Deciding to start a web design or development business is no easy task. It requires a certain degree of diligence, tenacity, and ambition to begin working for yourself. You’ll be faced with some very hard decisions along the way that can impact the success and growth of your entrepreneurial venture.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled our most popular articles and guides into a comprehensive collection. These posts cover every stage of your journey including working as a freelancer, finding and managing clients, and tips for taking your creative endeavor to the next level. If you’re thinking of launching your own design firm, dive into the resources below before you get started.
Good luck!
Starting your freelance journey
Learning the ropes of freelancing
Before you find yourself managing an agency full of designers, you’ll most likely begin your journey as an independent freelancer. If you’ve never done it before, freelancing can be a challenge — you’re now your own boss and in charge of every aspect of running a business, from finding clients to prototyping every design to invoicing (need a hand with prototyping? Learn more about rapid prototyping, and check out some great prototyping tools).
In this section, we’ll share advice and insights for managing the transition and finding success as a freelancer.
Making the transition
Once you've decided that you're ready to go the freelancing route, you'll be presented with many challenges and tasks that will probably be foreign to you. We went out and asked some of our partners how they made the transition — here's some of their advice.
- My First Year as a Freelancer
- How One Sri Lankan Teen Transformed His Life With Freelancing
- 7 Secrets for Balancing Freelance Projects With Your 9 to 5
- 10 Successful Web Designers Share Their Best Advice for Aspiring Freelancers
- 5 Professional Life Hacks to Get Bigger and Better in Your Freelance Design Career
- A Freelancer’s Guide to Taking a Vacation
- Grow Your Freelancer Network: Solve Problems, Get Clients
Getting paid
Understanding what it takes to get paid as a freelancer will help set you up for success. From pricing projects to invoicing clients, these strategies and techniques will help ensure your new business venture is a profitable one.
- Why Freelancers Need to Care About Bookkeeping
- A Web Designer's Guide to Pricing Strategies
- 7 Tips to Calculate Your Freelance Rate
- Why You're Undercharging and How to Fix It
- 8 Quick Tips for a Bulletproof Freelance Contract
- Why You Should Bill 100% Up-Front
- 7 Tactics for Handling Late and Non-Payment
- Writing a Freelance Invoice That Gets You Paid Faster
Tools for freelancers
Even the most organized freelancer needs a little extra help sometimes. There are a ton of tasks you can simplify, and even automate, through the use of software. We've compiled some of our favorite tools that can help any freelancer become more organized and productive.
- 6 of the Best Time Tracking Apps for Designers, Developers, and Agencies
- 12 Free Tools for Remote Developers and Designers
- 9 Tools to Help You Collaborate Effectively as a Freelancer
- 5 Tools for Headache-Free Freelancer Invoicing
- 5 Free CRM Tools That Will Help Keep Your Web Design Business Organized
- 5 Free (and Fun) Online Learning Resources for Designers and Developers
- 5 Essential Freelancer Tools for 2018
Promoting your new venture
Now that you’ve taken the leap into freelance, your next step is to build the foundation that will help you promote your business. Your website is a great place to start growing and marketing your brand. We’ve included some useful tips below for getting the most out of your business’s website and building a strong web design portfolio.
- Freelancing 101: How to Market a Small Business
- What is Personal Branding? A Freelancer’s Guide
- 20 Memorable Web Design Portfolios to Inspire Your Own Website
- The Importance of Investing in Your Own Website
- How to Create a Compelling Web Design Portfolio
- The Ultimate Guide to Getting Powerful Client Testimonials (With 6 Simple Questions)
- How to Write a Web Design Case Study that Lands New Clients
- Why Your Contact Page is the Most Important Part of Your Portfolio Website
- 3 Simple Ways Your Agency Can Use Content Marketing to Build a Better Brand and Find New Clients
Finding and working with clients
Finding new clients
Your business is set up and your website is live — now all you need are some clients.
Finding new clients is one of the greatest challenges you’ll face when starting your web design business. There are countless tactics for landing new contracts, and we’ve included a few below that are guaranteed to help you get started.
- The Counter-Intuitive Approach to Getting Your First Client
- Like Moths to a Flame: How to Attract (and Keep) Your Dream Clients
- 7 Content Ideas That Will Drive Revenue for Your Agency
- How Social Media Can Help You Grow Your Freelance or Agency Business
- 4 Overlooked Tactics for Finding Clients Offline
- Web Design Experts Share Their Advice for Attracting Your Next Client
- Strategies for Successfully Defining and Winning Client Projects
- You’re Nothing Special: How to Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace
- The Ultimate Guide to Finding Web Design Clients
- 5 Tips on Hosting an Epic Shopify Meetup
Working with clients
While finding clients and closing deals is undoubtedly challenging, it’s only the beginning of the battle. The real work comes when you start working on their projects and managing budgets, timelines, and expectations. The articles below cover the why’s, what’s, and how’s of managing client relationships.
- Five Steps to Successful Client Management
- How to Create a Client Intake Process That Saves You Time and Headaches
- The Toughest Client Questions and How to Answer Them
- How to Convince Others of Your Design Direction
- 4 Crucial Steps to Building Strong Client Relationships
- The Web Designer’s Guide to Client Onboarding
- The Toughest Client Questions and How to Answer Them
- How to Create a Client Intake Process That Saves You Time and Headaches
- 4 Quick Ways to Build Trust With a New Client
Project management resources
Project management is a foreign process for many designers and developers, especially those working as freelancers. In order for you to build a strong working relationship with your client, you need to ensure that your project workflow is as smooth as possible, from creating an effective project brief to avoiding scope creep. Luckily, we've compiled several articles to help you build out your project management toolkit.
