Okay, so now we're gonna talk about running a business. And this is my idea of a business model based on years of experience of running a web design business. And this is the idea to give you the most profitable and creative work. The objective of every business is to make money. And this should be always at the back of your mind. Now, it seems obvious, but it isn't.
It's incredibly easy to get caught up in the details and not see the bigger picture. The first thing you should do when you're starting a business is to make sure you're not wasting time or money. So first of all, we're going to talk about how to save money when you're running a business and I'm very Straight about this because this is where I see a lot of people making mistakes. Now, of course, you're going to have to spend money. I'm not disputing that you'll be spending a lot of time on your computer. So you might want to spend a lot of money on a Mac, but you should be strict with yourself about expenditure.
And here's a few examples. So don't spend a long time on the phone clients. Always choose email, always get your clients to phone you. And you can buy a lot of secondhand or refurbished equipment when you can, especially with Mac's you can buy refurbished Macs and they have a guarantee, etc. If you're just starting out, you can buy secondhand equipment from eBay. Don't spend money on letterhead note paper, I see other people do this all the time.
They get a new business and they spend ages and ages on their business cards or letterhead, note paper and things like that. It's a waste of time. By all means spend time on it when you're successful. But when you're first starting out, just leave that to the back of the queue for the time being. Send invoices out as PDFs, and the client can print them out if he wants to. Be wary of potential clients who asked you to meet them before they've given you any work.
And certainly never work for free. And this is a classic mistake that people make when they're first starting out. They think that they've got to do everything for everyone. And they take any old rubbish from any old client who might just be a time waster. So you have to be very careful with potential clients, especially if they're asking you to put yourself out whether it's traveling to them, or doing some work before you're getting paid, or researching into a job that you might have, and spending a lot of time on that research. So be very wary of this point.
When you're starting out. Ask yourself Do I really need this before making an investment in your business? If you believe it will improve your business, then make the purchase. Otherwise, leave it. Always try and leave the purchases for later. This is especially true with marketing and advertising, where I'd advocate you market yourself by putting all your energies into your website rather than buying advertising.
Saving Time is just as important as saving money. And there are 101 little jobs to do when you're running your own business. So it's really important you're strict with yourself, as far as productivity is concerned. always prefer, as I say, emailing clients and contacts rather than fighting them. Even if you're slow at typing. Emailing is always a time saver even when describing the most complicated process.
An email will create certainty in the clients mind as they can see it in black and white. Sometimes phone or Skype is necessary and of course Skype is free. So always try to Skype rather than fun but Most time it's not. And of course, email is recorded, you have a record of the email conversation, which can prove handy later. So, second thing is create distinctive time books for certain tasks. Get rid of distractions when you're working.
Get rid of noise, dog, the phone, shut down Twitter, Facebook, email and resolve to complete your working tasks in time. You might like to block 25 minutes or 45 minute periods for work. Whatever you find better but intersperse them with breaks course. Always ask yourself the question is what I'm doing right now getting me to where I want to go. And always try to deliver quality while running a design business. So once you have the saving money and saving time, mindsets firmly in place, now you have to concentrate on delivering quality to your clients.
And this is very important when you're Running a web design business, your business must always communicate the premium service, plenty of design business out there. But you need to compete on the basis of quality, not on the basis of price. There always will be companies out there that will beat you on price. So don't fall into that trap, because there's very little hope of getting out of it if you do. So, how do you offer quality? Is it the case of having a beautiful portfolio and selling the current I offer quality?
Now, it's about communication. So later in this course, I'll explain how to sell client websites, logos, and other design by offering predetermine packages. If a potential client contacts you wanting a website, you can take one of your predetermined packages off the hook presented and see if the client would like is the beauty of the system is that you can show the client that you're more than just a friend freelance web designer, someone that you hire for a few hours. And then you leave. Rarely you're showing the client that you run a successful digital solutions company that covers all areas of the online space. This is the quality.
People will contact you wanting a website, but nine times out of 10 they won't have thought about SEO, social media, blog, and sometimes even content. So you need to offer as many of these services as possible. And this is something that I'm going to enjoy saying on this course that I wouldn't say on my website, but I'm gonna say here, clients are lazy, and people are lazy. So time and time again, I've set up blogs and social media accounts, email marketing for clients, everything. They've asked for it, and I've built it for them, but they never get around to using it. They never post in the blog.
They never post in the social media accounts and then never send emails, which means the job they got me to do was almost totally useless. But they paid for it. People purchase fantastic methods of getting your message out there, but they do nothing with it. But this is why you have to offer as many services as possible. Because most clients want someone to take away the confusion, the hard work and the effort from them. They want quality, and they want someone to do something for them to solve a problem for them.
And they'll pay a premium price for that. So allied to this. Are you a freelancer or design business? Are you someone who just stays at home and gets paid per hour to do a certain design task? Or are you an entrepreneur? Now there was a time when I called myself a freelance graphic designer.
And I actually had that as the title of my website at the time. I actually wrote plenty of articles with titles like how to get freelance design work. And this is actually a good thing for me because I found that I was ranking quite high for the phrase freelance graphic designer in my local area, but I changed soon after, because I wanted to seem as an authority of design marketing, and I began thinking of myself as a business owner, first and foremost, and I think this is what you should do, because this will make you more money. So let's just quickly go through the differences between the freelance designer and a design business. freelancers hire themselves out to perform certain tasks, whereas business owners are building something bigger than that, bigger than themselves. freelancers say I do this.
I do that business owners say we do this. We do that. freelancers get paid per hour for the work that they do. Business owners get paid in their sleep, or they get paid lump sums for big projects. You'll start getting bigger clients, bigger jobs, and you'll be able to outsource more. And the revenue of your company will increase year on year.
Whereas if you stay as a freelancer, you'll stares, substituting hours for money every day, working a bit and getting paid a bit. And that is not scalable. It's no business model. So for all the reasons, think of yourself as design business, not as a freelance designer. So let's just recap on our business model. Remember, it's the communication between you and the client, you and your audience.
That's key. And remember about the systems and remember about the business. If you can successfully sell systems to your clients, rather than just services, you will make more money and it requires communication to sell systems. And I'll tell you more about that later. Okay. Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed this lecture.