at whether the tasks you are spending your time on are truly the things that move the needle in your business!

Suggested reading:

Speaking of raising your rates, let’s look at how regularly web designers are deciding to bump up their prices…

How often freelance web designers raise their prices on average

I definitely expected a mixed bag for how often web designers tend to raise their prices! Really, there’s no one way to go about giving yourself a raise as web designer.

My best advice?

Pick a set increment and stick with it!

Maybe you decide that rain or shine, you commit to raising your prices by a certain percentage at the beginning of every quarter.

Or maybe you do as lovely past student Ida Winstead did and challenge yourself to increase your ‘starting at’ rate by $200 every single time you wrap up a new project and have more experience under your belt!

What I wasn’t expecting to see in these results was to see so many of our designer friends hanging out in the “I have never raised my rates” camp!

Remember, you’re the boss now, and the only person who can march into your office and offer you a raise is yourself!

If you’ve been struggling with the confidence to raise your rates, and are worried that increasing your prices will suddenly cause all client inquiries to dry up and blow away, then I have a little something (well…two little somethings, actually) I recorded just for you! 👇

Suggested resources:

PART 4: WEB DESIGN BUSINESS MARKETING & MANAGEMENT

We asked designers who had already completed at least one paid project, “How long after launching your web design business did you land your first paying client?”

Here’s what they shared...

How long does it take freelance web designers to start landing clients?

A whopping 61% of designers shared they actually landed those clients before officially launching their business to the world!

How are new web designers finding clients so quickly?

Let’s look at which marketing method tends to bring in the most business based on how our designers surveyed responded to the statement: “I typically find and land most my clients through...”

How do freelance web designers market their services & find clients?

I can almost hear the collective groan from aspiring web designers struggling to find those first few clients when they see that referrals (shocker) are the #1 way web designers seem to be booking out their business these days!

It’s pretty hard to live off referrals alone if you have exactly 0 past clients to refer you!

But word-of-mouth is not just for the experienced designer! If you need help finding those first few clients and getting the referral ball rolling, I’ve got a few resources for you below!👇

Suggested reading:

But besides word-of-mouth from family, friends, and happy past clients, it seems we have a few clear runner-ups for how most designers manage to find and land clients:

A) A dedicated social media strategy on a visually driven platform like Instagram

B) Through consistent content marketing to increase site traffic and nail your SEO (ie. Blogging, YouTube, Podcasting, etc.)

Facebook also got an honorable mention here with at least 10% of designers having success with the platform.

Fun fact: only 2.96% of designers found that posting to their Facebook business page alone brought in new web design client inquiries. The other 7.6% found that showing up and being helpful inside Facebook groups was the ticket to making this work!

TikTok, as it turns out, makes up a veryyyy small portion of our designer’s client-finding success, with just 0.63% of web designers having ever landed a client through it. (So small, we combined it with ‘other’ in order to fit it all on the page!)

Which WEB DESIGN BUSINESS MARKETING strategy is BEST?

Whichever one you do consistently! And I don’t know about you, but I’m a heck of a lot more likely to stay consistent with someone I enjoy doing and feels like ‘me’.

If every day I have to show up in my business as someone I’m not, then the likelihood of me sticking with it long enough to actually see results is slim!

My fav bit of advice to pass on to new or struggling designers is to pick ONE THING and then do that thing extremely well…instead of half-🍑-ing #allthethings and just generally dreading working your business.

Average project length for freelance web designers

So you can see we have a pretty wide range of project lengths depending on which services are being offered! But the most popular response fell in that 2-4 week period which is fairly standard for a complete custom website build.

Around 15% of our designers are offering services that take fewer than 7 days to complete, some mere hours! (These would be our template/plugin sellers, consultants, VIP day raters, and those offering hourly support/maintenance or site audits.)

Over 40% of designers shared that their projects are lasting longer than 4 weeks, some upwards of 8 weeks. Likely, these designers are juggling more than one custom web design client at a time, with all these longer projects overlapping for weeks at a time.

Let’s see if this theory holds up with our next Q…

We asked our designers, “How many clients do you work with in one month?” 🗓

Average number of clients freelance web designers serve in one month

So almost 7% of designers responded that they don’t actually offer 1:1 services. They’ve created something digital or passive (like templates, plugins, memberships etc.) where once the thing is created and the automations for delivering are in place, it doesn’t matter whether they sell it 1X or 1,000X, their workload isn’t increasing.

