web design too much work for too little money

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gregorystephen

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How do web design companies make money?

I tried this industry and all I got was idiots expecting me to build them a website with the complexity of ebay, with unlimited changes included, for $500

I hate people expecting to pay a flat rate for unlimited work. (look up the term scope creep)

How do these web design companies have 100s of clients when I couldn't even manage one?
 
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What exactly is the problem you're facing? The fact that you can't get clients? Or that the one client you got wanted a whole lot from you for virtually no remuneration?
 
gregorystephen said:
How do web design companies make money?

I tried this industry and all I got was idiots expecting me to build them a website with the complexity of ebay, with unlimited changes included, for $500

I hate people expecting to pay a flat rate for unlimited work. (look up the term scope creep)

How do these web design companies have 100s of clients when I couldn't even manage one?
Click to expand...
The cheaper your client, the more demanding they are... Ironic but true.

Maybe build a portfolio and work your way up?
 
I would say there are 2 main things in marketing and sales that a well established firm has compared to someone like yourself that is trying it on a personal level:

1- They have huge funds, they can have a 10 man strong sales team going each after a decision maker in a high paying firm. They probably have a fancy office to sign huge contracts.

2- They have a great reputation already which brings them more clients and they have the power to bargain terms that is good for them.
 
The problem is the clever ones know that they are up against really stiff competition like site builders and store builders. They are everywhere now and virtually fool proof to use even compared to platform like WordPress pagebuilders. And cost a fraction of the price that a designer, even an agency could charge.
Naturally then profitability subsides, and to answer your question many of them don't make significant profits, at all. On the contrary, due to the above, I personally I feel that Web Design for small and medium businesses may be becoming a dying market and runs the risk of reaching the point where it will barely be affordable, let alone profitable.

As innovative new solutions from hosting giants make it easier than ever.
 
i tried my crack at selling web design few years ago. same problem. all i got was people with $500 budgets and wanted their hand held the entire way.

guess if you keep grinding you can get those big budget clients.

a friend of a friend started his own health office. he paid $12k for simple 5 page WP site. so they're out there.
 
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Personally I think if you're starting out you should concentrate your effort in other areas emerging or saturated market where there is still signs of life like graphic design, animation and AR because automation and AI is killing off things which were once profitable, besides the topic at hand, look at what happened to content writing market. Dead. Absolute catastrophe for your average writer with a shred of talent. Such things look they they may follow suit imo.
 
qwerty_123 said:
Personally I think if you're starting out you should concentrate your effort in other areas emerging or saturated market where there is still signs of life like graphic design, animation and AR because automation and AI is killing off things which were once profitable, besides the topic at hand, look at what happened to content writing market. Dead. Absolute catastrophe for your average writer. Such things look they they may follow suit imo.
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Yeah. That AI that has 10 years of exp in every field. That's amazing content. I'm sure this industry worth is negative.

Money isn't in simple things clients can do themselves. If you do simple things, focus on doing that stuff in volume.
 
Web Design, the bane of the internet marking industry as it is so subjective and few will pay fair market pricing.

Pivot.

Fast.
 
Go local in your own country, build a list from local directories with businesses that have shitty websites but with revenues of around 3-5M Euro/Dollar then focus on selling high quality re-designs to them with monthly maintenance service to. Don´t do $500 websites.
 
RoiBox said:
Go local in your own country, build a list from local directories with businesses that have shitty websites but with revenues of around 3-5M Euro/Dollar then focus on selling high quality re-designs to them with monthly maintenance service to. Don´t do $500 websites.
Click to expand...
good method. few years ago i JV with some guy on here doing exactly that.
we narrowed down into specific niche. think the first one we did was transport/logistics. people who run fleets of 18-wheelers. big money there usually.
scraped websites on google using footprints eg "made by yahoo site designer" (theres tons of these footprints floating around).
he did cold calls. would call these companies up one by one and do the pitch.
this is the part i dont like but it worked -- he said he had a potential website already done -- he made one for their competitor but they backed out or something like that. and we want to sell it to them for cheap. don't remember the exact pitch word for word.
we had 1 good WP/html template for every niche. spent a half hour uploading that customers logo & business name. made a quick mock-up i guess you can call it. something tangible. to show them on the phone quickly.
sold them for around 2k each. + hosting contract
after that we just had to finish the rest of the website. didnt take long as all were skinny 5 pagers.
at the end of the day, its more of a sales skill than a web design skill.
 
reaaski said:
Yeah. That AI that has 10 years of exp in every field. That's amazing content. I'm sure this industry worth is negative.

Money isn't in simple things clients can do themselves. If you do simple things, focus on doing that stuff in volume.
Click to expand...

Maybe think ahead 10 years then.

Also for big tech, money is in simple things clients can do themselves. That's my point. If it's technical then they'll make it simple. That's the crux of the matter.

Not just Web Design, Mobile and Dynamic App building too.

Graphic Design and Animation is not going anywhere though for a whole number of reasons (technical and legislative).
 
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gregorystephen said:
How do these web design companies have 100s of clients when I couldn't even manage one?
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Account managers, team, etcs. If you're doing the design work then you're not managing the client. They call that an account manager.

I helped a client hire a design agency for about $300,000. I also consult for two agencies who both do web design for nothing less than $20,000 but we usually bundle it into a big monthly deal. It's just not worth our time for the small stuff. Biz dev guys bring in the partnerships for deal flow and then the designers build sites 24/7. Account managers keep the clients happy. Agencies are a well-oiled system. Nothing like what you're describing.

The agencies are real companies, with accomplishments employees, connections to venture capitalists who recommend them, etc.
 
Think B2B. Not B2C.
individuals who decided one day they want to start a business as a "side hustle" or a "hobby" without a proper plan are the ones who won't pay.

However, finding established businesses and offer them to re-design their site because the current one they have is ugly or not professional might land you clients with fat pockets.

Or find them via GMB, Businesses without websites.

PS.
You can scrape bulk GMBs leads and contact them.
 
You are just looking for clients in the wrong place mate.
1 - build a portfolio
2 - watch Alex Berman on youtube on how to pitch with cold email
3 - watch The futur on youtube to understand how to price your work

Some people above said it - if it's a cheap project - expect only problems and revisions.
If you can create a website that will make $50k per month for a client, you can easily quote $10k for the site, or even more. You should really watch The futur, a lot of value from that bald guy...
 
All I can say it costs as much as to setup an affiliate network as to setup a well profitable software development / web design company.

I know those people and they invest $50k+ annually for 2 years to get positive ROI. With this investment, the most they can get is low 6 figures annually.

I invested 3 years in software development. Didn't see much from it and that's what it is.

I know a guy who is 10 years into it, is self-taught and he says everything is alright.

It's the average path of a professional coder. Don't think it's a goldmine niche.

It's a profession. And it won't die soon cause it's extremely tedious to last in this seeing no money for so much time.

First money in IM I had in 2 months. Here, as I said, no money for 3 years.

AI in web design is a pair programming partner at best. Someone needs to operate that.
 
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