Small business idea question...please answer?

Question

I have experience designing websites in html/css and want to do that full time. I am relocating to a town that only has one main design company. They charge 10 times as much as I usually do, but I have been told that I undercharge and that gives my services an unexperienced feel. I have done over 300 websites for non-profit companies in my area. With all the competition, should I raise my prices ($25.00/page or $500.00/project) to give a more "professional" impression? I need to get more jobs soon so that I can make a larger down payment on the house. I am in the process of learning PHP/SQL which some businesses like, but my ideal client is wanting a personal page, informational page, etc. That is what I usually do for people.

Can this business work or should I just give up now? I want to get more Internet based clients to replace the ones I will lose when I move.

Answer 1

As a self employed webmaster I feel your pain. I have struggled for years to get the recognition as a professional that can compete with the hundreds of other companies in my city.

I have chosed to take the upsell and out service approach to retaining and serving the clients I have and gaining new ones.

What I mean is, the current client base you have now can be upsold on additional services. The service every website needs is SEO because lets face it, since the search engine algorithms change every month, SEO is a constant challenge to keep the websites the most relevant to the search engines. I have chosen to keep my prices low and at a fair rate but to offer the upsell of additional search engine optimization.

If you keep your rates lower but at a fair rate for the amount of work you do, then offer more personalized service for your customers. Most people who spend money on their websites want to know how they are doing, what kind of traffic they get, what pages are being clicked on. A free way of offering web traffic services is to create a google analytics account for your customers website. This can help you show that you can provide better service because you can proactively give them periodic web traffic updates, etc.

Keeping the customers you have and getting them to buy additional services is the best way to increase your profit in webmastering. Make sure you provide those services at the highest level, you are responsive to all of their needs and requests, and you are proactive to newer technologies and methods of making their website the most effective it can be.

Answer 2

no! don't give up! you can under cut the big company by 10% or more, still raise your rates and do just fine. i usually sell my products based on what the big box stores are charging. if they want $10, $9, or $5, i see what i have to pay, mark it up and still charges less than $5, if I can, if not, i'm still in the running for up to $10. then it becomes their choice. you can do this. (use the 300 sites as reference.)
for services, you have no outgo. now is the time to get paid what you deserve. you can do this.
you go operphantom2003.
good luck!!