Customer Reviews

How to Start a Home-Based Web Design Business, 3rd (Home-Based Business Series)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have to say that I had hoped this book would be more helpful than it was. I had hoped for recommendations on how to obtain clients via the internet and how to handle things like contracts (is a "check box to agree" acceptable on your webpage form, as many use, or do you need a physical document?) I also hoped for information on billing your customers online. Unfortunately, no help in these areas was provided. The focus was on in-person selling/presentations to obtain clients, which isn't feasable for many.

There is a fair amount of filler in this book. For example: the cutsy 10 page section on the need to wear different hats ("propeller head", "ponytail", "rainmaker", "green vistor cap", "business suit") along with the "duh" quiz to find out which of these types you are made me wonder just how stupid he thinks his readers are. I think the subject warrented covering...briefly...but the amount of time he expends describing these "hats", offering the quiz (in which you give yourself 5 points if you agree with statements like "I could spend hours tweaking a program just to see it run successfully"), then explaining ad nauseum what your quiz score means (four paragraphs for each type in addition to what he already wrote about the types) was just ridiculous. It was like reading Cosmo, not a manual for webpage design.

I was a bit concerned at his frequent mention of his previously failed businesses. I know the idea is that his current one isn't failing, so he learned from experience, but still...it doesn't inspire confidence.

I also found myself shocked at his sample start up budget. Wow. I am assuming this is a part of the book he did not update for modern times. Two thousand to six thousand for a laptop? Two hundred to eight hundred for a "Read/write CD-ROM"? This book was supposedly updated in 2004...even if it was 2000, prices should be set much lower in his budget listing. This unrealistic budget may deter some from starting a business believing the costs to be too great, when in fact the costs are significantly smaller. (Example: Nice laptops go for around twelve hundred, "Read/write CD-ROMs" have been included standard on even cheap (sub-thousand dollar) laptops for years.)

There were some helpful parts, though. If you don't know how to start any kind of business, a basic "for dummies" approach is provided to get you started with tips that apply to starting any business. I found this informative and consistant with other texts I've read on the subject.

I appreciated the attention paid to offering hosting in addition to webpage design, though I wished there was more detail. One interesting, helpful fact was that he bills quarterly rather than yearly. His explaination as to why he does things this way really made sense, and made me consider a short billing cycle as he suggests.

The most helpful thing in the book is the sample contract with explaination. He also offers this sample contract on his website, which I found very useful as a guide to developing my own contract.

I do not mean to be rude, but after visiting the author's webpages I do have to say...if he can get enough work building poorly designed sites like these, just think of what someone with a talent for clean, attractive designs could do.

Bottom line: worth checking out from the library, not worth owning.

I am a web design veteran and have decided to go out on my own to start a web design business. I thought this book might have some insight as to how to go about doing that.

As I read the book, it was becoming clear that this book should be called "Starting a Home Based Business For Dummies - with Some Web Stuff Thrown In"

I got about halfway through the book and I was curious to see this guys work, so I - like other reviewers here - checked out his website.
Yikes. It looks like a newbie's first attempt. All that was missing waas the blinking text and rotating logo. I put the book down after that. I can't take advice from someone I don't respect professionally. I wish I had more hands so I could give this book four thumbs down.

As an aspiring graphic/web designer looking to launch her first freelance business, I thought Smith's book would cover all the aspects needed to get started. After scanning through the entire book and reading several chapters more thoroughly, I've come to the conclusion that this book isn't for me. Granted, it offered valuable insight from the author's experience, but I felt it was too general. The lack of detail gave it a three-star rating.

For example, many webdesigners are resellers; that is, they purchase space from a webhost and make up their own webhosting packages to sell to clients. I've often thought about offering that service, but didn't know what it took to be a reseller. The book skims over that area, which surprises me, since webhosting is a service many webdesigners provide. Smith basically said he is a reseller, he shows clients why it's better to be hosted on a commercial server rather than a local ISP, and recommends two webhosts that provide good reselling plans. He doesn't cover the aspects of becoming a reseller, the pros and cons. Did you know a reseller has to provide technical support for his/her clients? Webhosts recommend that you have to have a fair knowledge of various programming languages, and be familiar with a UNIX/NT server. Now if you just read this book and decide to offer webhosting, you'd be in a whole heap of trouble.

For the novice designer, this would be a good place to begin. But for the seasoned designer, Smith's design "tips" are just redundant rule of thumbs we've all heard before: design for cross-browser/multiple resolution compatiblity, optimize your graphics, avoid using the latest cutting-edge technology, and so forth.

Business-wise, there is a sample contract and other documents that look okay. I may give them a try, but there are also more concise business contracts/documents templates available online. I suggest you do a search for "webdesign contract template" and see what you can find.

