Thread: Web building company

- At the moment me and my friend/collegue are spending every moment of free time we have to spend on understanding all aspects of web development & design
next steps:
- Building sites for companies and persons for x amount of money
- Build more skill: being able to ask more money

* money earned = investing % to company

In the meantime we are brainstorming what our web company is going to look like

So in the end, we might have two companies.

Just spilling our ideas here. I want to keep track of things so why not do it here and get some most wanted feedback on the way =)

Two weeks ago we started this idea and we had nothing. No knowledge.
I knew a bit about codes (used them in hyves), but barely nothing at all.
I understand HTML now, I understand most tags and what they do. I understand that HTML provides the structure of a website.

I am happy that we both wanted to learn HTML, altho Dreamweaver makes it possible to work on websites without that knowledge. I am at learning CSS now. Working with free material with no costs so far.

We only bought dreamweaver. It costs 800 euro, but 160 euro for us, because we are students.
Don't want to buy anything besides that anymore.

I don't want to be the costumer anymore, i am going towards producing. My PC is fast enough to do this, and until we really get stuck because of hardware and/or software i am going to stick with not buying a damn thing.

No cloths or anything like that either. I have cloths and its time to safe up money to invest later.

Skys,

This is my first post on this forum and have joined specifically to reply to your post.

I am a web solutions expert.

Congratulations on making the decision for which career path you want to take, web design is an awesome decision, but you mention you are two weeks into learning HTML, is that correct?

Do you mind me asking what other experience you have with web solutions?

Kindest Regards,
Cavking.

Thank you for signing in to respond to this thread!

I have no expierence. I always wanted to do it because I love working with PCs and I love creativity. I never took it as a course college wise as I probably should have, but I am now self educating with a buddy of mine. We plan to do this both together.
i started with HTML, I just started with learning some CSS. I don't think I will be finished with both any time soon, but I thought learning along the way might be a valid option

Skys,

I am not college/uni educated, I am self taught and I am still specifically selected to assist clients with their online presence.

I am have been serving private clients with web solutions for over 8 years now - what I have found is that HTML/CSS/JS/PHP etc is a very small part of the web world. You have begun a very long journey.

What is it you are specifically wanting to do for your clients?

Our plan is to be able to build websites (design) for others (companies and people) and train ourself to be able to build our own web company when we have some good ideas.

I expected it to be a long journey But I would love to hear your insides, if they are not too negative
Not sure what you mean with 'very small part of the web world'?

Skys,

By this, I mean that building the actual website is a very small part of the process/service, you will probably find that actually coding the site will only take 15% of your time.

To explain this better, I will attempt to break down the process of building a customer a website for a company.

To begin with, you will talk to your friends and family and make them aware that you are a web designer - this will more than likely pick you up a few jobs here and there, but will not provide you with a steady income stream.

To generate your income, you will need to differentiate yourself from the other millions of web designers that seem to have emerged over the past 10 years. Finding a niche or having many business associates will certainly attract the first few clients.

Lets start the actual sales process here.

Let's say, a baker contacted you (I am in the UK, so please excuse me if I use terms and are not used in other countries). He will say "I need a website, I've been told you can help". This is probably all the baker will offer you as far as information is concerned. So now you need to establish the bakers requirements. Does he need to sell bread/cakes online? Is he providing catering services? Does he just need to be found on Google? Does he actually need a website in the first instance? You need to establish his requirements, he is a baker and probably not aware of what is available to him. You may find, the answer is "I want more money".... this is the most difficult one to satisfy.

Quick question, how much do you know about baking bread and cakes? - Probably not alot, you will need to carry out research on the competition and the company itself.

So, we carry out a survey to establish the following;

Why do you need a website?
Who are your customers?
Is it a local, national or multinational firm?
What information do you need to provide to your customers?



to be continued

To generate your income, you will need to differentiate yourself from the other millions of web designers that seem to have emerged over the past 10 years

How big of a problem/challenge is this?

So, we carry out a survey to establish the following;

Why do you need a website?
Who are your customers?
Is it a local, national or multinational firm?
What information do you need to provide to your customers?

I am not sure I understand

Lol let me give you a solid piece of advice, the web design industry is overflowing and the competition is at an all time high. It will take years or insane amounts of money to rank for web design in Google or web design for companies, what ever keywords you're targeting for web design will be very very hard to rank for no matter how good your SEO is. If you don't even know SEO or have the money to have SEO performed then your site will be collecting e-Dust for months on top of months.

If you think you can bring something new to the web design industry and I mean something really innovative and offer very competitive prices with testimonials from previous customers and a portfolio then by all means be my guest. Part of the reason MJ's web design business was so successful is because when he first started web design wasn't as competitive as it is today, now everybody and their mother is trying to do it and there's a ton of people not making money because of this.

Instead, if you really realize how competitive it really is and have any doubts then use your web design skills to create a new website for a new purpose, a sort of social bookmarking site or, niche websites, or some kind of tool that would be useful for people in a certain niche. Something along those standards just a website that actually has a clearly defined purpose and maybe doesn't even exist yet or there's only a few people with a similar website.

Good luck though with whatever you decide to do.

Thank you for your response.

