Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where individuals follow the actions of others, believing that those actions represent the correct behavior.

Think about the long lines outside an Apple Store during a product launch. Those lines make us believe that the product is valuable and desirable because so many people want it. The same concept applies to the web where social proof can take various forms.

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Harnessing the Power of User Testimonials and Reviews

Trust is intangible, yet it can make or break the relationship with your users.

One of the most compelling forms of social proof comes from testimonials. When potential customers see positive statements from those who have used your product or service, it helps ease their decision-making process. These endorsements act as assurances of your product’s value.

In addition to testimonials, other user’s reviews, and ratings can greatly influence prospective customers. Collective user feedback often offers an unbiased perspective on your offerings, making potential customers feel more confident about their purchase decisions.

Boosting Your Online Credibility with Endorsements and Affiliations

An endorsement from a reputable figure in your industry can significantly bolster your brand’s credibility. Such approvals validate your offerings and can set you apart in a crowded market. Your alliances also reflect your credibility. Displaying logos of esteemed clients or partners you’ve worked with can subtly yet effectively boost your brand’s trustworthiness.

Showcasing Popularity and Expertise

Your social media presence can reflect your brand’s popularity. Showcasing follower counts, likes, or shares illustrates your brand’s reach and influence. Your accolades and certifications showcase your commitment to excellence in your industry. These badges of honor provide further assurance of your expertise.

Leveraging Social Proof Strategically

Successful implementation of social proof requires careful planning and execution. Every audience is different, and the types of social proof that resonate can vary greatly. It’s crucial to identify what appeals most to your target demographic. For maximum impact, social proof elements should be placed in high-visibility areas on your website, such as landing or product pages.

Always prioritize genuine content, especially when it comes to user testimonials and reviews. Authenticity not only upholds ethical standards but also strengthens your brand credibility. Affiliations with authoritative figures or organizations in your industry are a testament to your brand’s credibility and should be prominently featured.

Final Thoughts

Social proof, when used right, can turn a skeptic into a believer. It’s more than just showing potential customers that others approve of your product or service. It’s about strategically showcasing that your offerings are trusted, credible, and desirable—thereby nudging users to follow suit. Remember, you can also employ tactics such as time-limited offers, exclusive content, or highlighting limited stock. After all, when users see others seizing an opportunity, they feel the urge to jump on the bandwagon.

This is where Spark Writer comes in. Spark Writer is a GPT-3 writing tool that allows you to create texts such as articles, blogs, ads, and even SEO meta descriptions in an instant. In this post we are going to take a look at how Spark Writer can make your life easier and help you grow your web design business.

What Is Spark Writer?

Spark Writer is a creative tool that helps you write better, faster and more easily. It provides you with a range of templates, tips and resources that makes writing easier and more fun.

The previous paragraph was actually written by Spark Writer in a matter of seconds using the paragraph tool. That summarizes it pretty succinctly, but there is much more to this AI writing tool. There are a variety of ways to use it for your web design business blog, including generating titles and ideas, introductions, outlines, conclusions, listicles, and more – all the way to even a full article generator.

So you can see how this tool could save you a significant amount of time when creating content. Let’s take a look at several ways in more detail.

Create Catchy Titles

With the Article Title / Idea Tool, you can take your blog topic idea and generate several catchy titles easily. For example, we put the title of this post in and Spark Writer popped out the following:

1. How to take your web design business to the next level with Spark Writer
2. How Spark Writer can help you stand out from the competition
3. Create better content and improve your web design business with Spark Writer
4. The secret to success: How Spark Writer can help improve your web design business
5. How to improve your web design business with Spark Writer

In literally seconds we have five alternate titles we could use instead of what we started with! Coming up with ideas or refined, catchy titles no longer has to consume your time when writing new content for your blog.

Write Article Outlines

Many blog posts and articles start with an outline in order to better organize your thoughts and map out the sections and main points. With the Article Outline Tool you can type in what your article is about and in seconds have an outline of it right in front of you. If you prefer to do the actual writing of the article yourself, this would be a great way to get started and save you tons of time along the way.

Generate Listicles

One of the most popular types of blog posts is listicles, offering, for instance, “10 top web design tools of the year” or any other idea you can come up with. Spark Writer’s Listicle Tool can generate these for you in seconds.