Suggested reading:

Then we have our clear majority who opt for serving just 1 or 2 custom web design clients a month, and a close second with designers who take on 2-4 clients on average.

Approx. 14% of our respondents shared they take on 4 or more clients per month.

So, how many client projects should you say yes to in one month? That depends on the way you like to work.

I personally love and teach the ‘two-week website’ model, where you are working with just one client at a time, accepting 2 total projects per month.

There are wayyy fewer opportunities for dropping the ball when all your brain-space is focused on serving just one client extremely well…meaning a more premium service for your clients, and more 5-star reviews and happy-client referrals for you!

You also don’t run the risk of having projects drag on and on, going weeks without hearing a peep from your clients, only to have all 8 of them show up in your inbox needing something on the same day.

If you want to take a 2 week vacay, you don’t even have to tell anyone. You just don’t fill that spot on your calendar. Then hop on that plane, guilt-free, leaving your laptop safely at home! 👋

My favorite thing about this method is it can be customized to fit literally whatever timeline you most enjoy working in! (Like talented designer and past student Becca Wood, who shares her unique adaption of what she learned inside the course with her ‘website-in-a-day’ process!)

Speaking of building a business that fits with your life and the way you like to work, let’s look at how many of our designers have opted for serving a specific type of client they are passionate about.

We asked, “Do you serve a specific niche as a web designer?”

I was super curious to know how the responses would differ between designers charging premium prices vs. those not yet charging premium prices.

Most experts will tell you the quickest way start consistently attracting and landing legit paying clients is to niche down - that is, to focus on making all your marketing & packages appeal to one very specific type of client, rather than trying to cast your client-finding net super wide in hopes of not missing out on any inquiries when first getting started.

So, are ‘the riches *really* in the niches?

Let’s find out. 👇

Average number of designers who have chosen a specific niche client

So the possible response options to the question were:

A) Yes. I only take on a specific type of client or project

B) Somewhat. I have a niche in mind but still accept other projects

C) No. I currently work with anyone willing to pay me

It looks like—of the designers charging less than $5,000—only 14% of those had truly committed to niching down.

Whereas, in the group of designers charging $5,000 or more, only about 13% of designers hadn’t already niched in some way!

Suggested reading:

So which niches are designers choosing? Here are the most popular industries served by revenue generated…

Most popular web design client niche industries by revenue generated

PART 5: WEB DESIGNER BUSINESS SUCESS & STRUGGLES

What motivates freelance web designers decide to start their own business?

Understanding and remembering your own motivation behind starting your web design business can be super helpful when things start to get tough, or shiny-object syndrome causes you to want to constantly be changing direction.

Whenever there’s a decision to be made, just hold it up against your original goals to see if this new thing will get you closer to (or farther away) from that goal.

Your business will always be evolving and changing, but I’ve found reflection to be a super important part of the future-goal planning process!

Speaking of goals…


How many freelance web designers end up being successful?

One of the most frequent questions or hesitations I get from those who are on the fence about starting their own web design business is “Paige, how many people who start web design businesses actually make it?”

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, success can mean 57,000,001 different things to as many different people.

So, for the purposes of this study, let’s say that ‘making it’ simply means getting your business to a place where you can say ‘adios’ to your day job and go all-in as a web designer.

Now, not everyone who dreams of starting a web design business has actually made it their goal to go full-time (like lovely past student Emi Ichikawa who needed the perfect side-hustle to support her dream dance career)…

So to get rid of some of the grey areas in our findings, we had our designers respond two statements:

1) “My web design business is currently…” (Full-time, side-hustle, hobby, or that they are employed in someone else’s business as a designer)

2) [For those who weren’t already full-time] “Do you dream of taking your web design business full-time?”

This way, we weren’t marking someone down as “unsuccessful” if it was never their goal to go full-time in the first place!

So first, let’s look at how our group responded as a whole…

Average number of freelance web designers with full-time businesses vs. side-hustles

So of the 771 designers who participated, over 62% have already been able to ditch their 9-5 and make freelance web design their main source of income.

This leaves 292 (or 38%) of designers still working either part-time, or are employed as a designer in someone else’s business.

But again, not all aspire to go full-time, so let’s check in with our remaining 38%…

How many of our part-time web designers have goals of going full-time?

234 (or 80%) of our side-hustlers, hobbyists, or not-yet-self-employed designers shared they still dream of making web design their main source of income.

So when compared to our total number of designers surveyed (excluding those who started their businesses with the intention of staying part-time) approx. 30% of designers had yet to reach their goal.

