Mark Poppen

Ever since I got involved with The Web Squeeze, I’ve seen dozens of “Where do I start”-questions. Let me give you some pointers on where to start.

1 ) Get a decent business name

Your nickname will not cut it 90% of the time. How would I pick up the phone when “deluzione” is my business name? Potential clients will think I’m a mobster and I can be hired to design their website, or put a horse’s head in their ex’s bed.

The best business names are an actual word or name. Poppen Design (my business), GatorWorks or Point2 Technologies are decent names if you ask me.

It helps if the domain name is available, so keep that in mind as well.

2 ) Hire a book keeper

These people might not be cheap, but they save you a lot of headaches. You can do a lot of finance by yourself. A great invoicing tool is Lessaccounting. It covers proposals, invoices, you can connect your bank account and you can create reports on pretty much anything. You can invite your book keeper to look around in your account, so he or she can do your taxes for you.
It’s also a great tool to find out if you have budget for advertising, or if you can afford a new car.

3 ) Design a solid portfolio

When clients approach you, they’ll want to see a portfolio, so you’ll have to make an impression.

Again the question: Where to start?

• Inspiration: If you don’t have anything in your head yet, visit portfolio sites from other designers. It gives you an idea of what portfolio’s mainly look like, look for things you like, and don’t like, and apply it on your own portfolio. Great examples can be found on CSSMania, CSS Website, CSSLeak etc.
• Some examples of great portfolios:
  iDesign Studios
  Mayhem Studios
  CF Designz
  Chris Powell
  Chris Peters
  Linda Chadbourne
  More here (Velvet Ant blog)
  Even more (Webdesigner wall)
  (Bonus tip: Follow @designfeed on Twitter to get updates on some sweet design inspiration)
• Color scheme: Check out sites like Adobe Kuler and Colourlovers to download color palettes for Photoshop (or whatever you’re designing in). Pick a few colors, and STICK WITH IT.
• Check with others: Once you mocked up a design, don’t go coding just yet. I saves a lot of work if you run it by a bunch of experts first. Don’t be afraid of critique from these guys. They want you to grow.

4 ) Fail…

Wait, what…!? Yes. Failing is after teaching the best method of learning.

“The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you’re down the path of inactivity. You can only stumble if you’re moving. If you don’t have a few failures, you’re not taking enough chances. Nobody can be right all the time, and the big companies didn’t become big by playing it safe.”

President of Coca Cola (taken from “The wizard of ads – Turning words into magic and dreamers into millionaires“)

Trust me, I speak from experience. I’ve been laughed at, been called names, got out of a tanked business, and it brought out the business man in me. I say that quite shameless, because it made me stronger than I was before. So, fail, get up, brush off, take the loss, learn from it, and make it better.
Failing brings me to the following tip:

5 ) Teach…

Like I said at #4: Teaching is the best way of learning. When you try to explain something to someone else, you have to know what you’re talking about. That’s one reason why I write tutorials sometimes, just to remember what I’ve learned before. So, write tutorials (trust me, there are always people that know less about a topic than you) and put them on your own blog(you can easily create one at WordPress.com), explain to co-workers how things work and of course, sign up for The Web Squeeze’s forum, which is a great place to teach AND learn.

6 ) Learn…

You’re never too old to learn. There’s always someone that knows more than you. There’s always new stuff to learn. Keep learning. There are 2 sides to this one:
1: Learn more about 1 specific item. Let’s say e-commerce. Make yourself an expert in the e-commerce field. You will be able to charge more if you know the product and possibilities inside-out.
2: Learn a variety of things. Let’s say you know PHP. Try to learn Ruby or jQuery. If you’re an all round person, you have a bigger chance of getting projects based on the variety of knowledge.

7 ) Be confident

Nothing worse than doing business with someone who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Replace words like “I think” and “maybe” with stronger words like “I can” and “yes”, but make sure you’re not lying. It’s ok to say you don’t know something though. If a client asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, don’t stumble. Just say you don’t know, but you will get back to him/her, AND DO SO! When I get into this situation in the morning, i want to make sure the client has the answer by the end of the day.

8 ) Network

I don’t mean only social networking like Facebook or Twitter, but create an offline network. Go out, meet people. Join a soccer team, a gym, chess club, fishing club or hockey club. Chances are that you meet people that might need your services, and it gets you out of the office.

9 ) Keep clients clients

This might not always apply, but when clients become your friends, it’s harder to say no. Friends might get discounts for just being your friend. Face it, if a client asks for a discount it’s easier to say you can’t, than telling a friend.
I mean, you can play around of golf with your clients, but be sure you know what you’re getting into.

10) Remember to take a break

Starting your own successful business is a lot of hard work, but to make sure you’re not burnt out after a few months of work, remember to take brakes, and try to avoid 16 hour work days.

Tags: Business, startup, Tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Business, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.