Take a look at what we got when we typed in “Top Web Design Tools of 2022”:

1. Adobe XD
2. Figma
3. Sketch
4. Invision Studio
5. Protopie
6. Adobe Photoshop
7. Adobe Illustrator
8. Adobe After Effects
9. Cinema 4D
10. Blender

Just like that, the research has been done for us instantly. Then we could take this list, fill it in with descriptions of each tool, add an introduction and conclusion, and presto! Another way to come up with a quick blog post for your web design business!

Write Full Articles

If you’re really in a hurry, you can elect to use the Full Article Generator from Spark Writer to generate a complete, unique, and SEO friendly article in 30 seconds or less. While this may not be the best way to make sure your blog has your own unique “voice” in its writing, it can definitely save you hours per post. You could also take what the tool produces and edit it to your liking to make it more your own, which would still be a great way to reduce the amount of time you spend creating blog content.

How Will You Use Spark Writer To Grow Your Web Design Business?

Although we’ve touched on just a few ways this new tool can be used to greatly increase your efficiency as a content creator, there are many more options to look into beyond what we’ve described here. Best of all, Spark Writer is 100% free to use, so you can take it for a spin right away!

It’s a brave new AI-generated content world we’re stepping into. We recommend you give Spark Writer a try and see how it can be used to help you save time, inspire creativity, and grow your business.

So often, those of us in the industry talk about what we need from our clients – and that makes sense. But, in order to really serve them, we must fulfill their needs as well. However, it seems like that subject tends to fall under the radar.

With that in mind, let’s explore some things that our web design clients need from us. Some of it may be common sense, while others are a little less obvious.

An Open Mind

Being open to new ideas is a two-way street. Sometimes, clients may approach their website with ideas that are at odds with what we may think.

Just like everyone else, we web designers are susceptible to being set in our ways. Our experiences can lead us to what we believe is the perfect formula for a website. It may be certain design characteristics, or it could be development tools and techniques.

When a client suggests something outside of our comfort zone, it’s natural to become, well, uncomfortable. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean their ideas are unworkable. It may be a case of getting past those initial thoughts and gaining a better understanding of what’s being said.

Of course, not every idea a client has is a winner. But it’s still important to come into each project with an open mind. You could be missing out on something great.

Beyond that, the fact that you truly listened can help to create a solid client-designer relationship as well.

Honest Advice

Listening is only part of the relationship-building process. Honesty is also a key factor.

That applies to client ideas and requests, but it also goes deeper. For instance, providing guidance as to the pros and cons of a feature or functionality. The same goes for pricing and the value received from a particular product or service.

Honesty builds trust and empowers our web design clients to make good decisions. Without that honest advice, project outcomes will likely suffer. Details can be overlooked and money might be spent in the wrong places.

Sometimes, the easiest thing to do is to simply go along with whatever a client says. It’s the path of least resistance, and the thinking goes that it’s also a way to finish off a project faster.

In reality, honesty pays off all the way around. When more informed decisions are made, projects are less likely to go awry. Theoretically, it also leads to faster and better results.

A Proactive Approach

Our clients are often experts in their own field. Whether they run a business or non-profit, they’re likely immersed in their jobs. That means they won’t have as much time to devote to their website.

Because of this, important items could slip through the cracks. WordPress core, themes and plugins may become outdated. Site errors may be wreaking havoc on performance and usability. In short, a website can fall into any number of bad situations without proper vigilance.

That’s where we can be of service. By staying on top of what’s happening in terms of software, security and industry trends, we can keep our clients’ sites running smoothly.

Be proactive by staying in touch with your clients. If you see an issue, or even the potential for an issue, reach out and let them know. They’ll appreciate the effort and any headaches you’ve saved them. In addition, this helps their organization maintain a good reputation with their audience as well.

A Helping Hand

Not everyone with a website is tech-savvy. For these folks, the learning curve for tasks like adding content can be relatively steep. But a helping hand from their web designer can make a big difference.

Using your knowledge to educate clients empowers them to take advantage of the amazing website you’ve built. That could mean anything from fresher content to fewer support requests coming your way.

Still, support requests go along with the territory – even if we hope they’ll be minimal. When they do come in, offering fast and friendly service is vital. It lets your clients know that you have their back and can be depended upon.

Overall, it’s about being there when clients need us (within reason, of course).