Does that mean 30% of web designers are doomed to fail?

Not at all!

Many designers who dream of going full-time opt for running things as a side-hustle at first while they work on tucking away enough savings to safely be able to kiss their cozy 9-5 paycheck goodbye!

In fact, a fairly large chunk (41%) of these full-time hopefuls reported in an earlier question that they had been at this whole web design business thing less than 1 year.

Moral of the story?

No two paths look the same! The most important thing is to get super clear about your own goals, and focus on building a business plan that fits with that!

Suggested resources:

Average success rate of online course-takers vs. self-taught designers

When it comes to learning something new in the PB business, my team and I waste zero time enrolling ourselves in the exact course or program we think will get us to where we want to go.

And apparently we aren’t the only ones!

If you remember from earlier in this post, 85% of participants surveyed said they had taken part in some sort of continuing education related to becoming a web designer.

So I was curious to see what sort of leg up this gave when it came to reaching their goal of taking their businesses full-time.

Here’s what we found...

So I had a hunch...🤔

But I was honestly not expecting the numbers to basically be flipped on their heads for those who invest in professional development vs. those who opted for finding their own way!

Over 65% of web designers who had enrolled in some sort of online course of coaching program are now successfully running a full-time web design business! 

Compared to the 61-ish% of ‘self-taught’ designers who had yet to reach that milestone in their business!

So let’s look at some of the things that may be keeping designers on the fence with going full-time?

What keeps most freelance web designers from going full-time?

It’s no surprise that time and finances are among the biggest obstacles in the way of our aspiring web designers!

But we also have a healthy number of people who’s confidence plays a major part, whether that’s confidence in their design skills, or their ability to manage clients, or the secret fear that they are somehow destined to fail!

I was super excited to see that almost 7% of our hopeful designers already had a date set for when they’d be officially going full-time! (Whether that’s after working out their notice at their 9-5, or having a specific amount of savings tucked away before they take the leap, etc!)

So that brings our previous total of 234 designers who hadn’t yet reached their full-time goals down to 217 (or just 28% of designers who had yet to find success by this report’s specific standard! But again, there’s still time, and no to path’s look the same! 🙌)

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What are the biggest challenges freelance web designers face in their business?

We also asked designers to respond to the statement: “As a designer, the biggest challenges I've faced so far relate to…”

HERE’S THE LIST OF RESPONSES THEY COULD CHOOSE FROM...

  • Learning the actual skill of design

  • Learning to run a business

  • Marketing & finding clients

  • Deciding their prices & packages

  • Time management

  • Managing client projects

  • Confidence & mindset

  • Staying motivated

  • Balancing life & business

  • Feelings of isolation & loneliness as a soloprenuer

  • Lack of support from family/friends

  • Other

Here’s how they responded! 👇

Now for the ultimate question…

Are web designers happy they chose the career they did? 

Are they generally satisfied with their business? Do they actually enjoy being their own boss?

We asked our survey takers, “Which statement best describes how you currently feel about your business?”

Their choices were: 

  • ‘I love everything about my business’

  • ‘I enjoy my business most days’

  • ‘It’s a challenge, but I’m hopeful about the future’

  • ‘It's a constant struggle and I'm starting to lose confidence’

  • ‘I'm feeling ready to throw in the towel’

  • ‘I totally resent my business’

What percentage of freelance web designers are satisfied with their business?

While almost 19% of web designers shared that they loved everything about their business, the average answer was ‘I enjoy my business most days’, followed closely by those who felt that—despite the odd challenge—they were feeling optimistic about their goals!

It’s true that when starting a new business, not everything is always going to be sunshine and rainbows...

Fun fact: I actually only lasted two weeks the first time I tried to take my web design business full-time before crawling back to the safety of working for someone else!

Thankfully, I regrouped and did a thing or two differently the second time around! (You can read that full story of how I started, quit, then restarted my web design business here!) 

So if you’re currently finding yourself feeling less than enthused or confident about your web design business, you’re not alone…but you also don’t have to stay stuck feeling this way! 👇 

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So there you have it! A full report of our findings on what it’s really like to live that #designerlife these days!

A hugeeee thank you to all the web designers and industry leaders who took the time to share and respond to our survey!

We hope this data proves to be a helpful resource to our industry and that it helps you on your journey of building a successful freelance web design business that supports a life you love!

Wondering what to read next?

USE THE ARROWS TO BROWSE inspiring stories OF OTHER designers OUT THERE MAKING IT HAPPEN RIGHT NOW! 👇