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Options and Tips for Creating a Web Design Business Plan

Don’t get too intimidated by writing a web design business plan, a lot of it just means getting down onto paper things you likely have been considering anyway. According to Entrepreneur “Writing…

Estimated Read Time:   40 minutes

Don’t get too intimidated by writing a web design business plan , a lot of it just means getting down onto paper things you likely have been considering anyway. According to Entrepreneur “Writing out your business plan forces you to review everything at once: your value proposition, marketing assumptions, operations plan, financial plan and staffing plan.”

If I can do it – and go from 1 to 10 people in three years, you can too 😉 My wife will tell you… I’m no genius.

Table of Contents

Main Points in a Web Design Business Plan Outline:

1. business concept –.

What is the web design industry like in your immediate area and region? What are the high-level possibilities for the success of your web design business? What are the prime differentiating factors and how you will set yourself apart from the competition?

2. Who is the market for your web design firm?

Who are your customers? Are you serving only mid-sized businesses? Only editorial publications? Churches? Non-profits? Teenie tiny mom and pop shops? Fortune 500 companies? What niche are you looking to serve? What is the demand like for the service? And this leads us into our next question.. What does your pricing need to look like to serve these customers? And it’s not always getting your price down into affordability; maybe you need to price higher so that your company seems more professional and that you can offer above and beyond service. “Price high and justify.”

3. Income and Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet etc.

“Start by estimating the revenues generated by an average sale. Then subtract the costs that change with each transaction, like sales commissions and costs of producing the products sold. The result is your “unit contribution.” Next, predict your monthly overhead, or expenses that don’t vary directly with sales volume, such as rent, salaries, utilities, legal fees, and accounting expenses. Finally, divide your monthly overhead by your unit contribution. That number will tell you how many transactions you’ll need per month to break-even.” From this article on Inc. of The Basics of a Business Plan by the Numbers.

Get started with this One Page Web Design Business Plan

General Principles for writing a Web Design Business Plan:

1. Keep your business plan short and simple.

Go for it right now with this One Page Web Design Business Plan .

2. Use visual charts to quickly show key numbers.

3. Do what you do best, and make it look professional.

4. Ask key questions like what will be it’s annual revenue in a year, and in 5 years.

5. What things can I delegate? Sales, Technical or others? How will you attract these people to help, and what will be your key differentiators of process and culture?

6. Is the business plan going to help you raise money? 

7. How much of an initial investment will the business need?

Tools for Creating a Business Plan:

1. LivePlan.com – Visual planning tool, helpful if you really don’t know where to start. It will give you the sections and the template is already there.

2. The Art of The Start 2.0 (Book by Guy Kawasaki) – “It’s most relevant for technology or IT companies, but he has a way of writing that’s very clear, very to the point. There’s not a lot of pedantic info that you’ll find in textbooks.”

3. Score – Business Planning Templates –  Quickly assess your marketing plan, Free business listing list for search engine optimization, Marketing must haves etc.

Thank you for reading! Share the love. 🙂

Keep the content coming, by tweeting this.

Other Links related to Web Design Plans:

• Web Design Sample Business Plan – Executive Summary
• 9 Steps to starting your freelance web design business – Business Tuts
• Plan a Web Development Business Part Two- BPlans
• How to Make a Business Plan for a Website Development Startup – Color Whistle

Getting Your First Web Design Clients

My first web design client was my future mother-in-law, a real doozie. A non-profit, I was paid $500 and an iPad. I’ve also been paid as little as – negative $ for making a website, because I was so eager for real world experience. Do you want a website? I want to give you one.. just let me pay for your hosting and I’ll make the website out of the salt from the sweat of my children.

Don’t sell yourself short. Charge a decent amount.

So the first real website I sold was a couple months later. I was just learning WordPress and I sold a site for 10 monthly payments of $250 dollars. Because it was a fairly simple marketing website and didn’t have a ton of custom features on it, this was actually a pretty solid deal for a starting out web designer.

The first half of selling yourself as a web designer is evidence. Let’s see the goods.

Make sure you have a decent portfolio out there, that you made yourself..

I don’t care if it’s on WordPress, straight HTML, or Ruby on Rails. Get that thing out in the open, give it the best you got and make sure it shows the best of your best work. Code up a non-profit’s website for free if you have to, and show as many real projects as you possibly can. I iterated on my website 3 times, with 2 live at my domain before I ever got my first real set of clients. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to exist.

Here’s my site I made in 2012 (click here to see it in the Internet Wayback Machine):

Here’s the site in 2013 (click here to see it in the Internet Wayback Machine):

Yes.. I agree my portfolio was a little weak at this point, but guess what? I was getting clients. I wasn’t by any means, raking them in, but people I knew were coming to me and asking if I could help with their website or help them make a new website. I was eager to be of service, and make enough money to stop bussing tables.

Let the world know you’re making websites now.