Keeping Client Needs in Mind

Web design projects can be full of challenges. Sometimes, that can lead us to simply focus on the task at hand without much thought of those we are working for. It’s an easy trap to fall into.

But client needs do matter – for a lot of reasons. The most important being that it forms the basis of a partnership. We need each other in order to reach a successful outcome.

Even after the site launches, being there to provide guidance ensures a better relationship – not to mention a well-maintained website. As a bonus, it could lead to repeat business and referrals.

While web design is a highly-technical field, there’s a human element that can easily be missed. But if you can master this aspect of the job, both you and your clients will be better for it.

It’s something we do out of necessity. Most organizations don’t have web-savvy experts on hand. As such, there’s a learning curve for clients when it comes to design, functionality, content management, SEO, maintenance and a whole lot more.

To some designers, this may seem like an extra burden. After all, shouldn’t we just focus on building great things?

While there’s some merit to that argument, there are also a number of reasons why educating your web design clients is worthwhile. Let’s take a look!

Better (and Faster) Project Outcomes

The first benefit is purely practical. Sure, you probably enjoy your job. But no one enjoys a project that seemingly drags on forever. Helping your clients understand what’s involved in the design and build processes can get things moving forward.

Quite often, a project stalls because clients are unsure of how things work. What type of content is acceptable? Are there any technical limitations to what we want to do? There are a ton of potential questions they may have.

Building a website is not like shopping for clothes – clients don’t simply pick out everything they want, then head to the cash register to pay.

On the contrary, a lot of consideration has to go into how a website works, what it looks like and what features to include. Therefore, clients need to understand the basics, along with the pros and cons of these decisions. It affects everything from budget, marketing position to user experience.

Serving as a guide to your clients can make a positive impact, both in getting the project completed and in the quality of the final result.

It Builds Mutual Trust

Having a strong, trusting relationship with your clients is vital. This can create customer loyalty that keeps them with you year after year. And it may also result in some lucrative referrals as well.

But the biggest benefit here is the ability to work together. A relationship that’s strained or very one-sided may make you cringe every time the phone rings or an email arrives. That certainly doesn’t help you do your best work.

When there’s a mutual trust, however, the process can be much more productive. Designers know that, when a client asks for something, they likely won’t tear the whole thing up minutes after you finish it. Why? Because the details were discussed honestly.

Clients, on the other hand, realize that you have their best interests at heart. When you make a suggestion of how to approach a project, they’ll be more likely to listen.

Fewer Support Requests

Every website needs maintenance at some point. It could be a CMS software update or a new feature that needs to be added. They go along with the territory and designers can usually prepare for them.

But it’s those little support requests from clients that can throw off our schedules. The “how-to” questions or the “oops, it’s broken” pleas for help.

These things can happen to anybody. But a client who has a basic understanding of how to manage their website should be less likely to run into these issues. That will hopefully translate into fewer support requests coming your way.

Plus, clients will feel empowered. Seeing someone who may have had initial nervousness around technology learn to help themselves is pretty great as well. They have a newfound confidence and you have the good feeling that comes along with helping.

Educating Your Web Design Clients Is an Investment

Educating clients – whether through formal training or friendly advice – takes time and patience. But it is very much worth the effort.

There are a number of long-term benefits. It helps to create stronger designer-client relationships, results in better project outcomes and may even save you a few panicked support requests.

In addition, the potential monetary benefits shouldn’t be ignored. Training clients is something you can build into your services and provide your business with another source of revenue. You can even use group educational events like webinars as a way to drum up new projects.

All told, by educating your web design clients you are making an investment in both them and yourself. It’s something that can benefit every web designer.

All of these themes are sourced from Envato Elements and can be downloaded along with thousands more for a subscription starting at $16.50 per month.

Pithree

The Pithree WordPress theme is fantastic for construction and building-related websites. It’s got a clean design and construction graphics that will suit your needs.

Pogon

Another solid choice is the Pogon theme. It’s built for business, finance, and corporate-style websites and has a clean layout that’s appealing to the eye.

Unova

Unova is another business theme for WordPress sites, this time with an emphasis on consulting practices. It comes with four homepage demos and 12 subpages, too.

WealthCo

Or, you could opt for WealthCo, a WordPress theme that prioritizes financial websites. With a clean layout, it is actually defined as multipurpose and could be customized to suit any industry.

