How To Start A Web Design Consulting Business
Web design consulting is a hot profession. Web design is a fast-growing business, and it shows no sign of diminishing, as virtually every kind of business or profession realizes that it must have an Internet presence in order to survive and thrive.
Web Design Consulting Education
In a recent web design salary survey, research results showed that 71% of employed web designers had at least a bachelor's degree. Another 20% had a Masters degree, and only 8% had a high school degree. Web design salaries ranged from $15,000 to $200,000, depending on experience, education and geography.
What should a web design consultant study? A degree in computer science is not necessary. A web design consultant should have basic design skills, but budgeting and communication skills are just as important in this field. Therefore, an education and background in business and communication is recommended.
What Does A Web Design Consultant Do?
A web design consultant is not necessarily the same thing as a web designer. The web design consultant meets with the client to understand their needs, their timeline and their budget. The consultant will often then communicate these needs to a team of web designers who work together to build the web site.
In a small business, however, a designer will do her own web design consulting and then goes back to her office and does the web design work also. These days, web design software makes it easy for an experienced design professional to add pre-built elements like a shopping cart and a checkout system. These elements can also be outsourced to web designers, with the costs of outsourcing built into the budget.
Getting Started
If you are just starting out and want to have your own web design consulting business, your most important marketing tool is obvious: your web site. You need to have a web site that makes people say wow! You should also include examples of other web sites that you have built.
When you first get started, you may need to offer your web design consulting services at a greatly reduced rate, or even for free. Try to think of someone you know who has a business, but not a web site. If they are reluctant to pay you because you are a beginner, offer to develop their website in exchange for a percentage of the web sales that their site generates. Creative compensation schemes can generate a lot of experience for you, and the more experience you have, the more web sites you can include in your web design consulting portfolio.
