Webmasters Gallery

The immediate challenge for smaller web design companies is how to attract new business and keep old clients in a downturn economy.

Customers are falling off of maintenance contracts and smaller businesses may not be looking to start a website right away.

Enterprise level clients are becoming more price-conscious. What can we do to make sure our collective heads stay above water in this tough climate?

Here are 10 tips to survive the economic downturn.

 

1. Contact Your Clients

Some businesses are actually afraid to contact their clients in a downturn because they don’t want to be the next casualty on their cost-cutting lists.

If someone is going to jump the boat, they’re going to do it anyway and a phone call from you may actually stop them from leaving rather than encouraging them. Call your past clients up, ask how their businesses are doing and ask them if you can help them out with anything that they may be considering on the web front.

Reinforce that your business is stable and you’ll be there for them.

2. Reinforce Your Value

When your potential clients sit down and plug in the math to justify an in-house designer versus an outsourced designer, the outsourced one will win every time.

No employment premiums, no benefits and no major ongoing costs once the project is done. If they are relying on in-house staff in other roles to maintain the website, chances are good that updates aren’t being done on time if at all.

Your services don’t cost your customers money, they save them money in the long run.

3. Look at Your Pricing

If you are noticing a lot of clients dropping off your roster and not a significant amount of new business, reevaluate your pricing plans and packages. Are they clear? Do they fall in line with what other web design companies are charging in your area? A quick market survey of other businesses in your area will tell you what you need to know.

While you should never compete on price, you should check once in a while just to make sure that your pricing isn’t way out of line with the competition.

Don’t make your pricing the lowest on the block either. You don’t want the clients that are looking for the cheapest game out there. Somewhere in the middle is where you want to be in order to attract clients and still make money.

4. Stay Profitable

It is just as important to make sure that you are making money as it is to ensure that your services are priced in line with the market. This rate calculator is an excellent gauge of how much you should personally be making based on your expenses.

If you aren’t there yet, or don’t think you will be there at your current rates, it’s time to reevaluate.

5. Choose the Right Add-On Services

We can all agree that add-ons are a great moneymaker regardless of economic times.

Make sure that you add services that you know you can provide; for example, you don’t want to turn yourself into a web hosting service if you only have very basic knowledge of web hosting.

Client pressure can often push us into business decisions like this that we just aren’t ready for. Outsource anything that you aren’t 100% comfortable with.

This is the time to consider adding social media to your roster. You can read more about it in our article here.

6. Don’t Use the Recession in Your Marketing

Not only will your message be dated when there is an upswing, this kind of marketing just reinforces the “don’t buy anything” reflex that businesses have during economic downturns.

People who want web design services base their buying decision on a combination of reputation, service, and price. Throwing extra concerns in just confuses the message.

7. Go after Larger Companies

Smaller businesses that aren’t financially viable to start with are the first casualties in a downturn.

You have to retool your model to go after, and keep, larger customers. Designing a site for a mid-sized company is the same as doing a site for a small business, with only some minor exceptions.

Upper management requires metrics to show the performance of the site, an easy enough thing to do since most of you are already set up with web analytics programs. Include the fact that you have reporting tools in your marketing message and larger companies will jump on board.

Keep in mind that larger companies will require more of your time in the design process than smaller companies and quote accordingly. Ask the company to appoint a project manager to deal with your company during site creation and maintenance so that their message isn’t diluted by various stakeholders.  This way you spend less time defending project decisions and more time designing.

8. Form Strategic Alliances

Competition between web design businesses is usually friendly.

Call up a bunch of web design companies in your area and see if you can help each other out. You may have Flash skills that another company can hire you for. They may have more SEO experience than you do and they may be able to handle your SEO requests.

Just make sure that you bring something to the table so that the references aren’t all one-way.

9. Reduce Your Overhead

Make a list of the stuff that you currently pay for that isn’t 100% necessary for your business.

Ongoing costs like magazine subscriptions should be the first on the chopping block. After them, focus on items that save you money and help the environment, like going with a printer cartridge recycling service instead of buying new cartridges.

10. Focus on Staff

Reducing staff should be a measure that you only take if you think your business is in serious trouble.