Busis

Another option is the Busis WordPress theme. This one is chock full of business-related features and makes it easy to sell your services or products.

Farm Agrico

If you’re in the farming, agricultural or food industries, the Farm Agrico theme is a good choice. With full-width sliders, compelling calls-to-action, and a responsive design, it’s a sure hit.

Morello

Morello is another business WordPress theme that could be a great fit for your website. It’s multipurpose and loaded with features, making it a solid choice.

Weberium

Weberium is still another WordPress theme that any business could use. However, this one is centered around digital agencies. It includes 10 homepage variations and has compatibility with top plugins, too.

Aspero

Aspero is a corporate-centered theme that offers a clean design, responsive layout, and key features businesses come to rely on like service widgets and pricing tables.

Dallas

The Dallas theme is a responsive offering that maintains a clean and simple layout that can be customized in any number of ways. At the end of the day, it’s modern and a great compliment for any content you want to add.

Insugroup

Insugroup is a theme with all the features you need for an insurance or finance website. With a stylish full-width layout, you’ll have ample opportunity to showcase your services.

Simple

Simple is a multipurpose WordPress theme that can work for any type of business or corporate website. It comes with several homepage options and is minimal yet professional.

Cooper

Cooper is another great choice of theme that offers a straightforward layout with a few fun touches that level up the creativity factor considerably.

BuildPro

Here’s another theme option for construction websites. BuildPro offers a wide range of features including 15 different homepages and compatibility with current top WordPress plugins and page builders.

Continal

The Continal WordPress theme is another choice for those in the construction industry, though you could easily customize it to suit a more corporate-leaning business, too.

HotStar

And then there’s HotStar, which is a theme that promises to be multipurpose in its target audience and feature set. It’s also compatible with Visual Composer Page Builder.

Kroth

Kroth is another business WordPress theme with a responsive layout and stylish design. And you can customize it any number of ways thanks to four homepage demos and 30+ page layouts.

ITok

ITok is a standout choice for any business website having to do with financial subjects, but its particularly geared toward bitcoin and cryptocurrency. This business WordPress theme includes 5 different homepage layouts and parallax effects that further engage visitors.

Calia

Calia is another theme for businesses that offers a wide range of functionality. It’s customizable with Elementor and includes numerous homepages, subpages, widgets, and more to make building the site of your dreams easier.

Opus

Opus is another solid choice for businesses, specifically web design agencies. It includes features that make highlighting your company’s services easy.

FLAP

Another option is FLAP. This WordPress theme is multipurpose and effective. It includes six demo site options to choose from and can be customized to sell products, apps, or services.

The Business

The aptly named The Business theme is a minimal theme that offers a one-page scrolling experience to quickly get potential customers acquainted with what you’re offering.

Creatify

The Creatify WordPress theme offers a sleek and professional design for any web agency, app, or tech industry website.

Onepage

As its name would suggest, Onepage is a WordPress theme that offers a one-page scrolling experience for your visitors. It’s perfect for selling a mobile app or for any service website.

One

Another one-page theme is One. This WordPress theme can be customized any number of ways to for any type of business. Whether you sell an app, service, or physical product, the galleries, social integration and interesting one-page scrolling effects are real winners.

ChainPress

Last on our list is ChainPress. This WordPress theme is ideal for businesses that deal in cryptocurrency. However, with a few tweaks it could work for any sort of business or corporate site.

Launch Your Site with a Business WordPress Theme

Hopefully this collection of business WordPress themes will make it easier for you to select one and get your site up and running quickly. There’s a decent amount of variety represented here.

And remember, you can gain access to all of these themes from Envato Elements via a monthly subscription fee. This is especially helpful if you plan on building more than one website or you need additional graphics or digital collateral.

Best of luck!

Again, that’s why streamlining operations as much as possible is so important. You should be spending most of your work time completing assignments that make money. So, the more you can limit the time you need to spend on day-to-day operations the better. What follows are five tips and suggestions for streamlining your freelance workflow starting immediately.

1. Use a Project Management Tool

If you do nothing else on this list, setting up a project management tool alone will save you a ton of time. Why? Because these tools already eliminate the need for so many other apps and software.

For instance, some tools allow you to add projects, create milestones or tasks for each project, and assign tasks to other people. These tools are also helpful for organizing assignments, creating priorities, and tracking progress. The “at-a-glance” ability project management tools make it easy to see where you’re at on your projects, keep tabs on how projects are progressing, and manage all related files and communication.