Change your job on Facebook to ‘Self Employed Web Designer’, change your LinkedIn –  don’t put Aspiring Web Designer in your Twitter profile, put Web Designer. You’re a big boy (or girl) now. I personally took a good hard running jump at web design, and with one client and one month covered in expenses jumped out into the market as a web designer. No more restaurant job (which for me didn’t pay THAT well anyways.) When people hear that’s what you do, and you take a friendly and helpful attitude when they reach out, or you offer your services you can quickly earn some awareness around the new service you offer.

Don’t wait until you have it perfected, just go for it.

I’m not suggesting you make the new 3M website, or try to sell yourself as a ten year veteran of website design. You can, however, say you will go above and beyond for a client as you are starting out fresh and will do everything in your power to make them an excellent website. If you’ve created a couple of examples, then that can help adjust expectations and although you may need to put ungodly amounts of time into your first couple websites you will earn your chops in the struggle. You’ll figure out how to z-index a logo over the top of overlapping nav div.

In defense of the designer-developer.

Yes, I’m suggesting you will have to write code. Can you sell a website for $2,500 dollars and give half of it away to a front-end developer when you’re starting out? Perhaps, perhaps not. I personally couldn’t, and so… I learned to code. Basics at first, how to modify WordPress themes ever so slightly with CSS. Then cutting and splicing bits of PHP, then eventually writing my own themes from scratch. This is why I suggest having a couple of websites under your belt before really having someone pay you for your web design services; you can find the rhythm that works for you. If you are an epic visual designer who can confidently charge $5,000 for your first website you could potentially find the right person to develop it for you and you can pay them adequately to make it good. It’s really to each is own, because I preach design/development, and you have an equally right  person 2 doors down who wouldn’t touch a CMS to save his life. Literally … my old neighbor above me would sell sites for 7-8k and I thought he was an internet god. He would write the HTML, CSS, and Javascript (In Dreamweaver, hello throwback,) and then outsource custom Content Management System development for 2k. I just wanted to learn how to not pay that 2k .

Other ways to promote your new web design business

• Look for ways to trade your services for advertising : I sold my services in an auction by a Minneapolis newspaper  in exchange for adspace in their lifestyle magazine VitaMN.
• Get every viable social media handle/url under the name you’re using to freelance , promote yourself vigorously on TWO of these, and understand you’re not going to do ALL of them well .
• Make a list of all the acquaintances who have small businesses, and that could use a website. Send them a quick note, and always be of the mind that you’re there to be of service – not sell.
• Go old school and create a flyer : I put boots on the ground and peddled my wares (a one page services sheet – without pricing on it) around every business that I could open the door to in my area of Uptown Minnesota. I focused on what I did that was different. Alot of times this is personal service, since you likely have less clients and more time and attention than alot of web design shops in town. – To be perfectly honest, this didn’t get me a client. Maybe what I’m really suggesting here is hustling your ass off and being as present as possible… take every opportunity to share what you do until you gain momentum.
• Put out content on a blog on your website and promote it on social media : Don’t sell dude. Don’t do it. You can still see my oldest posts on this blog that are salesy… it’s not going to kill your blog, but it’s really boring and no-one wants to read those. Just give as much value as you can, share your experiences and focus on the ONE SERVICE you are really trying to sell and things you’re learning in that discipline. Use it as an opportunity to dig deeper into your craft, and to share as you go.

Price High and Justify

After you promote the living shit out of yourself on social media, talk to your long lost friend with a supplement or house painting business, and make a few mistakes it’s time to price high and justify . You have to charge what people will pay, but as soon as you can push that number up as high as it can reasonably go. Why? If you have high prices it means you can make more excellent work! Justify the price with above and beyond service and you’ll feel great about what you do. Your work will mean more profitable businesses that benefit from the excellent websites you make. It feels good to help people feed their families by helping them get the word out about what makes their business special. And in the end, that’s what it boils down to for me.

Make Sure Your Process Differentiates You from Competitors

It’s important to recognize what your business’s competitive advantage is, and unless you want to build a business that depends upon what’s special about YOU as an individual you have to draw out and nurture the special things about your process. To focus on your own unique specialties alone builds a prison fortress around you, and if you ever want to hire or contract out parts of the business you’re stuck with a business that only works with you sweating away at the center of it; the wizard behind the curtain, slowly getting too tired to perform at the same level.

So for me the key pieces of my web design process as I am learning to define them are:

1. responsiveness to changes that clients need..

– Example: Client asks for a lighter color scheme in development, instead of fretting we work hard to satisfy the request and push back when appropriate to keep within a reasonable budget.

Key to fulfilling: Web design services should not be dirt cheap, and if they are they aren’t taking into consideration the time it takes to build something fully customized for the business’s needs. Templated solutions get generic unfulfilling results. (However, I still feel that for some customers templated solutions such as Squarespace.com and WordPress Themes from Themeforest without custom code can occasionally fulfill their needs and suggest that they try those routes if their budget doesn’t allow to really hire someone to do it right.)

