So at the moment, I go out and win web design work from local businesses.
I then outsource it to a team abroad.
Sounds great right? Win work, send it out to India, collect the money...
WRONG.
Here's the problems I'm facing:
a) Clients tell me what they're after. I go away, write a brief, get the team to make mock ups.
For every client there's always a number of revisions needed before they're happy with the design.
Then, we have endless backwards and forwards communication between client/me/team,
Once we start coding there's always reviews, changes etc etc
Long story short, it takes about two months to complete each project
The team I outsource to are good (good work and cheap), but its slooooooow. Like, watching paint dry slooooooow.
And most importantly from a business perspective, it's not scale-able.
There's only so much work the team can handle before they cant cope any more.
They get to full capacity, my work slows down even more..
b) the other problem is I don't have control - I'm at their mercy.
What do I mean by that? For instance, there's nothing I can do to speed them up - they work at their pace, that's that.
They'll miss deadlines and it's me that ends up looking bad to my clients
Overall I've decided I need to move away from this model. I don't want to keep outsourcing work.
Yes, I can find another team, but it's the same thing all over again.
Plus, finding a team you trust, who's affordable and provide good quality work, that's a headache in itself.
So what should I go guys?
What works for you?
Options
I know there are going to be people that say "use themes and edit them"
I've tried that in the past but the problem with that is, most people know enough about the internet to know you can buy website themes
You cant charge clients top prices because they feel like you're "just editing a theme"
*BLACKHAT METHOD* - One idea I've had is to rip other peoples site, change colors, remove any links in the code to the actual site.
I could make minor edits and pass the work off as my own.
I wouldn't be able to provide mockups, so the danger would be that they don't like the work, or they want wholesale changes
This method would probably speed everything up. But I run risk of my business being exposed. All it needs is for someone to run into the original site, notice the striking resemblance, and I get left with egg on my face.
Any of you guys run a business doing this? How's it work for you? How do you go about finding the sites to rip? Do you provide mock ups?
Do you show the original site to the client and say "Look, I'll make you a site very similar to this?"
**POTENTIAL NEW IDEA**
We've all seen these drag and drop websites builders right?
The type that allow you to make your own page/site, then charge reoccuring fees - Un bounce for example.
Well, I'm thinking of using a drag and drop website editor, building a site myself, then selling the clients that.
Because it's not a theme, it's easier to justify higher prices.
Been doing research and it looks like you can build some pretty decent sites using plugins.
Do any of you guys do this?
If so, do you have a plugin/company you can recommend?
Are there any other ways of speeding up the whole process that I'm missing?
At this moment in time, hiring an in-house developer isn't viable, but that's the goal as soon as I can afford to pay wages!
Help me out guys
Any advise about you're doing things, or how I could do things better would be seriously appreciated.
I then outsource it to a team abroad.
Sounds great right? Win work, send it out to India, collect the money...
WRONG.
Here's the problems I'm facing:
a) Clients tell me what they're after. I go away, write a brief, get the team to make mock ups.
For every client there's always a number of revisions needed before they're happy with the design.
Then, we have endless backwards and forwards communication between client/me/team,
Once we start coding there's always reviews, changes etc etc
Long story short, it takes about two months to complete each project
The team I outsource to are good (good work and cheap), but its slooooooow. Like, watching paint dry slooooooow.
And most importantly from a business perspective, it's not scale-able.
There's only so much work the team can handle before they cant cope any more.
They get to full capacity, my work slows down even more..
b) the other problem is I don't have control - I'm at their mercy.
What do I mean by that? For instance, there's nothing I can do to speed them up - they work at their pace, that's that.
They'll miss deadlines and it's me that ends up looking bad to my clients
Overall I've decided I need to move away from this model. I don't want to keep outsourcing work.
Yes, I can find another team, but it's the same thing all over again.
Plus, finding a team you trust, who's affordable and provide good quality work, that's a headache in itself.
So what should I go guys?
What works for you?
Options
I know there are going to be people that say "use themes and edit them"
I've tried that in the past but the problem with that is, most people know enough about the internet to know you can buy website themes
You cant charge clients top prices because they feel like you're "just editing a theme"
*BLACKHAT METHOD* - One idea I've had is to rip other peoples site, change colors, remove any links in the code to the actual site.
I could make minor edits and pass the work off as my own.
I wouldn't be able to provide mockups, so the danger would be that they don't like the work, or they want wholesale changes
This method would probably speed everything up. But I run risk of my business being exposed. All it needs is for someone to run into the original site, notice the striking resemblance, and I get left with egg on my face.
Any of you guys run a business doing this? How's it work for you? How do you go about finding the sites to rip? Do you provide mock ups?
Do you show the original site to the client and say "Look, I'll make you a site very similar to this?"
**POTENTIAL NEW IDEA**
We've all seen these drag and drop websites builders right?
The type that allow you to make your own page/site, then charge reoccuring fees - Un bounce for example.
Well, I'm thinking of using a drag and drop website editor, building a site myself, then selling the clients that.
Because it's not a theme, it's easier to justify higher prices.
Been doing research and it looks like you can build some pretty decent sites using plugins.
Do any of you guys do this?
If so, do you have a plugin/company you can recommend?
Are there any other ways of speeding up the whole process that I'm missing?
At this moment in time, hiring an in-house developer isn't viable, but that's the goal as soon as I can afford to pay wages!
Help me out guys
Any advise about you're doing things, or how I could do things better would be seriously appreciated.