You’ve developed your web design skills and landed a few clients. Now, it’s time to grow your business and share your talents with the world. You can choose your own hours, work wherever you want, and make money as you go. To gain the financial freedom you need and grow your business, here are some tips:
1. Approach the Market Differently
Does your web design business promise the same services as others on the market? You’ll have a hard time gaining more clientele if you can’t build a business that stands out. Additionally, businesses can often do basic web designing themselves, so you need to show them why it’s important to hire your company. It’s important to approach the market in a unique way, if possible.
“You could stand out based on who you are targeting, how you are approaching marketing, how you bundle your services, how much you charge and much more,” suggests Dan Norris, co-founder of WP Curve. “Once you are offering something unique perhaps to a unique group of people you will naturally get more coverage, ideal customers will be easier and cheaper to find and bad customers easier to avoid.”
2. Use Video Conferencing to Collaborate
If your business is growing, you’re gaining employees. It’s not just you building websites anymore, and you need a way to stay connected. Web designing is also something that can be done from anywhere, which means you probably have a number of remote workers because it’s more affordable and often easier than hiring contract employees.
Using video conferencing to collaborate with all of your staff is an excellent way to stay on the same page. It’s much better than the typical office phone and offers more options for communicating. It’s like having real meetings, even if your staff is scattered around the world.
3. Push Limits
You can probably handle a lot more than you think, and pushing those limits is often the best way to achieve growth.
“I think testing your bandwidth is so important,” advises Nick van Gorden of the web design organization Duck & Cover. “We really started growing when we decided to take on a ton of work. We had no idea what we were capable of until we backed ourselves into a corner with an obscene workload. My advice would be to take on more work than you can handle, discover your limit, then use that as a catalyst for growth.”
4. Reward Customer Referrals
Your best tool for gaining clients will be word of mouth marketing. When you have a happy client who tells their friends about your services, they’re 90 percent more likely to hire you.
You can earn more referrals by rewarding those of your clientele. Offer $100 off their monthly website maintenance fee or give them a free website. Play with your resources as rewards to bring in more customers through word of mouth.
5. Build a Strong Team
The people you hire will make or break your brand’s reputation. You can’t hope to grow your business if your team members don’t live up to their promises, or they don’t work as efficiently as they could.
Web designer Sara Mote says that the key to building any web design organization is the team members. “Having a clear vision to bring in the right people is so important,” she says. “Hiring my incredibly talented, driven, and passionate team is the best business decision I’ve ever made and has been immensely influential at fueling the growth of our company.”
6. Stay Offline
Social media is the best form of marketing for any business. Aside from the paid advertising opportunities, it’s entirely free and promises a lot of potential for engagement. Begin by developing a strong social profile with contact information, attractive photos, and other branding measures.
Then, engage on social media regularly. Post videos, blog posts, charts, infographics, sales, and other content that promotes your services. You’re basically marketing yourself and your talents, and social media can spread the good word about what you do.