2. Examining the overall market for the client and tailoring the content on the site to the scenarios that could be useful to their favorite kinds of clients.

– Example: Your site is serving people who just suffered hail damage to their home, we assess that a key to surprising and delighting these types of customers is serving up content that is about how to buff out hail damage on their car.

Key to fulfilling: It’s crucial we think about the psychology of the people coming into the site. This is the number one question we ask when making a website: “how can we serve your ideal customer with this content, this imagery, the messages we’re sharing and the story we’re telling.”

3. Building out the main service pages of the website in the hope that the content will attract new customers, making key items like ‘contact us’ and ‘buy now’ super easy to access on the main promos, sidebars, and at the end of content.

– Example: Adding bigger content pieces after key visual blocks on service pages so that the service page is indexable by Google and people who want to really dig into what you have that option. Big old juicy buttons that say “Contact us now” or “Request a quote” are super obvious and surrounded by trust factors such as positive testimonials, industry badges, a phone number, or 3 key differentiating features in bullet points.

Keys to fulfilling: It’s important not only to think about how people are going to perceive this site when they get there but how they are going to get there in the first place. By thinking about big content pieces that could provide big value for the client during the design process, the website can be built in a way that emphasizes and makes those big content pieces that are serving a real need available and to the forefront of the site with menu structure, and other pieces of navigation and structure.

4. Imagery is outside the box, and elicits a positive emotional response from key individuals your business is targeting.

– Example: A Death to Stock Photo image that feels less stock photo-esque and more candid than most stock photos.

Even better, you and your storefront, your set of tools. An ACTUAL satisfied client, smiling and holding your product or enjoying your work.

Keys to fulfilling: Often this involves imagining what a positive interaction between your business and your client will look like. Is it you sitting with them, them smiling, and a chart of upward momentum on the computer screen in front of you? Is it freshly cut grass without them lifting a finger, so they get to smile and sip fresh lemonade on their porch? This is the story we want to display. We want the imagery to feel candid, real and maybe even a bit unusual. But a visitor should be able to see it and think to themselves, I want to be there. They should be able to imagine themselves in the place of the person pictured on the site.

5. The copy is written in a way that quickly explains the core benefit/value from your product or service, invites the visitor to participate, and explains why it will be awesome for them.

– Example: A moving company could say “Your back will thank you, call us for a custom quote today.” A remodeling company could say, “You’ll feel as good as your home will look.” with a call to action button that says, “Get a quote for a fresh look.”

Keys to fulfilling: Never be generic! Shake out the cobwebs in your marketing brain right now. Seriously, every single product or service has a unique and special story behind it, and the customers you serve need to know why anyone would choose you . Why have they in the past? I speak to the business owners and people representing businesses in their marketing teams, and I ask: “Tell me the story of positive customer experience, that you’re aware of.” What does that look like. Tell that story on the site. The more you get curious about these stories and the core benefit a product or service is providing, very few things are truly boring. The more you get interested in the story of the product or service, and tell that positive experience story the more you’ll see that almost anything can be interesting.

And the moral of the story is:

As you can see, the key differentiating features of this design process is a personal connection, customizing the solution to the industry and those specific businesses prime differentiating features, and enthusiasm. That enthusiasm through every piece of the puzzle is crucial. It’s important to note at every step of the process that this is for a business composed of REAL PEOPLE, whose food and shelter depends on telling the story to the world, and REAL PEOPLE who benefit from the product or service being served. This is the real end value. So anyone I work with, or for feels that: the enthusiasm and the genuine intent to provide value. This is key to this design process. 

How to Speak About Design to Establish Trust

“I thought you might like the flourishes in the header, it has that bohemian, natural feeling you were talking about when we first met up to discuss the project.” = FIRE ME . “Thought you might like,” “Going for that feeling,” and “I was inspired to take a fun direction,” all scream of whimsical dainty little artist types who could literally die from the harsh realities of designing for real economic pressures. The real economic reality is that families food and shelter depends on the success of a business, and a key component of how a business does is how that business presents itself to the world through design.

I’m not saying you can’t feel a feeling and apply it to your work in design, but design isn’t art. It is meant to solve real world problems. So instead of focusing on your feelings while presenting to the client, focus on design principles, web design best practices, and the persona’s and scenario’s you established during your discovery phase. Focus the conversation around:

• Design Principles
• Web Design best practices
• Persona’s and scenario’s

Why do design principles even matter?

I’ve had a couple situations lately, where someone seems to be questioning why a font choice even matters. They rolled their eyes when I mentioned a study that called Baskerville the most trusted font. It got me thinking. How am I presenting this wrong? Because I know in my heart of hearts that design matters. <- FIRE ME,  but I can’t seem to always make it dead obvious to people I’m presenting work to.

