The second section in your marketing plan will be a series of written statements on how each of your core services will benefit your potential clients. It is important to write this out so that you’ll have a strong understanding of exactly how your business will help people. Later, when you’re involved in selling, you’ll find these “talking points” helpful.

One marketing plan I wrote had these statements, which I reprint here as examples:

Example One - Web Development Consultant: “My consultations help small business owners learn to make the most of their site on the Internet.”

Example Two - Web Hosting: “My web hosting provides excellent customer service 24/7 for small business owners seeking a professional Internet presence.”

Example Three - Template Developer: “My blog and content management system templates provide an easy and accessible way to make sites look professional and well organized. Some templates will be unique, one-of-a-kind, artist-created works of art while others will be created with a stricter budget in mind. The blogs will be fully loaded with helpful plugins including automatic backups, and will be ready to use as I’ll offer to do template installation for my clients.”

So there you have it.
1. Choose your Core Services - write them down!
2. Write down exactly how each core service will benefit your clients.

To create a marketing plan for your web design business, you first need to decide what you’ll be offering. What core service offerings will be available?

When I started my web design business I was too optimistic. I thought I could offer everything. I thought that offering a variety of services would bring in more clients. So my original site offered graphic design, web design, web maintenance, internet research, desktop publishing, SEO, logo design, photography, press releases, and publicity planning. I’m really surprised I didn’t include content writing on that list!

Well, experience showed me that (1) web design clients are not hard to get, and (2) I can’t do everything. What I ended up doing was graphic design, web maintenance, and web design, with some SEO and content writing work tossed in on the side.

My recommendation for one-person home-based web design business owners, is to specialize in just a few things. Be the expert. Train yourself well and then take on only the jobs you’d be best at. Yes, you’ll have to prepare yourself to turn some people down. In particular, if it seems the client wants you to do something you’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable with, you can save yourself a lot of stress by saying NO. You’ll find that you earn more and work with a happier state of mind when you choose your projects wisely and turn away the rest.

Of course if you’re starting a large web design firm that will hire specialists in logo design, SEO, graphic design, content writing, and more, you can advertise and get jobs in all those categories. But for the one-person business, it would be a bit too much.

So evaluate your talents and decide exactly what your core service offerings will be. You might also decide now that you’re going to specialize in websites only for horse owners or artists, or musicians.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1 - Graphic Designer: If you’re an outstanding artist you might want to advertise your images to web design business owners. Let them know your artistic talents are available for their web design projects. They in turn will tell their customers that these amazing graphics are available (for a greater price) and you’ll probably find you have more work than you can reasonably deal with.

Example 2 - PHP specialist: If you know how to code PHP you’re bound to be in demand. You can offer your talents to web designers and to the public, with your PHP web design website. You might be able to make a business doing PHP only without dealing with the web design or graphics end of the business by working with a few talented web designers who will sub-contract work to you.

Example 3 - Flash specialist: If you’re good at creating Flash sites, this is a specialty that could be turned into a business, again without delving into the intricacies of design, SEO, and content writing.

Example 4 - HTML/XHTML/CSS specialist: If you’re like me, and are basically good at HTML, XHTML, and CSS, then make those your core products. If your customers ask you to include SEO and content writing skills in a job, you can add these to your contract if you feel competent to complete the tasks well.

Example 5 - CMS specialist: Some web designers specialize in setting up content management systems (CMS) and installing themes. You might advertise WordPress setup, Drupal setup, or whatever you’re really good at.

Whatever else you decide, remember never to offer to do something you are not sufficiently trained to do. You need to be totally confident in your skills. Make sure, before you start your business, to have your education (or self-education) complete and UP TO DATE. Well, the truth is, your web design education is never totally complete, because you’re always going to be acquiring new skills. The thing I’m trying to get at here is that you should be entirely competent to do whatever it is you’re offering as a core service.

Once you know what your specific core service offerings will be, you’ll be ready for part two on creating a marketing plan for your web design business.

I closed up shop here last year after getting a “day job” as a cook in a nearby restaurant. Though I enjoyed the work, that job has ended and I’m back, ready to prosper through working from my home. The Internet is a wonderful tool for generating income, and I know that if I put my heart into it, the money will come.

Recently someone living in a foreign country expressed a desire to earn money with her writing skills. I told her:

“Since you live in a foreign country, you could probably make lots of money there by offering your skills with English locally.

I worked as a web designer for several years and got way more job offers than I could handle, and I live in a tiny town of only 1200 people, and most of my jobs were local! Why not start a small business, advertise your skills a bit, and see what comes of it? With my web design, I actually did get content writing and SEO jobs too though that wasn’t specifically what I advertised about.

The jobs are out there. Open the door and don’t be shocked if you’re inundated with requests for your help!”

The last time I posted was July 11. That night a lighting storm traveled through the Klamath National Forest setting off dozens of fires. We had over 1000 lightning strikes and started the next day with about 35 fires.

Many of them are still burning.

One fire was less than a mile from my home. The Little Grider Fire was a mass of bright flames at night, and an angry brown cloud of smoke during the daytime hours. It was on the hill right next to the wooded hill I live on. I thought I would be evacuated, and had to pack all my valuables. My computer was one of the valuable things I wanted to save, so out of the house it went. I sure missed it.

Packing up made me think of backing up important data. Fortunately I had a lot of my great stuff already backed up, and plenty of time to find a safer place for the computer itself. But what if I hadn’t? What if my evacuation had to be done within ten minutes after waking up in the middle of the night? The local deputy kept giving us this possible scenario - I didn’t make it up. What then?

When writing novels, I got into the habit of sending them to myself at my Gmail account. There’s plenty of storage space and Google seems like a very trusty, reliable place to deposit information. There are other options of course, and emailing them to several similar sites might be better. For a while I uploaded all my novels to a Yahoo Briefcase account.

But sites sometimes fail or go out of business - for example, the impending demise of personal Yahoo photo galleries. I recently got a notification to get all my pictures out before they closed the doors forever. That surprised me because I’d completely forgotten I had anything there.

Some sites are created to serve as backup portals. For a while I had the software for using Mozy.Com on my computer here. I never got to use it, however, because I’m on dial-up and you need a better connection to make use of the site. There are other similar online services. A Google search will help you find them.

A lot of people would take umbrage at having all their data on someone else’s site anyhow.

My best solution is an external hard drive. I recently purchased a small 160-gig Maxtor 3200. It was easy to install. In fact, I simply connected the cords, and it installed itself on my computer. I transferred all my web design files there. Now if I have to leave suddenly, I can easily unplug the external hard drive and carry it with me. It stores all my client records, client sites, my personal sites, financial records, and everything else connected with my web design business, plus hundreds of digital photographs and my collection of novels and other things I wrote.

I still think it is best to have all these things backed up elsewhere, stored on a remote site. You could create zip files and upload them to your web design site, or could email them to yourself at Gmail like I’ve done. Or use one of the online backup services.

Another option is to burn vital information to a CD which could be stored in a fireproof safe, in your car, or even in a bank safe deposit box downtown. I find that to be too time consuming, but you might like it best.

This is all to say that if you don’t have a back-up strategy, perhaps you should have one. It could save your business from an information blackout that would be very difficult to recover from.