Web Design Business help

I am sort of new to this but I would like some serious help and not be totally flamed.

I'm looking to start a web design business, dealing with designing, seo, hosting etc. I live in the UK and it isnt going to be earning thousands from the off but as a means to earn a bit of money while im studying. I was wondering is there any crucial factors I will need to take into account. I'm devoting a fair bit of time to it, but I'm teaching myself an A-level so that takes priority.

My main plan is to offer small businesses the website, basic package being 3 page with extra premium packages with perks such as more seo, more advanced features etc. and a totally bespoke package. The money will initially be coming from hosting (they pay for it, with the website seeming cheap) then various upsells, eg editing things outside of agreement/extra time for work etc.

I will need a website obviously and I will be trying to get clients locally at first through cold-calling, going to businesses, friends/family/contacts.

I am fairly good at web design but I will outsource alot of it and have a few ideas that would work for most sites which requires little from me and is more efficient for me to do.

Any legal/tax things I need to take care of, any things related to pricing and any general advice to help me get into this will be greatly appreciated. The face value of this query seems quite basic, but I have done alot of research around the subject and any extra help and information as you already know can only do good and will help prevent me making any stupid mistakes.

Thanks

Roy

 

You have taken great decision in your student, reading your plan i understood, you have much creativity, though i have no effective advice for you but i appreciate your plan.

 

Roy, sounds like you're off to a good start, keeping at least a few things realistically in perspective. It sounds more like you'll be the middle-man in terms of customers getting web sites done (you mentioned outsourcing).

I think one of the more difficult things to do will be the management of it all, especially if you're running this on the side. You'll need to coordinate development through your developers, then submit the changes for the customer to review, then back to the developers for changes. You'll need developers you can trust, and that can get the job done quickly so you can get back to your customer.

Regarding taxes/legal you'll need to check your local small business office/services to see what's required (different jurisdictions/countries have different requirements).

 

Thanks for the help so far. My main outsourcing will be for websites which aren't basic or are too much for me to handle, a bit of WYSIWYG or Wordpress templates will be more than enough for who I will be targetting, but the outsourcing is a sort of plan b just in case they want a very fancy site.

Would be great to talk to a few guys who are doing something similar or have done.