While layoffs may be the order of the day for large businesses, smaller web design businesses should be focused on reassuring their staff and contractors that there will be continuing work for them. Talk to them and see if they want to work different hours, take classes to upgrade their skills or anything else.

While you probably can’t offer huge raises right now, flexible hours and free courses are great incentives for your staff that will keep them happy and working hard for you.

If you are the only “staff” at your business, don’t forget to take some time off yourself. A lot of web designers are in “panic mode” right now, trying to get as much work as they can. When you take on too much, your efforts are diluted and the quality of your work suffers.

Summary

There are a million small things that you can do to save money and stay viable in an economic downturn.

The most important thing that you can do is use this opportunity to develop good business habits, like paying attention to customer retention and keeping your expenses lean.

The things that you can do to help yourself and others out during a recession are usually the things that you should be doing in business all along - it’s just easy to forget about them when times are good.

admin Business, Freelance Economic Downturn, suirving, tips

Have you recently started a freelance business? Have you been thinking about starting one? Would you like some advice from experienced freelancers who have successfully started the same exact business as you?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then I have some good news — starting in the next week or two, FreelanceFolder will be launching “Getting Started Guides” aimed at helping new freelancers find their footing and successfully grow their business. Each guide will focus on a specific type of freelancing, e.g. graphic design, writing, web design, and will walk the reader through every single step necessary to start a freelance business in that industry.

From creating a corporation, to getting clients, to establishing a project workflow — these how to guides explain every step in detail, and are written by expert freelancers each individual field. For example, our “How To Start A Freelance Writing Business” guide is written by Laura Spencer, an experienced freelance writer who has been successfully earning a living on her own for over 7 years.

We’ll be launching these guides individually over the next few months — starting with “How To Start A Freelance Writing Business”. The first guide will be out in the next week or two, and will sell for $10-$15.

Want to be notified when each guide is launched? Want to get a serious discount when the guides are released? Sign up for the FreelanceFolder Early Notification List below, and you’ll be the first to get discounts, information, and news

admin Freelance Freelance, FreelanceFolder, Guide

During my years of working online and interacting with other freelancers, I’ve noticed that most freelancers seem to fit into several personality types. Each type of freelancer seems to have a number of common character traits.

It can be fun and helpful to examine these freelancing personality types. Often times your freelancing personality type can show what makes you act the way you do as a freelancer.

So, what type of freelancer are you?

(This article is intended to take a lighthearted look at the various freelancing personality traits. It is based purely on my own impressions and not any kind of scientific study…)

Freelancing Personality Types

Here are the ten freelancing personality types that I’ve worked with over the years. See if you can recognize any of them. You may even find that you fit into one (or more) of these types.

1. Loner. The freelancing Loner is exactly what it sounds like - a person who prefers to work alone rather than as part of a team. Often, the Loner desires a quiet or isolated environment. He or she may also work unconventional hours. The Loner may be alone, but usually they are not lonely.
2. Social Butterfly. The Social Butterfly freelancer is easily recognized by his or her prominent presence on nearly every available form of social media. While most freelancers participate in a few forms of social media, the Social Butterfly is drawn to and active in all forms of social media.
3. Empire Builder. You’ll probably recognize the Empire Builder because of how quickly their business expands. In a matter of months, it seems, they are expanding their business and hiring others. Often an empire-building freelancer moves out of the realm of freelancing into the corporate realm rather quickly.
4. Controller. For some freelancers, it’s all about being in control. Generally speaking, a controller does not like to have a boss or manager over them. Controllers work best when they are given a general direction and allowed to make most of the major decisions for themselves.
5. All About The Money. While all freelancers work to earn their living, this particular freelancing personality is driven primarily by the profit motive. He or she may move into and out of new ventures rather quickly, dropping activities when they discover that an activity does not provide enough profit.
6. Balancing Act. This type of freelancer is primarily lifestyle driven. They strive for a better quality of life. Often, he or she has other demanding responsibilities in addition to their freelancing work. The Balancing Act freelancer may also value being location independent and being able to set their own hours.
7. Consummate Professional. To the Consummate Professional, their reputation is everything. He or she wants to be known for the high quality of their work. For this freelancer, getting a byline or other recognition for their work is extremely important.
8. Anti-corporate. I just recently ran across this type of freelancer. As I was waiting in an airport, I overheard two freelancers talking to each other. “I’m against anything corporate,” the one freelancer said to the other. “I work mainly for individuals and other freelancers.“
9. Experimental. The Experimental freelancer is someone who is trying on freelancing. Often they are looking for a life-change. He or she may have recently lost their traditional employment. Some experimental freelancers will embrace freelancing permanently. Others will move on after a few months.
10. Semi-retired. The Semi-Retired freelancer is a seasoned professional who has chosen to come out of retirement to freelance. Usually, they have many years of professional experience to offer. Their driving factor is the need to be active and to contribute. Frequently, they prefer to work part-time.