The latter point is the most time-saving, in my opinion, because you’ll no longer have to hunt through emails to find that PDF a client sent over as a reference or the login information to someone’s WordPress site. It’ll all be stored safely in one spot for quick-access and reference at any time.

A few popular choices for project management tools include Trello, Asana, and Basecamp. Personally, I use Trello to keep track of my assignments, due dates, article specifications, and client information.

2. Streamline Communication

This ties into number one on our list but it warrants its own section. One of the things that can take up most of your time as a freelancer is correspondence. Responding to messages is time-consuming enough, but add in the actual wrangling of messages and you’ve got a huge time suck on your hands.

Many project management tools include chat or commenting features. However, if you need a live chat option, Slack is always a good choice. This app allows you to create channels for talking with clients and colleagues. With paid plans, you should be able to create dedicated channels for each of your clients. This makes it super easy to stay in touch and to ask questions (or answer them) quickly. It has an accompanying desktop and mobile app as well, so communicating is easy and intuitive.

Basically, if you want to free up some time, ditch emails for good.

3. Create a Project Scope Document for Each Project

Scope creep is a real problem for freelancers. And it happens all too often. You start out on a project with an idea of what it will entail. Cut to a few weeks later and you’re five rounds of edits in with no end in sight. When the scope of a project continually expands, you lose time and money.

To prevent this issue, take the extra time at the beginning of your projects to write up a quick project scope document. After having initial talks with your client, write out what you both agreed the project would involve. Send it to the client for review. Detail the number of revisions you’ll cover before additional fees are required.  After you both agree upon the document’s contents, you can begin working in confidence.

4. Automate Invoicing and Finances

Dealing with the financial part of your freelance business can be super time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be if you use the right tools. First of all, don’t spend hours manually creating invoices each month to send out to your clients. Use templates, for starters. Or better yet, use an invoicing service like FreshBooks, Harvest, or Invoicely to create, manage, and send invoices. In fact, you can configure these services to automatically send your invoices on a given date each month to save you even more time.

All of this financial info is compiled in a straightforward way as well, so it can be exported into your financial tracking software or linked directly to it so the data is updated in real-time without you having to lift a finger.

5. Eliminate Guesswork in Creating Media

A major part of doing work online is creating media. Now, certainly those in the graphic design field will need to create a lot more media and images than those who aren’t. But the need for media and graphics applies across the board. From writers to videographers, the need for stock images and graphical elements remain.

To save time, you can use a reliable source of images for everything. A one-stop shop, if you will. For that, I like to use Envato Elements, which streamlines how I find templates and graphics to accompany articles. With it, I source hundreds of photos, graphics, and media templates, which is a huge time saver for everything from marketing to actual client work.

Once you get your resource materials, you can customize as you see fit. Many use something like Photoshop for this work, but something simpler like Canva is highly effective, too.

Make Your Freelance Workflow Easier

Hopefully you’ve found these five tips useful. With them, you can shave time off your freelance workflow and find ways to simplify how you do business. And at the very least, you’ll be more organized overall.

Best of luck to you!

Today, we’ve compiled twenty minimal HTML templates for creating effective business websites. The minimal design is key here: it means your content stands out and won’t be lost in a sea of clutter.

Ocularus

The Ocularus HTML template is easy on the eyes, mostly because there isn’t a whole lot to look at. And that’s a good thing. Its minimal design allows your content to shine.

Blossom

Another option is the Blossom template. This one offers a simple layout that you can use to create any type of company website you can imagine. Add images, add text with ease here.

Sora

The Sora template is aimed at photographers and but could be used for any type of business with a graphical focus.

Krome

Krome is a fantastic template that is suitable for portfolios, agency websites, and more. It uses a grid-based layout for showcasing images in an eye-catching way.

Leto

Leto is another minimal template that can be used for portfolios. Its grid-based design makes it easy to display graphics and images succinctly.

Minel

The Minel template could be customized for a wide range of businesses. It offers an interesting menu layout, call-to-action buttons, and compelling graphics.

Opium

Opium is another HTML template that uses a minimal design to great effect. Enjoy the grid layout, and timeline page option to make for a unique “about us” page, and that’s just for starters.

