Can I start a web design business in high school?

[thesarklolord]

I am a high school student, and I really want to make some money to help my family and myself. I would go the normal route and try to get a day job while in school or work during the summer, but I attend a boarding school and so a day job is not an option. I want to begin working now and not limit myself to the summer. My main, and most marketable, skill is my programming ability, so I think I could do well with web design. Because of my age, I'm ineligible for a number of freelance sites, so here's my question: Can I start a web design business from the dorm, or is this something that requires face-to-face contact with clients? Is it even reasonable or legal to try something like this at my age? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bonus question: Should I be paying for/setting up my client's hosting/domain name or should I just design the website (html files, resources, etc) and leave finding/paying for a domain and hosting to them?

Startup steps that I have plenned so far are:
1. Design my own website to show to potential clients
2. Find a couple of jobs, offer them for a lower than usual price or free to build up a portfolio
3. Add those sites to my portfolio, ask for referrals, up price, get more clients
4. Continue?

[Wozcreative]

Chances are you are not going to have many clients who know anything about hosting. You'll have to do the research yourself and find the best hosting company for what they need. You can get them to pay for it and set up their own account once you find one that fits the bill.

To answer your questions: 1 - 4: Yes.

I don't know your age but if your in high school you are eligible to work. You may need to setup a business though with an accountant. You can definitely setup a business in your dorm as a working area but probably may be illegal to claim that as a business location. (You'll have to consult an accountant for this). Your question about face to face or no face to face depends on your own experience. If you know how to get information from a client successfully through email and phone then theres no need for face to face.

You mentioned your a programmer though... do you have any design experience? Programmers usually do very poor in the design department unless they've had education in that (self taught for years or in school).

[Brian Altenhofel]

Programmers usually do very poor in the design department unless they've had education in that (self taught for years or in school).

As a developer, I totally concur with this opinion. I can hack my way around Photoshop, but someone whose mind works the way a designer's mind does can make something 100x better in half the time. The only reason I sacrificed my first born's first born to buy Photoshop was because I was starting to get some PSDs that opened in the wrong colors and such in Gimp (full-service marketing firm, so different color settings for print? I dunno).

To solve that issue, I have a list of designers that I follow (and seem like the type I would want to work with if I haven't worked with them before). I regularly check their portfolios and tag their work in a database that I keep. Then I have a questionnaire that I give my clients that want design work done that contains the same questions designers typically ask. Then I take those answers, run a query against the database, and score the possible designers on how likely they would be a good fit. Then I subcontract the work to the most appropriate designer available within the client's timeframe; most of the time the designer doesn't interface directly with the client - but for that to work you have to be good at translation and distillation of what the client really wants. Some are subcontracted purely hourly where I've got a markup on their rate, some use "project" billing where I mark it up a bit, and I've worked with a couple that said "100% up front and you've got my full undivided attention the entire week whether it takes 10 hours or 100 hours" (and I like those arrangements because it eliminates the drag of context switching).

I'm regularly the one that's subcontracted, too. Most of my arrangements on either side include non-disclosure agreements or work-for-hire agreements. I did make a mistake of letting a 6-month NDA-bound near full time contract extend to 20 months, but I learned from that (don't fill up 100% of your time with work that you can't show). Many people are afraid of NDAs, but ironically I get the most referrals from clients that I've worked with under NDA.

For starting out, I started at ~2x the local bottom rate and half the local market rate. I've been doing this full time almost four years, and now I'm well above the market rate. About half of my bottom-line presentations result in a deer-in-the-headlights look, but I still close over 90% of them. The other half just say "let's get started". But web design/development bottom-line prices are all over the charts. To give you an example, I've talked with one of each of those this week. One my bid was 3x what their other bids were; the other my bid was under 1/3 what they had already paid for something they were unhappy with. (Neither of these were e-commerce - my specialty). The first one you could hear stop breathing on the phone, the second one said "let me get you the info to take everything over now". One of my big e-commerce projects was another "what do you need to start" project, though I found out later that I was the highest bidder by a long shot.

By the way, the bottom rate in my area is people who come out of the vo-tech system having taken design courses but nothing related to business. Typically, they've only worked for minimum wage (if they've even held a job), so they think that $15-$20/hr as an independent contractor is a lot of money, especially since these programs advertise the potential employee salaries to range from $10-$30/hr (WTF???). When starting out, my biggest selling point for charging double (or more) what the formally educated charged was simply "I'll still be in business next year".

Hardest thing about working for yourself, though, is when you go a month (or perhaps three consecutive months) with relatively no income.

[David Hunter]

Anyone can start a business at any age (Ever watch Shark Tank? There are little 10 year old kids who have businesses, the parents just help out).

Go get 'em, tiger!

[Damon the Marketer]

Starting early is better than waiting. You will make a lot of mistakes in business. But those mistakes are actually investments that will give you huge returns years down the line.

I wish I started a business when I was in high school (besides eBay, I mean).

[oddjobs]

Agree, you can definitely do it, and your programming skills will improve as you get better at web design. Go for it.