I want to show them two ads side by side, one with high quality fonts that were chosen with serious intention and one with quickly chosen free fonts , and ask them which of them makes the product they represent seem more expensive, or which one makes the product seem more quality. Because good design does indeed represent products and services in a better light, and makes them seem more high quality. You know that, and I know that, but:

But how do we make the value of design dead obvious?

1. Resolve to help them find solutions to pain points. – Your website looks like shit on mobile, let’s fix that. Your logo has gradients and shadows in it to the point it’s hard to use on shirts and in other simple ways. Let’s address those and work from there how design can help solve problems you’re aware of now. Maybe it expands from there; as a designer, you’re a problem solver and the more you can identify and come up with creative and solid solutions for, the more design solutions you get to get paid for.

2. Dive into their world and become aware of what they value. – For web design you might realize the client cares more about looking cool than contact form submissions. You might realize they value their relationship with their family deeply, that a certain type of customer is their favorite . Once we realize what they care about deeply… pause pause pause …we can help them communicate those values through the design.  By diving in, visiting their shop, asking a lot of questions, and being present we can then better let them know how good design will help them do that.

3. Focus on the things they do understand like ‘Trust factors’, ‘color psychology’ and ‘telling the story.’ – ‘We have to tell the story of your business better,’ is going to resonate with some people better than my fascination with the font Baskerville. Even though I deeply care about typography, it’s just not always as accessible of a topic, or as interesting to clients. What they do understand is how adding a Better Business Bureau badge next to the contact form will help increase the likelihood of people contacting them, and how blue is associated with trust and how green get’s associated with natural, fresh, or innovative. This really depends on the particular client, as some clients can go deep without a lot of prep.

Let’s circle back for a bit and make sure you’re working with the right kind of client:

The client defines the value and the designer discovers it. Ask the client what their business or organization does and why is it important to their target audience. If they don’t give you a quick comprehensible answer they are not ready to work with a designer or an agency. If they do answer the question you should next ask them what success looks like and what their goals are. DO NOT lead them toward what you think success might be. Let them define it.

When you get their feedback, dig deeper. A good way to do this is by asking who their target audience is and what their target audience needs are. If they can’t answer this they are not ready for the value a designer or an agency will provide. The client needs to have experience communicating with their target audience in order to set proper goals. If there’s no goal, how will you know whether or not a project is successful? Here are some red flags to look out for in the beginning stages of communicating with a potential client. I asked a fellow designer, Brenna French to share some thoughts on this issue:

“You sit down at a coffee shop excited to talk to a potential client about the project and the first thing they say is, I want to build a website how much would that be? This is a red flag because this means their mindset is already focused on getting a deal and not on the value you can provide for their business or their target audience.

This goes both ways in the relationship by the way, you never want to position the project or conversation around money. If you talk about money right away this shows the client that you are money hungry or desperate for work. Remember you are a professional and you are serious about your work and the value you can provide. Positioning the conversation around value sets the tone for the whole relationship in a positive way.

Say you get past that money conversation and everything is going well so far so you start talking about the project. The client starts to explain that they are wanting a one-page website design and they also want the main colors to be blue and orange because to them those are beautiful colors, oh yeah they also want a picture of themselves in the main header. This is a red flag because they have too many ideas of what they are visually wanting the end product to look like.

As a design professional, I don’t want to execute the client’s wants in mind. I design the best possible solution for the client’s target audience so the client will reach their business goals. From my experience, a client that has a specific visual direction is difficult to work with. Position the conversation around value. By the end of the conversation, you both are excited to get started. You set clear expectations and attracted the client by positioning the conversation around value.”

– Brenna French

Ask these questions of new possible clients: Is the client sure of their target audience?

Is the client aware of their target audience’s needs?

Are they able to answer right away, what is it that you do and why is it important to your target audience?

Do they start talking about their budget right away? (If they do it might be a red flag – try to change the conversation to talk about value that you’ll provide, not an arbitrary number you come with on the fly without fully understanding the project.)

Do they give off the impression that they understand you’re the expert, that they understand that are only responsible for Content – and Business Goals?

Do they have alot of ideas already about how the website should look? – A possible red flag.

That last one is challenging, and occasionally working for small businesses it’s important to kindly educate your clients on what is your responsibility and what is yours. But needless to say, if they come out of the gate giving strong layout suggestions and explaining their specific vision for look and feel you’re being pigeon-holed into the position of technician implementing someone else’s design, not the dynamic problem-solving designer.

Ways to talk and words to use

Talk confidently and make sure to include examples of previous work where you solved a specific goal-oriented problem. Now is the time to ask what their primary objective is, and to set up a metric for the design you’re working on currently. 100 e-mail list subscriptions, 15 contact form submissions by legitimate prospects, 20 sales the first three months of launch. Make specific goals have a date attached to them. Gathering this information after the design should be part of what you’re being paid to do, and part of what you’re selling.