- Project Budget Management: How to Keep Your Clients Happy
- The Statement of Work: How to Move Past Proposals and Win More Clients
- How to Write a Freelance Contract 101
- 3 Organizational Strategies to Prevent Scope Creep
- A Web Designer's Guide to Project Schedules
- How to Write a Design Brief to Keep Your Web Design Projects on Track
- 4 Ways to Perfect Your Approach to Creative Project Management
Growing your web design or development company
Scaling your business
There might come a point when you feel the need to expand your freelance operation into something bigger. While growing your business is exciting, it’ll involve some hard decisions and serious strategic thinking to transform your one-person operation into a multi-employee business. The following posts offer insights and advice for taking your web design or development business to the next level.
- 10 Pieces of Advice for Scaling Your Web Design Business
- 20 Insightful Business Lessons My Agency Learned in 2016
- From Freelance to Agency: Advice for Growing Your Team
- 8 Actionable Tips for Running a Creative Agency and Getting More Business
- 7 Years of Business. 7 Pieces of Advice. How ‘We Make Websites’ Became #1
- How Pixel Union Diversified Their Service Offerings and 10x’d Their Business
Additional services to offer your clients
Your client relationship doesn’t need to end after their site or app is built. Your path to long-term client relationships is paved by adding complementary services outside of your core offering. You have been hired to reduce a store's bounce rate; but you can offer additional services to continuously improve their conversion rate. The articles below will introduce you to some new opportunities to help expand your services.
- The Profitable Ecommerce Designer
- How to Build Usability Testing Into Everything You Do
- Working On-Retainer: Why the Survival of Your Development Business Rests on Long-Term Clients
- Why, How, and When to Utilize Usability Testing
- How to Choose the Right A/B Testing Strategy for Your Clients
- 5 Simple Google Analytics Reports You Should Create for Every Client
- How to Build an Abandoned Cart Email Sequence
- 6 Social Media Services You Can Offer to Your Clients
- 6 Tips for Crafting Great Web Copy That Converts
Building your business with Shopify
Getting started with Shopify Themes
If you find yourself working with an ecommerce client, Shopify offers an easy-to-use platform for creating ecommerce stores and templates. We’ve compiled the following articles to help you become familiar with Shopify theme design and development.
- An Overview of Liquid: Shopify's Templating Language
- Announcing Shopify Liquid Code Examples for Partners
- The Essential List of Resources for Shopify Theme Developers
- 4 Essential Tips for Building Your First Shopify Theme
- 3 Simple Steps for Setting Up a Local Shopify Theme Development Environment
- Introduction to Shopify Theming for WordPress Theme Developers
- Best Practices for Developing Scalable (and Sustainable) Shopify Themes
- Shopify Liquid Tutorials
Getting started with Shopify Apps
Shopify also offers tons of opportunities for app developers. If you’re looking to build an app for an ecommerce store, or to help Shopify merchants in general, here are some tips for getting started.
- How to Brand Your Shopify App to Earn More in the App Store
- How to Increase User Retention Throughout the App Usage Lifecycle
- How to Get the Most Out of Shopify’s New Design System Polaris
- New Guidelines and Resources for Getting Listed in the Shopify App Store
- How to Generate a Shopify API Token
- How to Improve Your Shopify App's Onboarding Flow
- Expert Advice on How to 10x App Support
- The Essential List of Resources for Shopify App Development
- How to Build a Shopify App in One Week
- Essential App Marketing: 11 Ways to Successfully Promote Your App
Success stories to inspire you
Hundreds of web design and development companies have built and grown their businesses with Shopify. From app developers to ecommerce design specialists, Shopify’s Partner Program provides the resources, support, and technology needed to jumpstart your career in web design. Below we’ve included success stories of some of the designers and developers in the Shopify ecosystem.
- How an India-Based Web Developer Quit His Day Job and Built an Agency
- From Reddit to Redesign: How Fuel Made Increased One Merchant's Revenue by 30%
- 2 Guys. 6 Months. 7 Apps.
- For the Love of Building
- How Bluegg Stepped Out of Their Comfort Zone With A Magento Migration and Increased A Merchant’s Conversion by 40%
- How Shopify Plus Partner Createur Helped Migrate One of Australia’s Top Online Retailers
- How Singapore’s Jumpstart Commerce is Taking Over the World
- Always Listen to Mo: How Mohamed Ali Aguel Became an Ecommerce Education Superstar
- In Search of the American Dream: How Ethercycle Found Success with Shopify
Starting your own web design company is a major undertaking
Whether it’s learning how to freelance, searching for new clients, or growing your business to new heights, this resource roundup is a great starting point. We hope it will help you take the leap and follow your dreams.
Good luck — you’ve got this.
Read more
- How to Use Alternate Templates in Shopify Theme Development
- Raise Prices at Your Agency with this Step-by-Step Approach
- Why Can't We Be Friends: Finding the Balance Between Marketing and Design
- What Keeps All the Devs in Your Yard? How to Retain Technical Talent for Your Agency
- Email Deliverability: 5 Ways to Build a Strong Sender Reputation
- Customer Obsession: Driving Client Decisions the Amazon Way
- Learn from the Shopify Experts Who Won Build A Business
- Data-Rich: Use Holiday Data to Enhance Your Client's Conversion Strategy
- How to grow your business by becoming an omnichannel expert
- Learning How to Code, the Long Way Around