Small business websites
After getting laid off of my first web dev job I decided to start my own business developing and designing websites independently. In reality, it was just me freelancing with a good friend handling all of the sales and client communication for me (I'm not exactly a "people-person").
Our goal was to get our name out locally and start helping smaller businesses get a solid website up to represent themselves online.
There are so many of these businesses that have websites littered with inconsistencies and straight up broken features. We wanted to reach out, give them a fair price, good customer service, and leave them with a solid website that can last.
I'm getting a bit sales-pitchy - My goal with this post is not to share my "10 tips for getting small business clients" or anything like that.
Rather, I wanted to share an extremely under-served market that would be a great fit for any newer web developers trying to get their feet wet.
Squarespace, wix, etc,.
Basically every client we ever had could have just taken the time to sit down and create a simple website with Squarespace, Wix, or your website builder of choice.
In-fact, we recommended this - A LOT. Most businesses really just need a good-enough, passable, static website that explains who they are and what they do.
But, most small-business owners are extremely busy people, and although they might technically have the time available - They simply want to pay someone to take care of it for them and you're likely not going to convince them otherwise.
Even the most tech-savvy clients we've had just wanted to offload this work and know it was being done.
This is the main reason I wanted to post this, in-case any younger developer out their, or anyone considering getting into web dev happens to stumble across this:
There are so, so many small business-owners who will pay you to make their simple static site for them - Regardless of the tech stack you use.
Never developed a website from scratch? Don't know the ins-and-outs of html/javascript/css? You can still provide them a good service and solid website even with Wix or Squarespace, and they will be extremely thankful for your work.
I don't know how other web developers would feel about this sentiment.
Obviously there are tradeoffs to using something like Wix, but I believe that for someone looking to get into development, starting with one of these online website builders could be an amazing way to begin their journey - And, in the process, get some real-world experience.
I feel like this might leave a bad taste in more experienced developers mouths - But when it comes to a skill as daunting and with as much depth as programming - Having an extremely user-friendly and straightforward place to start can be the difference between someone starting a new career that they love, and never taking the first step because they are so intimidated.
Communication
In our few years of business, we never heard a single positive thing said about web developers from our clients.
This could very-well be just my personal, skewed experience - But most developers in the small-business price-point are shady, flaky, and often straight up scam their clients.
It would be a great service not only to them, but to the internet as a whole if there were more legitimate people creating quality websites for these businesses.
Communication and responsiveness is one of, if not the most important thing, in my opinion, when working freelance. I know this can be a huge hurdle for some people, myself included.
I was lucky enough that me and my friend were both in the right place at the right time, and that he was willing to pursue this with me. But most people won't be able to hide in their comfort zone like I did, and will have to push themselves a bit to get things going.
Like I said, I really, truly understand how difficult that can be - But, if it helps, know that you will run into a lot of amazing people and likely be as fulfilled as I was making these websites. A lot of my direct interactions with clients gave me a sense that I was actually helping someone out, that I was helping relieve someone of a bit of stress that has been hanging over them for months, or usually years.
Where I'm At
When developing these websites I used a blank Wordpress theme and would set our clients up with their own hosting account to bill them directly.
Believe it or not, if you don't use any plugins with Wordpress it can actually be a pretty great experience - Especially if there are some small fields that the client might need to update somewhat frequently.
Over time I enjoyed the process of designing and developing these websites less-and-less, and have since stopped. I could go on for a while about all of the things I learned and what I would do differently.
There are definitely a lot of downsides to freelancing in general and specifically when working on smaller projects - However, it was extremely fulfilling - Even though it's just a small thing, I did feel like I was doing something positive with my time, and it allowed me to be extremely creative.
I simply used Wordpress with a blank theme because it was the most natural and productive workflow for me. I would design our websites in Adobe XD, then write all of the elements and styles and interactivity in php/css/js. BUT - someone could just as easily do this with an online website builder, and be just as successful as any other small business web dev while providing a great service for their clients.
I'm not the most experienced developer, I'm not trying to prop myself up as an expert in the field or anything - I just wanted to share my experience - If I hadn't already gotten into programming at a younger age, I would've loved to be able to dig into web development by building simple websites for local businesses, and I believe there's a vast, underserved market for just that.
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