Do user testing on the old site when they come in, if it’s worth testing. Talk about testing critical things. Words and phrases to use: research, effective, goals, trust-worthy, tell your story, appeal to your core demographic. Always do research on their industry before getting into the site design. Their competitors, and brand positioning. By doing this you better understand what they are up against and you position yourself as the expert with a unique understanding of their dilemma. This is another reason to hold off giving a price for the work until you fully understand the problem at hand.

Share research. You don’t always have to have it on hand when you are discussing a particular issue. But you should do your due diligence, if they want a pop-up newsletter subscription box then you should be able to go find the research on which way of doing that is most effective (right away, timed, or exit intent,) or general tips on making a pop-up effective. I find it especially effective to share these bits of research right before you show the design at all. Come up with three pieces of research to support points that might be contentious or that push their comfort level on the design. Share them briefly before going over the design.

When you get into showing the design, avoid the real estate tour; ‘here’s the logo,’ ‘here’s the nav,’ etc. Go straight for the heart of why the design serves their goals. Talk about flow and conversions, and especially focus on how the design presents their story in a unique and compelling way to appeal to their core demographic. Never ask for feedback, ask if they have any questions. In this way, you can further ingrain yourself in their mind as an expert. I think of it as a bit of swagger. Humble swagger, but you have to have some swagger in this industry.

Content Strategy for Web Designers to Attract Ideal Customers

Devising a workable and effective content strategy can be difficult for any company or brand, as the needs and desires of readers, clients, and businesses always vary from individual to individual, and from day to day. With a bit of work and the following content strategy guide to get you started, you should be well on your way to developing a stellar web design content strategy ! The most important part is that you start, and these practical and actionable strategies will help you get your ass in gear.

Begin with an Introspective Evaluation

Before taking that first step down the road of content creation, the best tactic is to initially spend some time to evaluate where your company, your content, and your brand currently stand. Begin this evaluation by honestly answering a few simple questions:

How is our brand currently perceived in the marketplace?

What are good and bad aspects of the brand’s existing content?

What content-related goals would we like to achieve?

How does our brand match up to other web design competitors?

With these basic questions answered about your brand and where your company currently stands, you can move onto an overall content strategy design by answering “The Five Ws”:

Who is the audience of our content?

When should particular content be available?

Where (in which channels) should the content exist?

Why is the content relevant (or) why will the audience care?

What is the message or purpose of the content?

For example, throughout this article I’ll illustrate examples with a fictional up-and-coming web design firm called Green Lemon Design. The Green Lemon team — who are looking to establish themselves in the web design market as a talented, young, and energetic choice for lower to mid-tier web designs — might answer these questions in the following (simplified) form:

Potential clients: Users seeking low- to mid-range website design and consultation services.

Existing clients: Users who have worked with us in the past.

Most content on the website should be available 24/7, while content that is time-sensitive (such as a month-long new client special deal) can be temporary.

Onsite, Blog, Email, Twitter, Facebook

The audience should be seeking professional and affordable web design services that we can offer (for potential customers) or additional customer support and services (for existing clients).

To inform and educate our audience on the skills and capabilities of our brand, to impress with our past successes and portfolio, and to establish good rapport and relationships with both potential and existing clients.

Establishing Brand, Voice, and Tone Guidelines

With the basic questions answered that inform you of a need to change your content strategy , now is a good time to evaluate the brand, voice, and tone guidelines you’ll utilize throughout the content.

Brand guidelines can cover logo design to color pallette and everything in between. For content strategy , the best places to start are:

Fonts and typefaces : What fonts will be used throughout the content? How about sizes for various elements (paragraphs, headers, testimonials, etc)?

Colors and palettes : What colors best suit your brand or company and can be utilized throughout the content? – Example above includes a distinctive color palette that could be applied to other elements.

Images and logos : Which particular static images or logos should be prominent throughout the content? – It’s useful to repeat symbols such as the ‘greenish lemon’ throughout this piece. This may be particular to the content you put out on your site in general, or a particular blog post or content hub.

Videos and animations : As above, are there any video clips that should be frequent or readily available somewhere in the content?

Voice & Tone

Determine early in the process what kind of voice and tone you wish to attach to your content and thus associate with your brand. This can be difficult at first, particularly without much in the way of experienced writers on staff, but finding an appropriate voice can be a huge boon to your content strategy as a whole.

For example, Green Lemon Web Design may elect to take on a very informal, even humorous tone throughout their content. As a young and fresh company, they may feel most comfortable keeping their tone light-hearted and fun, to attract the business and clientele of smaller, younger companies like themselves.

Onsite Content: The Bread of Your Content Strategy Sandwich

Time to get down to the real core of your content strategy by first devising the outline of content that should exist onsite. Remember, anything  that exists on the company or brand website (with the exception of the blog) is considered onsite content and should be under your complete control.

For our fictitious Green Lemon Web Design, the outline for onsite content strategy might include the following sections:

Voice & Tone : Errors/alerts, testimonials, FAQ, portfolio should have a fun and humorous tone, while a more serious, business tone is necessary for transactional and billing-related messages.