Minimalize

Minimalize is a lovely-to-look at HTML template that utilizes the one-page motif to create an engaging scrolling experience for your visitors.

Vinero

Vinero is another minimal theme, this time using a monochromatic color scheme, a grid-based layout, and an overall clean look that complements your content well.

Pisend

Another option is the Pisend HTML template. This one offers a minimal design, this time for blogs. It comes with 10 demos, too, so you can opt for one and get started with inserting your content immediately.

Origin

If you’re looking for a portfolio HTML template, this minimal option is a good fit. Origin offers large text, large images, and easily identifiable call-to-action buttons that leave your visitors guided through an intuitive browsing experience.

Pekko

Pekko is another HTML template that is sure to catch the eye. Its monochrome design allows you to feature your best work front and center with zero distractions getting in the way.

Jestem

Jestem is a lovely minimal HTML template that can be used in a wide variety of ways from website to vCard to online resume. It’s easy to set up for presenting your contact info, at the very least.

T-ONE

T-ONE offers a minimal design that gives you plenty of opportunity to showcase full-width images, compelling overlaid text, graphics, and CTAs.

Omnia

Omnia is a minimal HTML template that prioritizes whitespace above all else. And to dramatic effect, I might add. Customize with your own photography and you’ll be impressed with the results.

Laboq

Another option is the Laboq template. This one could be customized to support a grid-based portfolio or even an online store.

Aether

Or you may wish to consider Aether. This minimal HTML template is multipurpose and can be used for any type of site. However, it does have a penchant for agency and portfolio company websites.

Mimilism

Mimilism offers a cohesive, grid-based design that makes it easy to display your best work or examples of your service in an appealing way. Customize, add buttons, and flavor text however you see fit. The fact remains, this template provides flexibility for creating the look you want.

Nubia

The Nubia HTML template really embraces minimalism in an eye-catching way. It has all the hallmarks: whitespace, grid-based layout, and a simple color scheme. But it presents content in such an appealing way that it looks like your site could be a magazine.

Keepsake

Last on our list is the Keepsake template. This one offers a minimal design with a grid layout that could serve a blog, portfolio, or service agency site well.

Set Up a Minimal HTML Template for Your Business

Now that you have twenty minimal HTML templates to choose from, you can hopefully get started with setting up your own business website quickly. So many of these offer demos as well, so you can import that data, add your own images and content and get rolling with launching your new site in a matter of hours. Which is pretty great if you ask us.

Just carving out a space of your own can be tough. Then there are the struggles associated with scheduling, communication and trying not to alienate your household. It’s uncharted territory for sure.

But just because working from home is novel to you doesn’t mean you get a pass on productivity. There are still things that need to get done and bills to pay.

Today, we’ll share some tips to help you get the most out of that new home office.

Declare Your Space

The first part of the equation is in finding a place to work. This depends so much on your living situation.

Ideally, you’d already have an office setup or at least a spare room. Even a basement or an attic will do, provided they have the amenities you need.

In these cases, working from home becomes that much easier. A little bit of isolation can be a good thing as it helps you to focus on work without interruption. But this is not the case for everyone.

You might instead be stuck trying to write code at the kitchen table (complete with kids and pets running about). What then?

It’s going to be tough, but you have to make the best of the situation. You’ll have to claim some space for work purposes – at least during working hours. Set some guidelines for others and (kindly) help them understand your needs.

The important thing to remember is that this isn’t going to be perfect. Adjusting to a new working space is a process and will take some time. Eventually, it will start to feel more comfortable.

Set a Schedule, Create a Routine

Because you’re now working in a completely different environment, your daily rituals are bound to be thrown into disarray. The more distractions at home, the more wayward your schedule becomes.

Still, you’ll want to dedicate blocks of time exclusively to getting things done. It may not be the same as what you were used to. You might even have to split your workday into multiple shifts to accommodate children. There’s absolutely no shame in it. Clients and colleagues alike are probably facing similar situations.

Flexibility is going to be key in this area. Staying rigid and expecting things to go exactly as they did in your old office is going to be stressful. Instead, focus on what works best for you and your family. If you have to take a couple of hours off in the middle of the day, so be it.

That being said, look to establish consistency where you can. That means doing the same things at the same time each day, when possible. This will at least get you into a daily rhythm – which is a huge help when you have a job that requires creativity.

