If you were investing $50K into your design firm what would you do?
Alright so here is my scenario...I've been designing web sites on the side for years. A friend of mine recently approached me with the idea of starting a full fledged web development firm. He is willing to put up $50,000+ for initial advertising etc etc. He also is really into the idea of getting us a small store front office for meeting with clients etc.
My question to the board is if you were investing that much money where would you advertise? Have you guys had a lot of success with AdWords for your web design sites? Is the office a waste of money? As far as I am concerned everything can be done from home but I do understand for meeting with clients it would be nice.
First off, I would *buy* all legitimate software and hardware and chuck out any rips that I was using. Then I would focus on some market research; I would want to make sure there is a market for my product (you say you have been designing for years, so you may already have the data you need).
Advertising would come next. I would go for my local newspaper or mayby a small magazine with an appropriate readership (mayby a local business magazine, directory, or yearbook). It can be surprisingly cheap to place relatively small ad's in a magazine that has a readership of about 20,000 or so.
There is alot more to this (obviously), and I suggest you get some reading done to determine whats best for your business in your area.
And don't waste the cash on an office until the clients are rolling in. Meetings at your local coffee house or restaurant will do just fine for a while. You pick up the tab on coffee and breakfast. You gotta have a lot of meetings like that b4 it adds up to one months rent, electricity, phone etc.
50 grand will be gone b4 u know it.
Best of luck on your venture. It should be exciting for you.
Have professionals refine your website design services and legal documents. - Lawyer , Copyrighter, marketing specilist, Accountant,
Key is "Search engine Optimziation" Hire a good Marketing company that will target long term targeted traffic.
Short term prob use PPC for instant traffic.
But I can't emphasize enough.. SEO. It will have traffic coming for many years to come and should be one up front fee.
Visit www.seo-guy.com and say Intensity sent you!
2. As other said, it is not neccessary to have an office , most of your clients may be from other site, so for your region clients better meet them in a coffee shop or resturants .
3. Advertising:
Use overture and google alone, donot waste your money in advertising in other sites.
Hire some designers, ( on contract basis)
That's all .
But with those money in hand i would do some other firm.
Thank you guys I agree with everything you said. An office is a complete waste of money unless we were pulling in $50,000 jobs every week and had a staff of 10 guys.
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