In this session of the Business of Web Design, I teach you a few tricks that you can use to get an glimpse into the character of people you deal with.

This may seem like a strange thing to talk about in a business course, but it is actually very important because who you deal with, will have a huge impact on the success or failure of your web design business.

My four tips to judging character:

1. Look for lies or exaggerations.
2. Pay attention to how they treat other people.
3. Trust your first impressions.
4. Look at what they’ve done in the past.

Listen the to podcast for all the details: Judging Character.

In this podcast, I go over a bunch of details about how to collect from and bill clients.

… And a bunch of other stuff too.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

… Just in case your wondering why you should care, lazy clients can turn into a big pain in the butt and can cost you time and money. Not cool.

Managing Lazy Clients:

Thanks for listening.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

In this session of the Business of Web Design, I go over what you need to have in a typical web design contract.

There are important elements that you must include to avoid problems down the road, things like:

• Payment terms.
• Delivery dates.
• Project specifics: how many pages, functionality etc…

… and a whole lot more.

Thought the contract is there to protect you from any problems, whether intentional or not, you should never get into any business arrangement with people you don’t trust.

To learn more, you have to listen to the session.

The Web Design Contract

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

It contains enough detail to give the prospective client a general idea of what you would be delivering, but it leaves out the specifics that you would later detail in the actual web design contract.

Initial proposal contains:

• Basic page counts.
• Estimated total cost.
• What you charge per hour – all clients seem to want to know this.
• Major functionality – PHP, Flash etc …
• Proposed delivery dates.
• Payment terms.

Check out the session for details:

For many though, since they are just starting out, they may have no commercial work to show – no worries, I provide you with a couple of strategies to make up for that.

Finally, I also get into how you can land your very first web design client.

In this session I go over what you need to do in terms of creating a brand for your web design business. If you don’t what I mean by ‘brand’, I’m just talking about the corporate identity for your new business. So we are talking about your business website, business cards etc…

Besides, pointing out what you need to do, I also get into some detail as to how you can go about doing it. As usual, I take a simple and practical approach based on my 17-18 years experience in small business.

… I must be getting old!

Branding your web design business:

As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

The great news is, that you don’t need hardly any money at all, so just about everyone can get in!

I also get into a few other business issues that I know a lot of people will find useful.

…You’re going to have to listen to the podcast to get the details!

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• Incorporation

Besides learning about the basic differences between these business types, I get into why you might want to use one type over an another … we look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

The following session answers a common question that has been put to me many times:

What hardware and software do you need to run a web design business? Do you need to upgrade to ‘industrial strength’ tools?

I also touch on a few other things that I know many of you will find interesting.

Hardware and software used in professional web design:

Comments or questions?

If you have any comments or questions, please post them here and I will do my best to answer. … I might even create a podcast out of it!

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com