Stock up on Supplies

Web design and development can be done from just about anywhere. Yet, transitioning to a home-based office may require some sacrifices when it comes to hardware and software.

If you work for an agency, they may provide you with a powerhouse desktop computer and all the high-end apps you need. Out of the office, you might well be on your own to some degree.

This is actually a pretty big deal. We often set up our workflows in very specific ways. A disruption here means using unfamiliar tools with less-powerful devices to run them. There’s a certain amount of frustration that goes along with the territory.

Therefore, workflow may be the one area where mimicking your physical office makes the most sense. Even if you don’t necessarily have access to the same level of hardware, grab as many of your go-to apps as possible.

The familiarity will help you accomplish tasks without having to search out completely new methods.

Let the Positives Inspire You

Well, maybe you are stuck working on your couch and it’s far from ideal. But what are the bright spots? Perhaps your pet is by your side. Or your little one is drawing you a picture. There are still reasons to smile.

Sometimes, it’s all too easy to dwell on how we think things should be. That doesn’t lend itself to productivity, though.

Instead, look for the good things about your situation – no matter what they are. Something as simple as getting to listen to the music you want can stir up creative energy. The same can be said for taking the laptop out into the backyard.

Working from home is actually a pretty great opportunity. It’s a way to look at things through a different lens. And you may just find out why so many web designers prefer it to a brick-and-mortar office. There’s a certain freedom that you can’t get anywhere else.

This is one of the great freedoms of being a freelancer or part of a small agency. You get to forge your own path. But, how do you determine which way to go?

Some designers will be happy to dabble in a little bit of everything. That means working on different types of projects and perhaps a wide range of budgets.

But others will undoubtedly want to focus in on a particular niche. This can be a bit more difficult to determine – and it’s our subject for today.

Let’s look at some items to consider when deciding where you want your web design business to go.

Your Tools of Choice

Before you think about clientele, it’s important to consider the tools you want to use in your web design business. This decision is a pretty big one, as it can determine your project workflow and the types of functionality you can offer.

There are any number of established paths here. For example, you might be interested in working with self-hosted content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress or Drupal. Then there are also SaaS products like Shopify, Wix or Squarespace. Alternatively, maybe your sole focus is on progressive web applications that use React or some other popular framework.

Of course, choosing one doesn’t mean you have to push the rest aside. But it is worth mentioning that the more of these types of tools you work with, the more things you have to learn.

To become really well-versed in a platform means that you’ll have to spend time with it, discovering all the different intricacies. There are only so many hours in the day to do that, so finding focus here is vital.

If you have previous experience and happen to like a particular tool, maybe the decision has already been made?

Projects in the Right Price Range

Like it or not, money is a major consideration of any web design business. If you’re a full-time freelancer, you’ll at least want to make enough to cover the bills. Or, maybe you envision yourself with a beach house and a Ferrari. Either way, it requires careful thought and planning.

When first starting out, it’s tempting to take on projects in just about any price range. It makes sense, as you need both money and some beautiful websites to fill out your portfolio. However, it’s not a practice that will sustain your business for the long term.

Over time, you’ll start to see how each project helps or hinders your finances. Some low-end projects will undoubtedly end up costing you if you spend too much time on them.

The ultimate goal is to figure out how much time you can afford to spend on a project at a given price. Then, set a baseline.

For example, you might determine that $2,000 is a good starting point for pricing, provided you spend no more than 20 hours on the project. From there, the price would increase as the amount of estimated time goes up. As an aside, it’s never a bad idea to estimate more time than you think you’ll need – unexpected issues always pop up.

It’s also worth thinking about how many new projects per year you’ll need to book in order to reach your income goals. If you find that it would take 10 new clients a year, maybe that’s reasonable for you. If the answer is more like 20 new clients, well, you may want to rethink your pricing.

In the simplest terms: Is it better to have one $5,000 project or five $1,000 projects? Continually taking on smaller gigs means you have to hustle that much more to earn a living.

These numbers are just examples. In the end, you have to figure out what works best for your business.

Client and Project Types

The final consideration in our guide is figuring out the type of clients and projects you want to work with. These can be lumped together or not at all, depending on your personal preference.

Targeting by Industry or Size

If you’re a designer with inside knowledge of a specific industry, that may give you an edge over the competition. Having worked in the medical industry, for example, could lend itself to building websites exclusively for doctors and hospitals.

