web design company market research

web design field oversaturation

[greenthumb]

I own a small web design company and I am about to embark on some market research for the sake of gaining a small business loan.

I'm guessing that I will find: the market is oversaturated (I know that it is in New York City where I live). And I'm guessing that I will find that bigger companies cut prices within the last few years, and squeezed out freelancers and now freelancers are bottom feeding, i.e. taking the lame local jobs for under $1000 a project.

These are generalizations taken from an old thread that I found in this forum...and I'd like to revive the discussion.

Additionally, does anyone know about databases that I could access to research this 'officially' and could people give me their opinion on these generalizations? The thread that I found is about a year old.

Any feedback is much appreciated...

[nycweb2222]

I am also located in New York City and run a small design firm.

The market is saturated and the price of web design has been de-valued by the idea that anyone can do it. Many clients do not understand the difference between a $400 website (cookie-cutter) and a $1000+ site. In an area like NYC, the competition is very aggressive and in order to be successful, you must be able to distinguish your services (especially if you are charging more) from the 100's other companies.

Just post a job on a design board and see how many people will reply.

[greenthumb]

Well, I do post regularly to outsource work and I FEEL how oversaturated and competitive it is here. And yeah, cookie cutter work or work made by 'the owner's cousin' plus client ignorance about all of the different hoops that have to be jumped through to make a basic (decent) site is certainly not lost on me.

What I'm looking for are names of databases or abstracts that show this type of FEELING in hard data/numbers. Any ideas?

That old thread that I saw is from last summer and it discussed a database with thousands of web design company pricing sheets. Know what that's called?

[moltar]

Explain to your client why your site would be better, and explain it in numbers. Explain how your client would benefit (in $) from the way you will make the site. Make yourself look different and more valuable then the other.

[greenthumb]

I definitely hear with your points, but mainly I'm looking to do some solid, number oriented market research. anyone know of sources of info? straight numbers of how many design companies are in new york, what they all charge, how many of them make 50,000 or more per year?