It’s a creative career and you know you’ve got what it takes, so you’ve taken the plunge and launched your business as a website designer. But as an entrepreneur, you know that new businesses often fail. Cutting costs so you can boost profits improves your chances of success. We look at some simple money-saving ideas to help you.
Know Where Your Money Goes; Automate Your Accounting
In any new business venture, success depends on good financial management. Keep careful records, and devote time to updating your accounts every week. Knowing where your money goes is the first step towards saving.
You may need a tax accountant to sort out year-end books, but you’ll save a lot if you can provide complete, correctly formatted data. There are various simple bookkeeping packages and it’s worth subscribing to a low-cost small-business option since it will automate a lot of the reports you’d otherwise have to prepare.
Work From Home or Share an Office
Although saving office rental and working from home may seem like a no-brainer, domestic distractions could eat into your productivity. Sharing an office with another small business could be the answer – or consider using free public “office” space like your local library. If you do work from home, have dedicated workspace that separates work from private life.
Get Wise with Marketing and Networking
As an aspiring website designer, it’s probably safe to assume you know something about electronic marketing. If you don’t, find out how to make the most of low-cost, high-conversion opportunities like social media marketing.
Don’t undervalue the power of networking. Get involved in your local business community. Sooner or later, everyone needs website design.
Go Low Code; Use Templates
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a WordPress template to save time and make website maintenance easier for your client. There are even designers who use Wix to set up simple websites and some of them base their entire business on it. And although developing a custom template may be tempting, there’s seldom any need to do so from scratch for most websites. A few tweaks to an existing one will usually do the trick.
Use Free, High-Quality Images
Clients want eye candy, but not all of them are willing to supply or pay for unique images of suitable quality. Free stock images offer an alternative, but a lot of people worry that they may have a negative effect on search engine rankings. However, with a little judicious editing, a free stock image becomes unique.
Pixabay offers an easily accessible option, but it’s also very widely used, so you might want to investigate some of the less obvious sources of free stock images out there.
Use Time-Saving Tools
Time is money. Luckily, there’s no reason to do things the hard way when someone’s already developed handy design tools for you to use. So you have to come up with a unique template? Try Uncode and slash the time needed for the task. Grab website-ready icons for just about anything, or use proven plugins. Our advice? Plan your toolkit and don’t pay for features you won’t use even if they do look exciting.
Keep Developing Your Skills with Free Courses
These days, there’s no reason to spend a fortune when you want to upskill. If you know how to search, you can find any information you need. There are also tons of free courses you can investigate. To narrow your choices to the most relevant study areas, try considering your current skills as objectively as possible and develop a training plan listing the areas you’d like to improve.
One of the challenging and enjoyable things about website design is that it’s constantly evolving. Stay on the cutting edge, and when you do decide to spend on tools and tech, remember that paying the full price is a last resort. Check out alternatives like coupon websites such as DontPayFull. Your money-saving mentality could save you a fortune.