The advantage here is that you can become known within that industry and develop a great reputation. Word of mouth can be highly-effective when you have proven yourself and can boast a list of happy clients.

On the other hand, not every designer wants their focus to be quite that narrow. In that case, you may look more towards businesses that can spend within your pricing range. This offers up a variety of different types of clients, which can save you from the boredom associated with doing the same projects over and over.

Targeting by Functionality

Then there are the types of projects you’re looking to book. Again, this can be as broad or narrow as you like. It also ties in with the tools you’ve chosen to work with. If, for example, you know that you want to use WordPress, maybe your preference is to work solely on WooCommerce shops.

Much like targeting an industry, this strategy helps to position your business as an expert in whatever project type you specialize in. Building up your portfolio with successful eCommerce projects, for example, can be a huge advantage in gaining lucrative new clients.

You might also find that working within a specific industry points you in this direction. These clients may have similar needs in terms of functionality – something you can use to bolster the types of services you have to offer.

Defining Your Ideal Client

Understanding the tools, budget range and type of clients/projects you want to work with will provide a great foundation for knowing your market. From there, you can learn to spot the ideal clients who can help your business thrive.

Still, knowing how you want to work and who you want to work with is only half the battle. It still takes patience and effort to get your name out there. But persistence pays off.

Here’s hoping that your journey leads you to where you want to go.

For your web design clients, this is a time of great uncertainty. Some, especially small businesses, may be in a fight for survival.

This is when a website can serve as a lifeline. Business owners can use it as a means to share important information. And, unlike the chaos of social media, visitors will be able to easily find out what they need to know. They’ll also be able to come back time and again to check for the latest updates.

All of this can mean a lot of extra work for web designers. And the emergency nature of these tasks can pile stress on top of an already-demanding job.

So, how do you deal with it? Here are some ways to both help your clients and yourself during a crisis.

Try to Remain Calm

It’s really hard to do your job when you feel panicked or overwhelmed. But that feeling is also understandable. Your inbox is full, your phone won’t stop ringing. Anyone would get frazzled in this type of circumstance.

Still, you have things to do. The first step in all of this is to take a deep breath and realize that you’re going to be O.K. You’ll undoubtedly feel stress, but you have the ability to get through the tough times.

It may also help to think about the fact that others are going through the exact same thing. You aren’t in this alone. Knowing that virtually everyone is being impacted can help put things in perspective.

In addition, it’s worth taking a moment to think about how you are helping. The fact that you’re making even a small difference for your clients (and their customers) is something to be proud of.

Organize and Communicate

Clients will come to you with requests to add emergency info – and they’ll want it done quickly.

To cope, you’ll need to come up with a process for handling these tasks. Perhaps it’s first-come, first-serve. Or maybe you want clients to fill out a support ticket to help keep track of everything. Whatever your preference, it’s important to have a way to manage things in a way that makes sense for you.

Then, once you have a process that you’re comfortable with, it’s important to let your clients know. Send an email newsletter out that outlines what you’re doing. Also make mention of how the situation could affect the timeline for getting things done.

People tend to be more understanding of policies and procedures when they know about it ahead of time. Communicating your plan will allow your clients to know what to expect.

Streamline Tasks

While every client’s needs are different, there are probably a number of similarities. If you look closely enough, you might just find some ways to use them in order to increase efficiency.

For example, if all or most of your clients are running WordPress, that’s something to take advantage of. The technical similarity means that you could use a similar process for posting information. It might be a helpful plugin or the use of a feature such as custom fields.

In addition, there might be certain design elements and code snippets that could be reused. Having even a basic template in hand means that you won’t have to reinvent the wheel for each client.

This could be a huge help in crossing items off of your ever-growing to-do list. That, in turn, makes for happy clients and a bit less stress in your life.

Remember the Human Element

Above all, a crisis is a time for people to work together towards a common goal. Web designers have a positive and productive role to play.

Customer service is always a big deal. It’s a defining factor in the success of your business. But it is especially appreciated during a difficult time of crisis. It’s important to keep that in mind when interacting with others.

Handling yourself with professionalism and empathy is the right thing to do. It will also help strengthen your bond with clients.

There will always be periods of time that are challenging. Look at them – not just with concern – but as an opportunity to be your very best.