kris rutledge's List: Web Development

• Developing a business plan requires a lot of time and energy, but it’s invaluable for one primary reason — it forces you to come to terms with your business idea. You must decide how you will generate income, what your expenses will be, who your competitors are, and most important, WHAT
• • SBA
   
  • Scott Kramer’s articles on A List Apart
   
  • Businessplans.org
   
  • Business Plan Archive
• it has to be registered with the state to ensure no one else is using it
• $100,
• accountant knows business taxes
• Try to trade services! Maybe your accountant wants a new logo, website, or brochure.
• start the business with a partner.
• If there’s one thing to remember from this article, it should be this point. Proper pricing is the one thing that keeps the business alive, on multiple levels. When you charge appropriate amounts for the work, the client will feel like they hired the right people; when you undercharge, the client will know this and take advantage of you by demanding similar rates in the future.
• If you give every client a discount just to get the job (and this will be tempting, especially in the beginning), you'll find yourself working twelve-hour days and not being able to pay the bills. Undercharging hurts the industry in general as well; undercharged clients come to expect and request absurdly low prices.
• Know your firm’s identity so you can project that identity to the customer.
• The visual identity is critical. Get business cards, letterhead, and envelopes. Design a good logo or pay someone to do it if you’re not a design firm.
• Dress the part. When meeting with a client, look like someone who’s come to do business, not some clichéd black-turtleneck half-shaven graphic designer who’s gracing them with your presence half an hour late. It sounds exaggerated, but it happens all too often.
• • Your local Chamber of Commerce
   
  • SCORE
   
  • Attend business seminars. You can learn a lot and do some powerful networking. Many are free.
   
  • Creativepro.com. Full of valuable resources like stock photos, business contracts, freebies and more. $29.99 / year.
   
  • Elance.com. A cause of dissention among many designers for the ridiculously low rates you have to work for, but a good place to find work when the rest of the world has shut its doors.

11 more annotations...

• good tool for understanding html! - kris rutledge on 2009-10-31