Nothing in life is free. Either you are willing to work for money or you’re not. Some people can earn passive income for sure but even with passive income there was some kind of work involved in the front end. For sure there was also some kind of educational process whether through personal effort or the help of a mentor. The same can be said for the web designer’s career. You’ll need to be committed to constantly learning new things. Pushing your comfort zone further and further out. Being willing to do some things you don’t like now so that you can say no to them later when you’ve built yourself a successful business.
Find a System and Follow It
I don’t know about you but for most of my life I have thrived in chaos. The problem with chaos however, is that it isn’t easily reproducible. It can also be stressful. It can even lead to health problems because a chaotic person is often a last minute procrastinator who ends up living from one adrenaline rush to another. A lifetime of all that adrenaline can take its toll on our health… but I digress… Finding the path out of chaos and into something more ordered and organized is to find a system to do you work. Develop yourself some checklists that you’ll force yourself to follow each time. Set yourself up a time schedule for your work. Yes, I know. You’re a creative type who thrives on being unpredictable. That’s all fine and good but over the long haul you’ll find yourself feeling more relaxed, more in control of yourself and your career if you take some time to organize yourself.
Make a List of All the Tasks for Building a Web Page
Take a few minutes to sit down and write down all the tasks you need to accomplish to get a web page up. A neat trick I recently learned is to do all of your writing in something like Google Docs. You log into Google Docs and you start a document entitled something like, “Checklist for Uploading My Pages” or “Checklist for Initial Consultation with Client.” On this checklist you list all of the questions you need to ask the client or a check box followed by the task that needs to be completed. Ultimately, taking the time to follow this kind of system can lead to your being able to outsource a lot of your work. This has the benefit in turn of making a higher level of income with less stress and work on your part. Taking the time to be more organized will pay off.
If you do see yourself oursourcing some of your work in the future I would recommend opening a separate Google account for your web design business. That way, you keep a clear separation between your personal files and your work files. It also allows you to more easily sell your business in the future if you should choose to do so.