Building a business from the ground up is no joke, even you have saved up the money and polished your skills until they shine like Hollywood teeth. It is a daunting task and often confusing to new entrepreneurs. How do you even navigate the adventure? Use this guide to get you started!
#1 Figure out what approach to take in your business
If you are looking to build real success here, being good at what you do will simply not cut it. Anyone with stable employment can say that they are good at what they do.
What you need is a mission – a driving central idea that will push you as an individual and your agency as a whole to do awesome work and thrive in your competitive field. Check out this article for some advice on how to make a great mission statement.
The essential prerequisite for formulating a mission is having a goal – something for which you will flip Heaven and Hell to achieve it for your business. Take some time to figure out this burning goal and then build your business approach around it.
Will you be an all-purpose designer for everything web-based? Will you target a specific niche? Plot out your path to achieving your vision and make every part of your business contribute to that in some way.
#2 Come up with the best business model for your idea
Now this is the part where you lay the foundations of your company, and it is the most boring and tedious part of the process. You need to build a business model, which means that you will need to spend a lot of time doing a lot of research, legal work, and paperwork. Here is a brief guide through that administrative muck.
First off, apply for a business license with your relevant local or state authority, and also make sure that you get business insurance for your fledgling agency. Depending on where in the world you are located, this process will be somewhat different. If you are not sure that your online resources are credible and up to date, or if your government’s website presents it in a totally incomprehensible way (as they often do), ask an attorney for advice and help.
Next, check out your competition, both locally and internationally. Nothing gives good ideas like an enemy’s success! Look into what kind of work they do, how they conduct their business, how they get clients, and what problems they offer to solve – and then one-up them.
#3 Take the time to do good team building
Remember, you are looking to build a successful web design company, not a freelance business – meaning that you definitely cannot manage everything on your own. Even if you are the new Leonardo DaVinci of web design, even if you were the prodigy of all your business courses, running an entire agency is a titan’s task.
You will need a good team, preferably a large one.
One good way to go about this is to sit down with your business model and break it down into different aspects, and then look to bring in members who will have the different expertise for covering those different aspects.
Remember, you want the best for your team, because you want the best for your business! So never settle for amateurs, people with average qualifications, or mediocre results.
Also, no need to feel intimidated by this idea of “building the perfect expert team”. Hiring experts costs a lot, and if you are just starting out, your budget is likely to be pretty limited. In that case, it is perfectly fine to rely on outsourcing.
Build a team or network of remote cooperators, which is a lot more affordable than insisting on going fully in-house, and also consider letting your local employees work from home for some percentage of the time.
If you are wondering about the pros and cons of that last point, you may want to check out the informative article at this web page: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-employees-working-home.
#4 Set up your website and publish your portfolio
Okay, now this is the fun part: design!
Set up your online presence with a snazzy website. Since you are building a design agency, you want to stand apart. Your website must express the identity of your business – how you are different, and what makes you shine brighter than your competitors.
Never be afraid to invest all of your skill, energy, creativity, and a little extra time in this step. Remember, this is the face that everyone will see first, and also the platform through which the vast majority of your clients will interact with you.
The other half of this coin is building a dazzling portfolio, as prospective clients will always want samples of your work. You have to be prepared to hook them in, so keep your sample items varied – make sure there is something in your portfolio to match each of the most common design request types out there, like minimalist, modern, youthful, romantic, vintage etc.
#5 Chart a marketing strategy and begin promoting your work
Now that you are all set up, you need to get the word about your business out into the world, otherwise the clients will never come knocking. You need a marketing strategy.
A good starting point is to launch a blog or join web design communities or development platforms, like Github. Make people notice your work. Complement this with strategic content – never just plaster a pile of your everything onto all available channels. Curate your promotional selections! Aim different content at different audiences.
Also calculate your social media routes. Find one or two platforms that fit your business the best and focus on conquering those, instead of trying to run in all directions. Default options like Instagram may not have as large a targeted reach as Dribble or Behance. Find the best forums for showing off your skills, and follow where your target consumers go!