Images : In addition to the logo and color palette established previously, we’d like some professional photography to splash through the core onsite pages (about us, contact us, etc), but with a refreshing twist: Each photo should contain a small green lemon strategically placed and tucked somewhere in the graphic, to bring a branded element into the design for brand awareness and maximum impact.

Portfolio : A list of clients we’ve assisted in the past with small testimonials from business partners from each when relevant.

About Us : Details about how Green Lemon came to be, including headshots of all employees with short, fun bios from each. Employees must provide a quote (think high school graduation yearbook quote, or ask a curious question to get your team showing their true colors.) In my experience looking at analytics for a lot of sites, people visit these pages more than you might initially think. It make sense, because we want to know about the people in your business. Tell us more, give us the inside scoop, tell your story.

Contact Us/Get a Quote : Standard form with name, email, and (optional) telephone fields for potential clients to get in touch. Should we include our company promise to establish return correspondence within 4 hours?

FAQ : Answer basic questions, primarily focused at potential customers. What is our typical turnaround time? What post-design support can we offer? Include a handful of fun and humorous questions at the end as well.

Services : Describe all services we offer, broken into categories (consultation, marketing, technology, industries, etc).

Errors & Alerts : 404 error should be squeezed green lemon with one final drop of juice falling out. Logged in clients with unread messages or invoices should see amusing flash message on each screen until dismissed. Little alerts and responses to contact form inquiries can be an opportunity to show a bit of the companies friendly, human character as well as display being adept with technology and attention to detail.

Blog Posts: That’s the Good Stuff

While strong onsite content is of course critical to the success of any strategy, very often the real meat and potatoes of your online presence is contained within the blog. The blog offers an avenue for expressing ideas and sharing content that is timely, relevant, and inspirational for the audience.

A blog is also a more appropriate channel to take risks — even slight ones — with the content your brand produces. Blog content can be anything from industry news and competitor-vs.-self comparisons to tutorials and how-to guides.

A successful blog is a channel for content that relates to the brand or company, but then extends well beyond the purview of the brand to provide relevant and interesting content for the audience to consume.

Don’t get caught in the old-school idea of a blog, where one or a handful of curators post personal stories and anecdotes. While that type of content is certainly acceptable and sometimes appropriate to a modern blog, try to expand the content well outside the bounds of that traditionally small umbrella.

For example, Green Lemon might highlight some potential blog ideas for their new web designer content strategy :

Leveraging Influencers

A post discussing highly influential creatives in the design space and how they have inspired Green Lemon and other designers. We should emphasize the great projects these creatives have worked on over the years to entice our readers by illustrating how Green Lemon understands the industry and that our team (or freelancer) strives to meet the same standards of excellence.

Discuss the importance of social media contact, even amongst these influences, by tagging them on Twitter with a link to the blog post. An ideal tactic is not to directly ask a question of the power user in question, but to ask a question of our general Twitter audience (e.g. “Designers: How has @Influencer inspired you in your own projects? #GreenLemonDreaming”).

Content Hub Posts

Posts that emphasize a highly-curated and relevant series of links and posts found elsewhere that relate to a particular topic, such as web design. Since a popular group of articles gathered in this singular “content hub”-style post will drive a lot of SEO traffic and referral linkbacks to our site, we can be confident that the effort in putting together these posts is worthwhile and will generate a great deal of buzz and traffic for Green Lemon.

Emphasizing Keywords

As a relatively new company, we cannot be afraid to try emphasizing localized keywords to drive interest and traffic to Green Lemon and bring in potential clients.

A great technique is to create a series of blog posts that highlight particular keywords and heavily focus the relevant aspects of the content on those keywords.

To drive localized traffic we can start with “Web Design in Minneapolis” and “Web Design in Minnesota,” which should feature some location-specific content mixed into the standard information. This can be as simple as pictures or mentions of local attractions in the city or state that residents of these areas who read the article will relate to.

Conversely, we’ll need more broad language and images to accompany our post about “WordPress Web Design,” which should shy away from localized content but instead contain information solely about the techniques and technologies (CMS organization, colors/typefaces, content release schedule, etc).

Inactivity is a Death Sentence

While the initial questions and answers when getting started in the content strategy process as seen above might seem at first to provide only a very rudimentary insight the steps to implement a strategy, there is one key lesson to learn when it comes to anything related to content: Don’t get bogged down by the minutiae and thus never take action .

The biggest mistake anyone can make when it comes to content strategy is to be too passive, to over-assess and over-plan to the point of inaction. Particularly in the online space — where content moves at the speed of light (both figuratively and literally) — failing to act at all on a new content strategy is far worse than taking action and modifying or adjusting the content strategy plan as you learn and grow along the way.

That’s not to say planning and strategy are not important, but in many situations for both companies and clients alike, it is far more important to just “get out there” with the content so the audience can begin to interact with the content or brand than it is to delay far too long with nothing to show for it from a public perspective.

