Building web design business

Still looking for ways to bring in new business

[Lvanhoff]

I've been doing web development for four years and seem to have wound down. I do small business sites, either new or needing search engine optimization. I love love love helping businesses grow, it is so much fun to be part of. My question is, I went from more business than I could keep up with in the last 6 months to finishing it all up and realizing too late I have done no marketing to keep up the terrific flow. So now I need to start proactively building the business (so far it's been all referrals).

Does anyone have/willing to give some advice about building up an existing web design business? I'd also like to find something more on my own to sell on the web, to develop and run my own ecommerce site but have not yet found anything I wanted to sell or or that seemed to have enough potential.

If anyone has some insight on creating a stronger web development business they are willing to share or beginning and ecommerce venture I'd appreciate the input. I love what I'm doing and would like to branch out to my own site (less customer service hand holding and educating, more freedom) but I know that sounds like everyone else wanting to find an income generating web business. Oh well :) It's so much fun to work in this environment :)

Thanks in advance for any discussion...

[Essex_boy]

less customer service hand holding and educating, more freedom - Not if your running your own company, quite the opposite.

Whats products do you use? have you considered selling these on the web? Have you visited any consumer based trade shows?

Its not hard to find something that sells.

[Lvanhoff]

Can you elaborate on "not hard to find something that sells"? I'd like to get several sites going with strong sellers but not sure how to figure out what will sell. Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated :)

[Essex_boy]

Sure can, I look for a product I like or use or have used.

Then visit trade shows to find suppliers.

Then I take a look at how I can deal with the product, can I do it cheaper/deliver it quicker. I.e can i find a reason whi Id buy it from me and not someone else.

OR I go to a store that stocks a product raneg im interested in, say kids toys and chat to teh assistants about whats selling well. 'Cos I gotta buy somting for lil jimmy back home.

Once I have this info take a look at the back of the box, supliers contact details are listed. So you now know whats sells and for much.

I have, I think, several old NEC trade show catalogs around the flat do you want one? Just pay the shipping they are around 500 - 900 pages each, so cost is going to be fairly high.

if you cant find a product in there give up and get a job in McD's

[Lvanhoff]

Banish the thought, no McDs. Are you in the US?

So you do the whole stock inventory/ship products thing or you just act as the reseller with no inventory? And are you adding pages into an existing sites for the products you find to sell then optimizing the doodah out of those individual product pages? Do you have sort of an online shopping mall kind of site? Do you sell on Ebay? Do you rely on Google?

I realize this is a lot of info to ask for...if you are willing to share I'd appreciate it.

I was beginning to think along those lines...what do I use and love that I could sell. For example, I use this amazing stain remover...so I could investigate selling that. I'd really appreciate knowing your general process once you've found a product to sell. And I'd like to know if you handle the whole inventory/shipping aspect and if then minimum orders are an issue for you.

Are you making a serious income with this approach?

Thanks :)

Laura

[Lvanhoff]

And thank you for the offer of the NEC catalog...what is it?

[topr8]

>>NEC catalog

its the biggest trade show in europe for giftware at the nec in birmingham, england.

autumn and spring shows.

if you're in gift/retail in the uk and you don't go, you are not in the game.

[Lvanhoff]

Yep, I just found it on Google. Unfortunately, I am in San Francisco :) Thanks though :)

[topr8]

ha! :)

same applies though there are huge gift shows in usa, go to a couple, walk around and get inspired!

[Lvanhoff]

Yep, I've been that route but not in terms of selling on the web. We have a great gift market here in SF and I've had booths in the trade shows in New York and San Francisco when I had a children's cosmetics line of products.

I'm not at all sure I want to go down the inventory/shipping route again.

[topr8]

develop and sell a software downloadable.

[Lvanhoff]

Yep, I've thought about that but I'm not a programmer of any kind. Of course if I saw a need I could partner with someone to develop it but I'm not even enough in that world to know what the need is. Great idea though :)

Maybe inventory/shipping is not such a bad thing anyway. Just a matter of finding the right products it sounds like. I have a good garage for setting up a shipping area...so I guess I just need a handful of products to start with.

[henry0]

I have a good garage for setting up a shipping area...so I guess I just need a handful of products to start with.

The ideal consists in not dealing with S and H
but passing order with client's requirement to the supplier
I have not done it yet, but I guess it could be achieved?

Then you can still use your garage to pile stuffs until the next garage sale!

Further why not envision even a simplistic approach:
Find a business that has no E-commerce; then set it up
And get 10% on sales like a Co. rep
So again no inventory involved

regards

Henry

[Lvanhoff]

I totally agree. S/H is not my first choice.

I have pitched that concept to several customers and they have all balked at it saying that it's too hard to keep track of what comes via my efforts and what comes from their established business. I love the % idea I just haven't been able to sell it yet to any of my existing customers.

[henry0]

Yes the % deal provides an easier track records since
your sales will be the only one done online

Henry

[Lvanhoff]

But my customers say that even online some of those sales are attributed to their own efforts therefore they don't like the percentage of online sales arrangements. It seems to make a lot of sense to me.

[faltered]

Lvanhoff: I've read what everyone else has suggested and wanted to jump in here.

What if you expanded your service offerings? Web design usually ties in well with interactive design. That is, flash and shockwave animations. Power point presentations are getting to be a big thing nowadays as well. If you have a knack for making things look good while keeping them simple, you might be able to swing that.

Good luck.

[Lvanhoff]

Great ideas...thank you!