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What would you do?

Q

QurazyQuisp

Platinum Member
I currently have a webdesign business, mainly just designing websites for local businesses.

Currently, I am a full time student at Michigan State University ( 16 credit hours), I also have a job where I work about 20 hours a week.

This is where the problem is: Normally, people would love to have a boom in business, but it's killing me. I used to only get business by convincing businesses that they need a web presense, well now, many of the local businesses have seen my work, and see the rate I charge and figure there is no reason why not to, so in the next two months I have about 6-7 company websites to finish. I'm not sure if I can handle all this work on top of what I am currently doing.

I currently charge $25/hour for relatively professional websites. (compared to other offerings in my area, I found the only way to get business at the start was charging this little because of my age)

Now, I've considered hiring my brother to help ease up the work load, but from the looks of it I may be getting even more business in the next few weeks.

Here is the question:
Would you:
A) Raise your rates, hope to make more while pushing away some business. (Thinking around $50/hour)
B) Hire a third person, in addition to my brother.
C) Try to do the work between my brother and I and keep the same rate.
D) Something else.

I know on average, webdesign companies usually charge between $75-$125/hour, and I know that's a big factor why people choose me, but also, my designs seem more professional. Most other local places seem to use Frontpage, where as mine are a combination of Notepad, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

I am not willing to disclose my companies name, web address or any of the work, I see no need for you guys to see this to give me an answer.
 
Maybe raise your rate to 40, and hire your brother (or someone else, depending on how you want to split the money). You'll get more done, and the money you miss out on when you worked individually, you can make up in volume.
 
D) Something Else

Tell new customers the truth. You are swamped and still in school. School is more important now so you have to A) turn them down, B) put them on a waiting list, or C) tell them it may take a while to get their site done.

Then raise your rates for future customers.
 
Just plug away and do it. Turning away business in order to do school work is probably not the best idea. I've done it, and it really hurts your business. I'd do everything that you could possibly do to keep your customers happy. Take one less class per quarter/semester if needed.
Or hire someone for less than you are charging your customers. Then as your business grows, do it again. This is how many businesses get started.
 
I highly suggest you raise your rates. Not only will this push away some of the cheaper clients, but sends off that "you get what you pay for " mentality. So you may lose some customers but you will also gain a few. You will most likely see the same level of income with less work. I tihnk you should charge @ least 60.

But in the end i think you should focus on school first. i am currently in the same position as you, but i am seriously overloaded on both ends. i am turning work away left and right just to get done (i finish in febuary). I think its better to get your education out of the way first before focusing 100 on your business.
 
Originally posted by: Megadeth
Raise your rates.... Are these companies paying you for upkeep as well?
Click to expand...

They pay for upkeep, aswell as hosting.

Just plug away and do it. Turning away business in order to do school work is probably not the best idea. I've done it, and it really hurts your business. I'd do everything that you could possibly do to keep your customers happy. Take one less class per quarter/semester if needed.
Or hire someone for less than you are charging your customers. Then as your business grows, do it again. This is how many businesses get started.
Click to expand...

I have every intention on hiring someone, and more depending on how big it grows. At som point I'd like to just stop doing actual webwork and having employees do it for me.

D) Something Else

Tell new customers the truth. You are swamped and still in school. School is more important now so you have to A) turn them down, B) put them on a waiting list, or C) tell them it may take a while to get their site done.

Then raise your rates for future customers.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to raise the rates for the current customers, or customers I've given a quote to. I've considered turning people down, but if I can get the work done in the time specified, I see no reason to, most of these sites aren't sites that need to be up by a certain time, usually just something that they'd like to have in the near future.
 
Riase your rates until the amount of new business drops to something you can handle. You'll do less work, make more money, and not have to worry about managing other people.
 
Turn away some of the business if you need to, and start raising your rates a little (not, obviously, for anything you have already estimated and agreed to).

Two of my friends from university had a business they started in high school (branding, imaging and web design) that became so popular due to their quality of work that they had to start turning away business like crazy. They mainly did this due to a lack of confidence that they could maintain quality if they tried to expand rapidly (as a 2-person business, only one of them full-time, they were grossing over half a million dollars in their second year, i.e. their billing rates were not cheap and their work is excellent).

Edit - oops, the point is that you are the only one that cares about your business, and if it's something you have any interest in continuing longterm, you may be farther ahead to keep it small right now so you can still oversee everything, then when you have the time to devote to expanding properly, you will still have the reputation you deserve.
 
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