Maintaining Your Flexibility

Content strategies come in all shapes and sizes and should not be solely thought of as a brand-wide, all-inclusive methodology for every piece of content the brand creates.

Instead, content strategies can and should be developed in a modular fashion. Similar to a well-crafted website, an interchangeable content strategy allows for flexibility throughout the process over time, as variables change and the success (or failure) of a particular strategy evolves over time.

This technique should most commonly be used to distinguish between the various channels in which your content resides. A strategy module that suits email campaigns is likely not as well suited for handling social media interactions on Twitter, just as the static onsite content used throughout the site will differ significantly from the content posted on a blog.

Embrace these differences and freely develop multiple modules of your content strategy to fit each appropriate channel. You can and should still maintain an overall parent strategy that infuses elements into every child strategy below that (fonts, colors, common logos/images, etc), but much of the content beyond that will shift as the medium changes.

The Necessity of Taking Risks

A very useful tool when first developing a content strategy is to evaluate the various levels of “risk” involved in any given style or example of content. That is, when a reader or user engages with that content, how likely are they to expect it versus how likely are they to be pleasantly surprised? Additionally as the content creator, how likely is a piece of content to feel standard and safe versus something risky that could fail or be taken poorly, but provide benefit if successful?

There are numerous risk strategies out there, but a solid standard for content strategy used by Portent, Inc. is the 70-20-10 rule .

This rule effectively states that 70% of your content should be safe and expected, 20% should be moderately risky and challenges the standard 70% of your content, and the last 10% should be very risky , such that it is entirely unexpected content or may horribly fail in some way (but will offer large benefits if successful).

For the fictitious Green Lemon Web Design, they have elected to disperse their content using the 70-20-10 rule in roughly this manner:

70%: Most onsite stuff, such as About Us, FAQ, Services, Contact Us/Get a Quote, etc.

20%: Most blog posts that relate to the industry; those that provide assistance to clients, potential customers, or casual readers.

10%: A handful of blog posts that go against the normal, such as emphasizing the great work our competitors have been doing in the past few months or a post about a seemingly unrelated topic to drive traffic and user interest (books, gaming, fishing, etc). We’d also like to add a comparison chart of services and pricing between Green Lemon and popular competitors, which may include features we are weaker at than others but may ingratiate readers to us for our honesty.

Whatever the exact risk assessment is that your own brand settles on, it is vital to not be too afraid of taking risks from time to time. Being a little out there or edgy with your content will make a lasting, memorable impression instead of the countless other examples that are boring and forgotten after a short glance.

A Handful of Content Examples

Below you’ll find a list of example content titles that a new web design firm like Green Lemon — or even you — might find useful to pursue, roughly categorized by intended audience and/or creators.

For Web Designers

Web-for-All: Accessibility for Modern Web Design

Why Improved Design Cannot Solve Content Issues

Content Optimization for Mobile Platforms

Why Email Requires a Responsive Design

And Dash of That..: How A/B Testing Dramatically Improves User Experience

A Bridge Too Far: When Additional Feature Requests Should Be Ignored

This Ain’t Your Granddad’s Pixel: How Modern Displays Are Changing Web Design

Creating Beautiful Graphics and Logos in Pure CSS

The Homepage: When Automation Must Take a Back Seat to Human Control

For Web Marketers

Identifying Your Audience and Content to Meet User Demands

Community is Everything: Why Building a Community is Critical to Content Strategy

Risk vs. Reward: Why Safe is Often the Least Safe

Cultivating Client Relationships

I Like You: Spreading Your Content via Third Party Services

Localization, Love, and Liberation: Why i18n is Critical to Content Strategy

For Clients

Miniature Adults: How Children Utilize the Web and Interact with Your Site

Stay Awhile and Listen: How to Genuinely Engage with Readers

Establishing a Content Strategy for Personal Websites

Online Trapdom: Why Free Services Rarely Are

Just You Being You: How Social Media Encourages a False Sense of Self

Look At All My Resources!

While this article should provide a great starting point to establishing your own web marketer content strategy , there are multitudes of resources online with great information to boost your knowledge and get you down the right path toward content nirvana.

Below are a handful of prime resources to chew through at your leisure, so please enjoy!

Creating a Content Compass : Explores the diverging content strategy of a particular web project across the entirety of a brand’s content universe.

The Magic Content Marketing Ratio: Email Conversion Rate

4 Keys to Capturing a New Audience for Your Content Marketing

Being Real Builds Trust : Discusses why trust with users and clients is among the most vital components of strong marketing content strategy .

Help Your Content Go Anywhere With a Mobile Content Strategy

Future-Ready Content : Developing a web design content strategy that is as future-proof as possible, not just technically but in the manner in which content is created.

Contently Comic: Sponsored Insanity : Explores the pitfalls and trouble that can come from unnecessary sponsored content.

The Most Important Audience for Your Content Marketing : Your Own Employees : How brand and businesses should ensure employees fully understand and adhere to the marketing content strategy .