Changing Your Freelancing Personality

If you notice that one freelancing personality type seems to fit you better than the others, ask yourself: “is this personality type good for my business?”

If the answer is “no,” don’t panic. All is not lost. You may be able to take steps to change your freelancing personality type.

For example, if you feel that you are too much of a Loner, make it a goal to take on some projects where you must work with others. If you’re too controlling, make it a point to occasionally accept a project where you will have to follow someone else’s direction. If you’re Anti-corporate, ask yourself if you are missing out on lucrative assignments by not accepting corporate clients.

admin Freelance, Inspiration 10 types, Freelance

It can be depressing reading the news these days. Everyday, it seems, more companies are announcing layoffs and more people are out of work. IBM even annocunced recently that they are offering to move laidoff workers to India, China, and Brazil to fill market demands. AKA they laid you off to outsource your job to cheaper countries. The moved workers will expect to receive salaries comparable with that of local workers. Ouch!

With the idea of job security pretty much non-existant, what can you do to help insulate yourself from these tough economic times?

Now is a perfect time to work for yourself as a freelance consultant. Yes it is! Here is why.

3 Reasons You Should Consider Becoming A Freelance Consultant

1. Even though companies are laying people off, the jobs still need to get done. Big companies may outsource to other countries but small to medium businesses will likely look to local consultants to fill the gaps they can’t afford to fill with full-time employees.

2. Your costs are relatively low. The costs to strike out on your own are pretty low. You can arm yourself with free and open source software to fill almost all your operational needs. I will do a post later on starting up a business using open source and free software. Health care will likely be your biggest expense.

3. Your time is your own. Imagine walking to the hardware store, eating lunch with your significant other, or playing soccer with your kids in the middle of the day! Well, as a freelancer you can do that. You set your work hours and you decide how much you need/want to work.

If you have been recently laid off or are frustrated with or feel trapped in your current job maybe making the jump to being a freelance consultant is something you should consider.

This is an area that I’ll expand on in future posts so make sure you grab the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter.

admin Freelance consultnant, Freelance, makes sense

Calabria is a set of 20 free and exclusive vector icons that can be used on websites, logos and more.

These icons are absolutely free for both personal and commercial uses and you can go ahead and download yours now.

If you’d like to share these icons, please refer your friends to this page.

Here’s a full preview of all 20 icons for quick reference. Download yours below and enjoy!

Liked the icons?  Have you used them in a project? Do you prefer vector or raster based icons?
Share your comments and links below and let us know what you’d like to see next!

admin Freelance, Icons, Information calabria, Icons, vector

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

admin ASP.Net, Advertising, Announcement, Audio, Backgrounds, Best of the Web, Browsers, Brushes, Business, Buttons, C/C++, CSS/Style Sheets, Charts, Chat, Client Softwares, Code, Codes and Scripts, Color, Contacts and Networking, Databases, Demo Tour, Doctype, E-commerce, Education and Learning, Events, Extras, File and Data Sharing, Forms, Framework, Frameworks and Platforms, Freelance, Graphic Design, Hosting, Icons, Image Tools, Information, Inspiration, Legal Documents, Libraries, Linux, MSSQL, Money Making, MySQL, Open-Source, Operating Systems, Optimization, Polls and Surveys, Project Management, Projects, Reviews, Rss/feeds, Ruby/Rails, SQL, Script Library, Search Engine Marketing and Optimisation, Search Engine Optimization, Security, Silverlight, Social, Social Media Websites, Sound, Stats, Stock Photography, Stock Photos, System Administration, Testing, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized, Webmail, color Schemes, content management system, contest, css, eCommerce