Smith is getting somewhere with his book. I hope other aspiring authors will follow. What we need is a book for designers that explain technical business terms in plain English, dealing with subjects such as contracts, business plans, invoices, budgets, taxes, etc. It would also be helpful to have related chapters dealing with security, such as how to obtain a SSL certificate, how to accept credit cards online, and so forth. As defined by Smith's book, I am a "ponytail", someone who is more focused in the creative aspect of the webdesign business. I know nothing of programming or sales or marketing.

Something to consider when revising for the next edition.

The book offers up some good practical business advice that could help anyone looking to start a home based consulting business. It gives some helpful ideas to think about for anyone just starting out, such as looking at your own strengths in a real way, deciding what it is you want to do, strategies for attracting clients, and keeping your business thriving in the long run.

That said, I think Jim Smith knows his stuff when it comes to the business side of things, having run several small businesses before this. If you are looking for advice on the particulars of web-design then perhaps a different book would suit you better, such as "Web Redesign : Workflow that Works ". A simple Google search for Jim's business "Blarneystone LLC" brings you to his website that, quite honestly, seems amateurish. In his book he talks about how you need to wear many hats to run your business, one of which was "the ponytail" which was the designer hat. He reiterated many times in his book that he was a designer more than anything else, but a look at his website reveals otherwise. Having looked at his site leaves the questions in my mind as to just how authoritative this book is.

If you're thinking of starting a Web design business, then this book is a great place to begin. Smith covers all of the basics of starting a Web design business, including writing a business plan, buying equipment, establishing a legal structure, services you can offer, and making customer presentations.

Additionally, he offers a few pointers that even some experienced designers might find useful, like "charging by the site instead of by the page" and a sample contract that can be explained to your customers. This is the type of information my small business Web designers might find useful.

My only criticism is that it could be a little more detailed. For instance, the index is very shallow and there is not much actionable information that Web designers can use to promote their businesses. Lastly, I wasn't able to locate the URL for Smith's site (which may have been intentionally omitted by the publisher). My apologies if it's in the book.

This book may point you in the right direction if you've never worked in the web design field. However, our of curiosity, I searched for author's "business" on the internet and found it.

The "design" of his site is quite horrible and made me second guess anything published in this book.

That being said, I'd like to warn you to use this book with discretion.

If you are a talented web developer without a lot of experience in running profitable businesses, then you will likely find this book very useful. Jim Smith focuses on dealing with clients, marketing yourself, and using contracts.

Smith does not seem to be involved with cutting edge technologies and design elements. In fact most of the sites in his online portfolio appear somewhat amateur. If you are interested in improving your chops as a developer, this is not the book for you.

What Smith does have a good handle on (and explains well in this book) is how to translate the skill you have into a moneymaking enterprise. I don't mean to convey that he provides revolutionary insights. Most of his information is things you would figure out in your first year of business. But if you'd rather skip that first year's worth of costly learning experiences, then this book is worth a read.

Own or borrow? Once your business is off the ground, you probably won't be referring back to this resource. That being said, it might be nice to have on hand for the months leading up to and the months after you pull the trigger on starting your business.

I looked and looked ..., but could not find anything simular to this book. So I had to get this one!

It's a good start. I need a lot of help figuring out what I want to do with my web design, and what to expect when I start working as a web designer. So, this book has been GREAT for me. Every bit of it has been helpful. Sure, it's not as detailed as it might be, but I think it is just right for someone like me. I have learned a lot of new stuff, and I feel a little more confident about what to do next. I even went out and bought my own domain name, which I will use to promote my web design! I feel like I now am equipped with enough basic information to take a stab at it.

It would be nice to have a more detailed and comprehensive follow-up book as well. But I have no complaints about this book.

I'm at the halfway point in this book. I'm finding that Smith's experiences parallel my own, which is pretty cool. Some of the topics are only lightly covered and could certainly be explained more, but books are like that.

I will say, I have to agree with many comments here...
If this guy's sites are making him a living, I should be a friggin' millionaire by now! His web sites are very amateurish and his design skills (which he seems to think are good (from the book) ) are minimal AT BEST. [...] Sorry Jim. Your book is decent but your sites are not.

While the author did a good job of putting a large amount of information into a small amount of space, this book may have been more effective if he had gone into greater detail in the areas he covered. The chapter on business plans is helpful, but there are a ton of other books dedicated to the subject. What is most important to people who would like to start a web design business are questions such as "How should I set my rates?", "How do I find contracts?" and "How should I proceed through interviews?". While all of these topics are covered, they aren't covered with quite enough depth to give readers all of the information they need. The basics are great, but what book do you turn to when you need more? Anyhow, it's definitely worth picking up if you're just getting started and need the absolute basics and some pretty good advice, but if you've already started your business and you need some more detailed and specific information, I suggest you keep shopping.