-Ben @ Odd Jobs

[coryrwest]

I did exactly what you are trying to do. I started my web design business in Senior year of high school (8 years ago, ran the business for 6 of those). Here's a couple tips from someone who has done exactly what you want to do:

- Do not waste your time buying business cards or marketing material. Your first couple clients are most likely going to come from your personal network of friends and family. The best clients are word-of-mouth. I had business cards from the very beginning and guess how many clients I got from handing those out: a big fat 0. Nada. People don't remember business cards. It is an easy way for them to say "Oh, i'll get to that later". And guess what they find your card three months later and throw it away. Biz cards do not keep you top of mind, regular communication does.

- Do not waste your time re-designing high-profile sites (like Coke, Yahoo's homepage, etc.) to build your portfolio. Nobody cares and you will waste time and energy. I tried this and most people asked to see sites that I designed that people were actually using. They don't care about some site you designed to show off your abilities that is not being used.

- Do NOT work for free. There are two caveats here:
1. If you want to work for free on a project because you like it or because you want to build your portfolio, consider that client a lifelong freeloader. In my experience once a client gets free work out of you it is VERY rare that they will ever pay you. Even if they do they will ask for discounts and try to nickel and dime you. Best to do the work pro-bono and move on. I have had several clients that I tried to do this with and only one ever paid me for future work.
2. If you want to work for free with the possibility of getting paid eventually, make that ABUNDANTLY clear before you start working with the client. Tell them: "I am willing to do this work for free because I love the project, but after (X days, the project is complete, X hours, etc.) I will start charging my normal rate of XX per hour. As long as that is acceptable to you we can start immediately." I tried this with that one client I mentioned above.

- Your age does not matter. Most people do not care how old you are, as long as your have proof of what you can do. I started doing this when I was 17 and my clients rarely mentioned my age in a negative manner. It was usually "Oh wow, I expected someone much older. Your portfolio is amazing for your age."

- Face-to-face is not required. I ran my business face-to-face for the first 3 years. Then I moved an hour and a half away from my main client base. After that, no face-to-face. Mostly conference calls, skype video chats, and regular phone calls and emails. All of my clients were fine with never meeting me, and the ones who weren't usually shut up after I was firm that I could not meet (unless they paid for my time and travel expenses). Most people will accommodate you if they like your work.

- I ran my business with just a DBA (Doing Business As, also called an FBN or Fictitious Business Name) for two years. You do not need to specify your birth date or age when filing an DBA/FBN (at least in California). It is perfectly legal as long as you pay your taxes. When you start making some money make sure you save for a tax accountant consultation. It will save you COUNTLESS hours of headaches. I never had one when I ran my business and honestly it was probably the stupidest thing I did with my business.

- A quick note on the hosting: Most people have no idea what to do about hosting. They do not know the difference between hosting and the domain name. You have three options here:
1. Set up the hosting and domain for them using their own accounts. PROS: They pay and manage the accounts so you aren't stuck doing that. CONS: You make no money on this.
2. Set up the hosting and domain under a your own re-seller account. PROS: Easy money, easier for you to manage. CONS: You have to support them forever until you ask them to switch hosting. I am still hosting 15-20 of my old clients on my re-seller account. While I make $1200 a year in profit for doing nothing, it is just barely worth the headache of being attached to my old clients.
3. Ask them to do it all and figure it out on their own. PROS: easiest for you. CONS: Hard for them, they may not appreciate you forcing them to figure this out.

[Paul R]

Some great advice above, particularly from corywest.

I think the only things I'd add are:

Take action NOW - this will get you ahead of your peers, it will give you practical business knowledge and experience and it will stop you from having a shedload of regrets 40 years down the line!

Don't be afraid of failing - the chances are that your first business will fail but roll with it. At this stage of your life you don't have a family, mortgage, huge debts etc so you can afford to take chances. If the business does fail then think about what went wrong and how you will avoid the same mistake when you start your next business (yes, when, not if!).

What's the worst that can happen? The business fails and you get back on the 'normal' career path and go looking for a job. How many other people looking for a job will have 'ran my own business as a teenager' on their CV?!

Take action and good luck.

[Brian Altenhofel]

- A quick note on the hosting: Most people have no idea what to do about hosting. They do not know the difference between hosting and the domain name. You have three options here:
1. Set up the hosting and domain for them using their own accounts. PROS: They pay and manage the accounts so you aren't stuck doing that. CONS: You make no money on this.
2. Set up the hosting and domain under a your own re-seller account. PROS: Easy money, easier for you to manage. CONS: You have to support them forever until you ask them to switch hosting. I am still hosting 15-20 of my old clients on my re-seller account. While I make $500 a year in profit for doing nothing, it is just barely worth the headache of being attached to my old clients.
3. Ask them to do it all and figure it out on their own. PROS: easiest for you. CONS: Hard for them, they may not appreciate you forcing them to figure this out.

1) You can charge a setup fee and bill for any management tasks they delegate to you.

2) You're not charging enough.

3) Another con: they might end up wanting their website in a nearly impossible environment.

[coryrwest]

1) You can charge a setup fee and bill for any management tasks they delegate to you.

2) You're not charging enough.

3) Another con: they might end up wanting their website in a nearly impossible environment.

2. While I would tend to agree with you, I offer no support what-so-ever on the hosting. I only resell what I get from the actual host, which means I kind of have to compete with them on price. Hosts work on small margins and since I offer nothing of value above what the host offers, the only incentive for my client is removing the headache of signing up and finding someone. I redid the math and I actually make $1200 a year on the hosting. Updated my post to reflect that.

3. I have experienced this several times.