Starting up a business

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I think what people are trying to put across is if you got 3 little ones, and there are dealines for customers websites to be up and running by x date/time and you are allready busy with your little ones, where are you going to find the time to meet customer deadlines?

If you do set up in business, and have a website ( which looks as though its a standard off the shelf one, not one you designed from scratch yourself) it doesnt mean work is going to flood in

this is where people fall down, they think by having a website, they can just sit back and take the orders...

It might be worth you looking on the up your income board, and see if there is any other ways of getting some money in while you see if your business idea works

motorguy

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

If you do set up in business, and have a website ( which looks as though its a standard off the shelf one, not one you designed from scratch yourself) it doesnt mean work is going to flood in

this is where people fall down, they think by having a website, they can just sit back and take the orders...

+1

That website is fairly dire for a graphical design company. It wouldnt inspire any confidence from me.

Also, i'm not so sure about laying out your stall with your pricing model published. I would rather see a 'Contact Me' button or similar, so that you can talk to your prospective customer at least via email or telephone, rather than them judge you based on a pricing model.

wynnvegas

pgilc1 wrote: »

+1

That website is fairly dire for a graphical design company. It wouldnt inspire any confidence from me.

Also, i'm not so sure about laying out your stall with your pricing model published. I would rather see a 'Contact Me' button or similar, so that you can talk to your prospective customer at least via email or telephone, rather than them judge you based on a pricing model.

That's a bit harsh - I've seen any number of successful graphic and web design consultancies whose offerings are well below this. It looks pretty decent and I wouldn't be put off using it for any business I was looking to kick off. The OP is trying to do something on the back of being made redundant and doesn't need naysayers like you jumping up and down on what was stated as a work in progress.

Cheers,

Billy

louloulouisa

martindow - thanks for your reply. Ideally I would prefere to be employed so I don't have that stress hanging over me, but unfortunately the jobs are sparse.

Debt Robot - thanks for your positive reply. :beer: At the moment, I have had friends that have asked me to build a site for them, but I am just thinking of working part time, so people with small businesses, or setting up a new small business, with a limited budget most likely. (At my previous work, due to the recession, more people are trying to set up their own new business due to loosing their jobs, and have a limited budget for web design, so I thought I would target this group of people)

Savvy_Sue - I will remove my link...

cooltrikerchick - My children are 12, 7 and a baby of 7 months, so the older 2 are at school, and my baby goes to nursery 2 days a week (9.30 - 3.30) so its limited time. (But to compensate this, I have put my prices quite low.)

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

If you do set up in business, and have a website ( which looks as though its a standard off the shelf one, not one you designed from scratch yourself)

I did design it myself

Although I did appreciate your comment "It might be worth you looking on the up your income board, and see if there is any other ways of getting some money in while you see if your business idea works"

Thanks everyone, a lot to think about...

Lou xxx

pjcox2005

Have you set up a linkedin profile?

That, along with your personal network, maybe a way of leveraging business from past contacts/your existing network.

louloulouisa

pgilc1

wynnvegas wrote: »

That's a bit harsh - I've seen any number of successful graphic and web design consultancies whose offerings are well below this. It looks pretty decent and I wouldn't be put off using it for any business I was looking to kick off. The OP is trying to do something on the back of being made redundant and doesn't need naysayers like you jumping up and down on what was stated as a work in progress.

Cheers,

Billy

Billy - this is for you :kisses3: THANK YOU

louloulouisa

pjcox - Good suggestion about linkedin, thanks, :beer:
although I am feeling a bit knocked down by some negative comments at the mo, so am going to take a bit of time to think about things first, thanks for taking the time to reply.

pelirocco

pgilc1 wrote: »

+1

That website is fairly dire for a graphical design company. It wouldnt inspire any confidence from me.

Also, i'm not so sure about laying out your stall with your pricing model published. I would rather see a 'Contact Me' button or similar, so that you can talk to your prospective customer at least via email or telephone, rather than them judge you based on a pricing model.

To be honest I thought the designs in her portfolio looked very good

and some ( a lot ? ) of customers have no idea what a web site would cost and may think its more expensive then it is , so i think its good to have a price guide

Pennywise

I'd suggest that you go and see an accountant (or 3) in the first instance before you make any decisions about starting up and registering either as a Ltd co or sole trader. Many firms of accountants will give you a free initial consultation and you should really benefit from what they tell you. You can then choose which, if any, seem most appropriate for you in terms of how you get on with them, the advice they give you, etc.

You could easily spend a few hours on the web trying to decide whether or not to register for VAT, yet you can cover this in just a few minutes with a good accountant who can quickly pick out the relevant facts. Same with whether to form your own limited company or not. Same with deciding what method to keep your accounting records.

I really hate taking on clients who've started up without an accountant's input. Usually, they've spent hours and hours and yet still manage to make inappropriate decisions which not only wasted their time but also cost them money.

If you get a good accountant on board from the outset (which shouldn't cost you too much), you can cross off the tax and accounting from your checklist and can concentrate on other matters like marketing and quality control.

Savvy_Sue

Pennywise wrote: »

If you get a good accountant on board from the outset (which shouldn't cost you too much), you can cross off the tax and accounting from your checklist and can concentrate on other matters like marketing and quality control.

And let's be honest, if your inclination and talents lay with tax and accounting, you wouldn't be setting up a web design business, would you?

And loulou, either the link goes, or the post with it in does.