manilla - 5:49 pm on Jun 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Running your own business - there'll be highs and lows

The highs

1.0 The month when you've done particularly well and you multiply by 12 to see what you'll take annually.

2.0 The time when you get a BIG meeting and you're working out what you should charge this client who has large pockets.

3.0 The times you can easily convince a prospective client to register that domain name for peanuts because "they really must have a web presence"

4.0 The times when your client looks at the demo front page of the site you decided to set up for them for free and they really love it.

The lows

1.0 The next month when you don't do so well and you multiply this figure by 12 and wonder how it'll pay the mortgage.

2.0 The times after your meeting with the BIG client when your telephone calls are fielded and your're never put through.

3.0 The times when you've registered a client's domain name but they still wait months to commission you to build the darn site.

4.0 The times when your prospective client takes your idea and asks his son/brother/mother/friend to "design" it for them. It looks awful and you'd rather have done it for free.

Your plan is right - take a step at a time, and when you feel it's right - do it full time. There is plenty of business out there.

I find that many clients find the whole thing confusing. The best advice I can give is to de-mystify the process, and you'll gain the client's confidence. I use the analogy to a file, containing papers, stored in a filing cabinet.

The name on the file is the domain name, the papers inside file is your design work, and the filing cabinet is the hosting company.

Once they understand this concept, I then explain my knowledge of SEO and how we will market the site. Whilst my "knowledge" is far less than many of the excellent contributors on webmasterworld, it's more than many other people I often come up against who don't follow what's happening in the SE arena.

P.S. All clients have used a filing cabinet haven't they?