If you’re serious about owning a web design business, you must do it legally. That means getting a business license. Every state and locality varies on how a business license is obtained, and the costs involved. I’ll bet most places are cheaper than what I’m paying, however.

Keep in mind, I’m in California, a very regulation-controlled state. So your state may not have requirements like what I’m about to describe.

When I started my web design business I had to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement at the county clerk’s office. That cost a mere ten dollars, and I added a second business name for a few dollars more. It got expensive at the next step, however. The Fictitious Business Name Statement had to be published several times in a local newspaper. I checked around and decided to have the county-wide weekly paper publish this for me, and it cost fifty-three dollars.

Total cost so far: $65

Next I had to get a home use permit. Since I was a renter, I had to get my landlady to sign a statement giving her permission, and that had to be notarized. The notary public cost ten dollars, and the home use permit was fifty dollars.

Total cost so far: $125

The final step was to take all my paperwork to the county courthouse where the local county tax collector took my fee – sixty-six dollars for the year. In return I got a nice piece of paper to hang in my office, saying my business is legally licensed in this county.

Total cost so far: $191

Of course the sixty-six dollar fee repeats every year – the others don’t. I prefer the one-time-only fees. I still have a business license because though I’m no longer doing web design for others, I’m earning money through advertising on several sites I own.

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I’ve checked business license fees in many other localities – and never find them to be as much as I’m paying here in Siskiyou County. It is enough to make your blood boil, especially when a huge business like Walmart can operate on the same sixty-six dollar business license fee that I’m having to pay every year.

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Speaking of blood boiling. Imagine how a licensed business owner feels when someone comes into their town advertising to do the same job, when that other person isn’t licensed.

There are lots of people saying they will work as web designers, who aren’t licensed, and I’m here to tell you, it isn’t right, and if you try it, you’re likely to get bad vibes from people who are doing things the legal way. Personally, I don’t make snitch calls to report people like this, but it does upset me and make me angry when someone says he’s a web designer, but doesn’t take the time to set up the business legally. I’m sure web designers in other areas of this country feel the same way.

So if you’re going into business, play fair, and play by the rules. Get your business license so you can hold your head high and earn the respect that a business owner deserves.

There’s a lot of money to be made in doing web site redesigns. If you can convince a business owner that their site is hopelessly out of date, or that the business will make more money on the internet with improvements you can make, plenty of them will take you up on it.

On the other hand, many are content to stay in the past, using an unprofessional site some friend set up for them years ago. So don’t worry about it if you get a ‘no’ the first time you ask. Chances are that if the person has an unprofessional web site design for their business, the business owner has no web savvy and not much understanding of what makes a site look professional. Your job will be to enlighten this person so that he understands that his site design is interfering with the respectability of his business.

Sometimes it helps to have a new design idea at hand when you approach a business owner. If you’re going to talk to the business owner in person about their web site, you might want to draw up a short proposal showing you’re putting time and effort into a vision of what their site could be. Along with that, a binder with printouts of your portfolio of design ideas could be useful. Put each design printout in a clear plastic page protector and let your prospective clients sift through them, imagining what their web site could look like if only they hired a professional designer.

Let the business owners whose web sites you want to redesign see the difference between unprofessional web site work, and what you can do for them. Let your proposal, which you’ll give to them, sit on their desk and gnaw at their subconscious. Many of them will think it over each time they glance at your proposal, and eventually see things your way.

Sales is one of the most important aspects of your work as a web designer. Give plenty of time and thought to this vital activity. Be prepared. Your business will prosper if you make sales presentations organized and appealing.

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This topic came to mind because I just redesigned or designed nine web sites in the past two months – all of them owned by me. (At this time I no longer do web design projects for others.) What a huge job! I’m delighted to say I’m finished with that task and ready to spend more time talking about web design – on this blog.

Someone recently emailed to ask how I billed people. I remember in the early days of my business, I had the same question. I’d never owned a business before and had no idea how to create an invoice.

And then came that fateful day when someone said they would pay me as soon as they had the bill.