Instead, if you really realize how competitive it really is and have any doubts then use your web design skills to create a new website for a new purpose, a sort of social bookmarking site or, niche websites, or some kind of tool that would be useful for people in a certain niche. Something along those standards just a website that actually has a clearly defined purpose and maybe doesn't even exist yet or there's only a few people with a similar website.

This is our intention, but to get expierence we also want to build websites for others.
Slowlane to Fastlane.

Is that a bad plan too?

Originally Posted by Skys

Thank you for your response.


This is our intention, but to get expierence we also want to build websites for others.
Slowlane to Fastlane.

Is that a bad plan too?

I wouldn't say it's a bad plan but it's not the best, if you just want to get the experience of building websites for others then think about creating an oDesk account or Elance account, maybe even browsing entrepreneur or freelance forums and looking for work/experience that way instead of building a whole site for it.

But also before you start building websites for others make sure you know what you're doing by building your own test websites, in fact you can create your own websites and add them to your portfolio to show people who are looking for freelancers, that way you have a much better chance of being employed.

wouldn't say it's a bad plan but it's not the best, if you just want to get the experience of building websites for others then think about creating an oDesk account or Elance account, maybe even browsing entrepreneur or freelance forums and looking for work/experience that way instead of building a whole site for it.

But also before you start building websites for others make sure you know what you're doing by building your own test websites, in fact you can create your own websites and add them to your portfolio to show people who are looking for freelancers, that way you have a much better chance of being employed.

The goal is to have a website that works for us. We want to bring something to the people we feel they need.
Building websites for others seemed to be a good sub-plan at the time, but you say its not the best plan. U might be right. If we want to build websites for our own, why make websites for others first?

Valid point.

Another valid point is that we already can build websites, no matter if they are for companies for people or our own test material.

I just had a good chat with the friend I am working with. We both read fastlane, and I think it's not smart to enter a world that is on a competative high. Especially not if we consider we are just starting out.

Better just to focus on OUR website and what we want to offer the world.
A web design company also goes against 'touch millions'. We touch the companies and people we make sites for, and building that network plus building the skill to compete with the rest of the design world.. It seems like a not so optimal plan.

Learning to build websites still is the road to go for us, but the web design company idea might not be optimal.

The web design area has so much competition, it'll be extremely hard to break into the industry. Remember you'll be competing with huge teams of designers, so narrow down your specialty. Also it'll be a nice to be able to at least get started on your new web business ideas.

Extreme competition is a killer. We can't compete with guys that have been busy with design for the last 8 years, right?
For every speciality, there are teams.

I am glad I made this thread!

Yesterday I talked with my buddy about this and we came to the conclusion that its not smart to try to compete with guys that are way stronger then us. It's either a battle for the price, or a battle to become the sickest in the industry. For our plan, it will take to long to accomplish that.

Yesterday I also worked on CSS. I have been working with it for almost the entire day and I learned some of the basics, nothing too fancy.

Our plan is now to launch 1 or 2 websites in 2012 and see how people respond to them.

In my humble opinion, it is very difficult for a web design/development business to be fastlane for a number of reasons:

1. Insane competition. Especially from the IT industry in India. And now we have sites like teamtreehouse.com that I am sure one day will play a role in producing thousands of new web developers.

2. Very difficult to automate because of the tedious customer service process. Design is subjective and most likely you will find that every single customer will have his/her unique idea of how a website should look like.

To automate it, you can put a Human Resource system in place. Then again, any manager who are good at web development and managing your clients will likely go out on his own due to the low barrier to entry.

You might very well find yourself working longer hours than you anticipated and making less money than you hoped. It is a job in disguise.

I don't mean to discourage you though.

And with the Internet taking over every facet of our lives, I wouldn't be surprise if 10 years from now they start teaching web development/design in high school.

Originally Posted by spidey983

And with the Internet taking over every facet of our lives, I wouldn't be surprise if 10 years from now they start teaching web development/design in high school.

In my tiny town they've been teaching basic web development for atleast 5\6 years, so I'd be surprised if it's not semi-popular in many other high schools.

Originally Posted by spidey983

In my humble opinion, it is very difficult for a web design/development business to be fastlane for a number of reasons:

1. Insane competition. Especially from the IT industry in India. And now we have sites like teamtreehouse.com that I am sure one day will play a role in producing thousands of new web developers.

2. Very difficult to automate because of the tedious customer service process. Design is subjective and most likely you will find that every single customer will have his/her unique idea of how a website should look like.

To automate it, you can put a Human Resource system in place. Then again, any manager who are good at web development and managing your clients will likely go out on his own due to the low barrier to entry.

You might very well find yourself working longer hours than you anticipated and making less money than you hoped. It is a job in disguise.

I don't mean to discourage you though.

Its really not discouraging. Its helpful. I think internet is the way to go for us since it cost way less for us to put something together. Estate en stuff like that all need money, with internet.. you don't need to invest much to get something going. Am I right here?

It got me thinking though. If you read the book: If everybody is doing it, it probably will not make you money. So that aplies to web companies (insane competition), but doesn't it also aply to internet in general? Isn't everybody trying to get something going on the internet?

Originally Posted by Skys

o that aplies to web companies (insane competition), but doesn't it also aply to internet in general? Isn't everybody trying to get something going on the internet?

Not necessarily, that's why you go Niche. Find a need that needs to be solved or one that you can solve better than the last guy.

The internet is so broad, there are little cracks that have the entrance to the goldmine.