I'm partially encouraged by this. It's great that a small business is in a position to build their own site.
Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
111–120 of 209 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an excellent post and should get some love. 60% of small businesses don't have a web presence at all and 90% have only ONE of website, FB, and Yelp. Offering to handle all of this stuff and then wrapping in Proofer/AdviceLocal/Yext and twice-monthly blogging is a nice business to be in. PRetty common to get $3-5k site builds and $500-1000 a month to manage and maintain the other stuff.
You don't give a CMS, you talk to them where they are, on the phone, WhatsApp, anything. You give them customer service where customer service is completely dead.
Another thing, don't expect to create a website (for yourself) and have customers come to you. Not even with Google of FB ads. Go you them!
This is a cold-calling, customer facing, convincing business. It's ads in local papers, flyers and talking to people.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#113I’ve been at this since the ninteies. At the peak I was getting $2500 for a ten page Drupal site I could do over the weekend. These days you can get a ‘custom’ programmed site from a guy reselling the services of an Asian programming group for $100, so how are you supposed to compete? I have made some money ‘fixing’ those sites, but for the most part my business is dead agaist things like Wix (Ugh), or Goddady Site B…
i do very little freelance work but none of my clients have a custom site. it's all updating/tweaking squarespace, shopify, wordpress. people LOVE to have custom stuff, even on the pre built platforms.
There's lots of mileage building on top of pre-built platforms. I know many people who are doing very well, who can barely cope with hosting their sites or write code, but can work and skin other systems.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#114I'm partially encouraged by this. It's great that a small business is in a position to build their own site.
Indeed this is a good thing not just for them, but for developers already doing this. As small businesses opt for these build-your-own-website services their competitors , particularly those who have little-to-no knowledge of design/UX, may decide to up the ante and hire a developer.
I've launch ~25 custom-theme WordPress sites for clients over the past 6 years and there has yet to be a shortage of clients who are willing to pay for someone else to deal with it (and even maintain it long-term).
My most recent project, approved just last week, is exactly this: a client with a SquareSpace website who needs to step-it-up as a result of the increased local competition, so we're doing a full redesign and building on WordPress.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#115There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
Out of curiosity, $200k revenue pre-tax? Or $200k take home in your pocket after operating expenses, taxes, health care, etc?
My friends who have consulted have pulled in some seemingly hefty sums, only to feel like they came out behind a good salary with good benefits.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#116There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
+1 for pointing out that soft skills are as important as the technical aspects of what is mostly a small project consulting business. Self evaluation for soft business skills can be difficult but one (obvious) metric is how often do you get continued work from existing customers. I would also say that concentrating on helping current customers is usually a better strategy than constantly chasing new work.
Yes, and interestingly enough, this advice can be found in The Internship (aka The Google Movie) [0] towards the end with the pizza parlor.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#117Definitely.
(I am working for Wix)
Website design is not a uniform business. A lot depends on what your client needs.
For simple needs, solutions such as our Wix ADI are a great self service tool.
When you want pixel perfect design, the Wix Editor is the tool for you. Most people are able to use the Wix editor, but creating a great design is a challenge, simply because not everyone have the training and talent of a designer. We do see a lot of designers working on wix and making money that way.
When you want more, Wix Code comes into play. With it, you get a serverless platform and a database as a service, and you are able to code whatever solutions you need for the customer.
While in theory your customer can do the coding and design, in practice they are more then likely to hire a professional to do so for them.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#118OP here: Wow, did not expect so much response. I owe more details. Our client(his mom rather) used godaddy website builder template which had payment and appointment booking feature just for $15 a month(hosting extra). She did this in a day. As few people pointed out maybe thats all what he needs right now.
My skillset varies a lot. Although I'm confident taking on any technical challenge from wordpress customization, mobile app, CRM integrations to machine learning, I'm little behind on soft skills.
It seems business owners like talking to me about technical stuff(so do I), but none of them are showing interest hiring us. As the top comment pointed out maybe I should target businesses more than 10-15 people. But it's easier to just walk into a mom & pop store than cold calling a firm with more than 10-15 people. I tried online(fb/linkedin) advertising, email marketing but didn't get any customers through it.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#119There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
Out of curiosity, $200k revenue pre-tax? Or $200k take home in your pocket after operating expenses, taxes, health care, etc? My friends who have consulted have pulled in some seemingly hefty sums, only to feel like they came out behind a good salary with good benefits.
It’s not fair to compare pre-tax salary with post-tax cash flow from your business.
Generally you pay less in taxes for an equivalent net profit as a small business than you would with that amount as a pre-tax salary. You pay slightly more in SE tax (~8%) but you get access to other write offs that more than make up for it, especially with the recent tax reform (huge deduction for pass-through businesses). And you can take as much time off as you want, which may cost you, but the flexibility is nice.
And operating expenses for most consultants are very low. For me it’s just been a new computer every couple years and a tiny bit of software and hosting. Basically nothing.
Healthcare is a big one though, if you’re not covered via a spouse or something.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
#120Definitely. (I am working for Wix) Website design is not a uniform business. A lot depends on what your client needs. For simple needs, solutions such as our Wix ADI are a great self service tool. When you want pixel perfect design, the Wix Editor is the tool for you. Most people are able to use the Wix editor, but creating a great design is a challenge, simply because not everyone have the training and talent of a d…
You say your are a decent programmer. Take another look at Wix Code.
We see people looking to hire programmers to help them build websites using the platform.
There is a demand for programmers among the Wix Experts community.