“What bill?” was my first thought. And I scrambled to look for sample service invoices on the internet.

I don’t remember where I came up with this sample but I’m sure it isn’t my original creation. I’m sorry I can’t give credit to my source. It may have been one of my word processing programs.

Here’s a link to get a Word.Doc copy of the invoice I used. I’ve never had a client complain about it and can testify that it works.

Here’s what it looks like when filled out:

For invoice numbers, I developed a method. I gave each client a personal identification number, then added three digits to indicate which invoice this was. For example if ABC Construction was my customer number 43 and this was the seventh time I’d billed them, the invoice number was 043007.

Often I exported this invoice as a .pdf file and attached it to email. Alternatively I’ve sent them by mail or delivered them in person.

Keeping track of the time is another issue! I will put some information here soon about the time-tracking software I used to compute the amount I charged for hourly contracts.

It was the winter of 2001-2002. I was living right here in Happy Camp – a tiny town of about 1200 souls in the middle of the Klamath National Forest, about 70 miles from the rest of civilization. I desperately wanted to work from my home so I could be there with my two youngest children who were 11 and 12 at the time. I didn’t have a clue as to how I should earn money as a stay-at-home mom, but felt I had to do something to supplement our income.

A friend nearby, Judy, called one day and told me a workshop on starting a small business was about to be offered in our town. She worried that the event would be canceled if enough people didn’t show up.

Wanting to be a good friend, and slightly intrigued by the topic, I volunteered. “I’ll do it, Judy; I’ll go with you.” I thought it was a one or two day workshop.

The following evening at 6 pm I sat in the classroom – a small portable room behind the local elementary school. It was there I discovered I’d just volunteered for a nine-week video-conferenced class offered by College of the Siskiyous in Weed California – a college about 100 miles away. The instructor, Chris, was an employee of JEDI – the Jefferson Economic Development Institute.

Nine weeks! That was a lot more than I’d bargained for. And the class met twice weekly!

I weighed my options. Should I spend so many hours away from home, commit myself to the effort needed for success in a college class, and totally dedicate myself to it? Or should I flake out and go back to my quiet uninvolved life?

Besides Judy and I, there was one other student – a newcomer to town who wanted to open a clothing distribution website. Judy’s business was writing – she already had a part time job writing columns for a county-wide newspaper. And as for me – I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew I needed to do something. Silently I decided to take the class along with Judy and our new acquaintance, Erik.

The class involved learning all the steps for writing a business plan including cash flow projections and other simple accounting procedures. But I didn’t know that then. We started at the beginning – with simple goal setting.

We were joined via video-conferencing to students in three other Siskiyou County locations. There were about six students in Yreka (population about 7000) and maybe twenty at the main campus in Weed (a much smaller town near Mt. Shasta). And in a tiny town in the north-west corner of our county, Tulelake, there were three other students. Many of the students had businesses already. Others had definite plans about what they wanted to do. And a few were like me: clueless, but willing.

I survived the nine weeks! I got through the class and at the end we were given certificates with our business names on them. I still was unsure what business idea to pursue but the instructor was so enthusiastic with my idea of a web design business, she put “KlamathDesign.Com” on the certificate. And that did it for me. Since she thought I could create a successful web design business, I decided to do it.

I purchased this domain name, and struggled to come up with a site design. I redesigned it three times before I was satisfied. And before I could officially open the business, I got a call from a local business owner who wanted to hire me for her site maintenance projects!

I’m convinced that almost anyone with web design skills can learn to offer their talents to the public. This blog will reveal all the lessons I learned in my journey to becoming a well-paid web designer. I will not only tell you what worked well for me, I’ll reveal my most painful and frustrating mistakes.

If you’re considering a career in web design, this will be a journey worth taking. And if you want to read this blog to glean the web design business tips I have to share, you’re welcome here as well. And as for you who just want to laugh at all my mistakes, go ahead. I’m writing this blog for entertainment as well as for sharing what I’ve learned.

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More stories of my start-up web design business efforts will appear here in days to come.