Starting a WP Dev Business from my Home Office

For number 2, the best way to find new clients is to network and to start now. Get some cards printed, go to as many local business networking events you can and get to know other local professionals. Often someone you meet this week won't contact you until 6 months or a year down the road, so its good to start building those connections now.

Get a website (one that you made yourself obviously) and keep it up to date with testimonials and a portfolio. If you don't already have a solid Twitter presence, start an account and follow and engage with relevant people. Showcase your knowledge by answering other people's questions or posting tips. If you have time, start a blog on your site and post to it consistently. Build an email list with people that like reading your tips and advice for their business. Stay top of mind as an expert and as someone willing to help out. When the time comes that they need a site, you will be the first they call.

My advice on pricing is always err on the side of pricing too high instead of too low. Chances are you don't realize what you are worth right now, and pricing too low will make people think you don't know what you are doing or offer low-quality work.

Thanks Leah,

That is a great answer and I will start to employ each one immediately. If there are any methods to start generating immediate income that would also be great. I realize that it takes time to build a business, but I'm wondering if anyone has tips on generating immediate business?

I have heard a suggested price of around $300 for a simple 3 page WP site. Does that sound about right? I realize there is SEO, Plug Ins of various types, content, logo's, headers and lots of other add ons, but I am talking of a simple site that I can build other sales from on the back end.

Is Craigs List a good place to find business? Are their lead generation tools? I would like to be able to start generating perhaps one of these sites every day or two. 10 + site per month at least. Can this be quickly done?

Is there any place I might find a reliable price list for various services?

Thanks for your help Leah and anyone else that can provide some sage advice.

Tom

Setting a price on yourself can be challenging. What I did was consider what I would like to reasonably make per month and then divide that by a reasonable number of hours you intend to work. Based on your goal of $3000 per month, If you want to work 40 hour work weeks then that means you are only really charging about $18-$19 per hour...

That seems low to me, especially when you start factoring your overhead costs: computer, software, electricity, learning materials, office supplies... etc.

Wow Brendan, that is a fantastic way to look at it. the $3000 per month is a minimum to pay my daughters tuition and make sure I'm able to meet that goal, so I want to get that going asap. However I can use your formula to scale up. That is a great insight. Thank You! I am really having a great time with these tutorials and am really impressed by the help I'm getting in this forum. I will definitely offer the same type of help to others as I grow.

You're right, that is too low. I will rethink how to price this but obviously I can tinker with it as I start to better realize how much time certain aspects will take. Thanks again.

Tom Cooper First of all Congratulations on your Future Self.

I believe Leah and Brendan have made some valid points so far. I also wanted to let you know that I am not in the Web Design or Web Development business but more here to learn and implement in my own Business Websites. So I am going to give you Business Perspective because I believe you are starting with the wrong questions and should think about these questions:

1. What are my Strengths & Skills I have that I have achieved from my Work Experiences that can be useful and relatable to creating web design business. (I asking this because we do not know what your current occupation is and previous jobs.)

2. Don't Fish the Ocean- Fish the Pond… Ask yourself what and who at the end of the day would be your Ideal Client because you can provide a Value & Solution that can set you apart based on potential Q1 or targeted market.

3. Niche the B*tch ( just humor folks: relating to #2) maybe you can just started with the people you know in your neighborhood / community area. For example: local retail shops, restaurants or service providers make list of them all google & visit their websites to see if they are need of an update or better lack one.

4. Look at all others that are offering Web Design and Development in your local market to evaluate what they offer and possible rates. I agree with the above that $300 way to low and I think people websites will have at least 5 pages (1. Home, 2. About/Team, 3. Services/Product, 4. Blog/News, 5. Contact)

5. Make Sure Your Website reflects what you are Selling. I don't know how many times I have seen post tutorials or video tutorials on the experts of web design and development to only find their site Looks Like Garbage or Just a splash page. They have immediately lose credibility with me because I want to at minimal see your portfolio of clients work with links to the live site and I want to learn more about your services/you.

Finally, maybe you can look at some things like Microlancer.com / freelancer.com among some other web design job listing sites for either complete websites or someone just needing some tweaks. Additional their are some great videos on this topic at wordpress.tv here just most recent ex: http://wordpress.tv/2013/12/27/chris-ford-creating-an-agile-wordpress-design-process/

Although it will be challenging to get to the point that you will be making a full-time income, I do believe you are doing the right thing and that Wordpress is a good choice to get started. In addition to the great advice given above, I would advise the following:

Develop a personal "toolkit" for creating custom site features. The toolkit will contain design and plugin code that you can use many times over with minimal additional customization. The key to success is to be able to offer your services at a low price, but still be able to make enough money to pay yourself. If you are reinventing the wheel with every job, it is unlikely you will succeed.

Hi Aaron,

Can you extrapolate a bit on what the toolkit might consist of? Any URLs that might be useful? I'm fine if you have some affiliate links, as long as the product has value I would be happy to see you make some money on it.

Sorry for some reason my comment posted 3 times not attentional

Thanks Julian,it is always a great help to find new resources. I appreciate it.