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Free PDF Business Plan Templates and Samples

By Joe Weller | September 9, 2020

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We’ve gathered the most useful collection of business plan PDF templates and samples, including options for organizations of any size and type.

On this page, you’ll find free PDF templates for a simple business plan , small business plan , startup business plan , and more.

Simple Business Plan PDF Templates

These simple business plan PDF templates are ready to use and customizable to fit the needs of any organization.

Simple Business Plan Template PDF

This template contains a traditional business plan layout to help you map out each aspect, from a company overview to sales projections and a marketing strategy. This template includes a table of contents, as well as space for financing details that startups looking for funding may need to provide. 

Download Simple Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Business Plan Template PDF

This scannable business plan template allows you to easily identify the most important elements of your plan. Use this template to outline key details pertaining to your business and industry, product or service offerings, target customer segments (and channels to reach them), and to identify sources of revenue. There is also space to include key performance metrics and a timeline of activities. 

Download Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template PDF

This template is designed to help you develop and implement a 90-day business plan by breaking it down into manageable chunks of time. Use the space provided to detail your main goals and deliverables for each timeframe, and then add the steps necessary to achieve your objectives. Assign task ownership and enter deadlines to ensure your plan stays on track every step of the way.

Download Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

PDF | Smartsheet

One-Page Business Plan PDF Templates

The following single page business plan templates are designed to help you download your key ideas on paper, and can be used to create a pitch document to gain buy-in from partners, investors, and stakeholders.

One-Page Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to summarize each aspect of your business concept in a clear and concise manner. Define the who, what, why, and how of your idea, and use the space at the bottom to create a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for your business. 

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

If you’re looking for a specific type of analysis, check out our collection of SWOT templates .

One-Page Lean Business Plan PDF

This one-page business plan template employs the Lean management concept, and encourages you to focus on the key assumptions of your business idea. A Lean plan is not stagnant, so update it as goals and objectives change — the visual timeline at the bottom is ideal for detailing milestones. 

Download One-Page Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to identify main goals and outline the necessary activities to achieve those goals in 30, 60, and 90-day increments. Easily customize this template to fit your needs while you track the status of each task and goal to keep your business plan on target. 

Download One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

For additional single page plans, including an example of a one-page business plan , visit " One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide ."

Small Business Plan PDF Templates

These business plan templates are useful for small businesses that want to map out a way to meet organizational objectives, including how to structure, operate, and expand their business.

Simple Small Business Plan Template PDF

A small business can use this template to outline each critical component of a business plan. There is space to provide details about product or service offerings, target audience, customer reach strategy, competitive advantage, and more. Plus, there is space at the bottom of the document to include a SWOT analysis. Once complete, you can use the template as a basis to build out a more elaborate plan. 

Download Simple Small Business Plan Template

Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template PDF

This fill-in-the-blank template walks you through each section of a business plan. Build upon the fill-in-the-blank content provided in each section to add information about your company, business idea, market analysis, implementation plan, timeline of milestones, and much more.

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Small Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to create a scannable business plan that highlights the most essential parts of your organization’s strategy. Provide your business overview and management team details at the top, and then outline the target market, market size, competitive offerings, key objectives and success metrics, financial plan, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Small Business - PDF

Startup Business Plan PDF Templates

Startups can use these business plan templates to check the feasibility of their idea, and articulate their vision to potential investors.

Startup Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to organize and prepare each essential component of your startup plan. Outline key details relevant to your concept and organization, including your mission and vision statement, product or services offered, pricing structure, marketing strategy, financial plan, and more.

‌Download Startup Business Plan Template

Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup

Startups can use this sample 30-60-90 day plan to establish main goals and deliverables spanning a 90-day period. Customize the sample goals, deliverables, and activities provided on this template according to the needs of your business. Then, assign task owners and set due dates to help ensure your 90-day plan stays on track.

‌Download Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup Template 

For additional resources to create your plan, visit “ Free Startup Business Plan Templates and Examples .”

Nonprofit Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these business plan PDF templates to outline your organization’s mission, your plan to make a positive impact in your community, and the steps you will take to achieve your nonprofit’s goals.

Nonprofit Business Plan Template PDF

Use this customizable PDF template to develop a plan that details your organization’s purpose, objectives, and strategy. This template features a table of contents, with room to include your nonprofit’s mission and vision, key team and board members, program offerings, a market and industry analysis, promotional plan, financial plan, and more. This template also contains a visual timeline to display historic and future milestones.

Download Nonprofit Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization PDF 

This one-page plan serves as a good starting point for established and startup nonprofit organizations to jot down their fundamental goals and objectives. This template contains all the essential aspects of a business plan in a concise and scannable format, including the organizational overview, purpose, promotional plan, key objectives and success metrics, fundraising goals, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization Template - PDF

Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these fill-in-the-blank templates as a foundation for creating a comprehensive roadmap that aligns your business strategy with your marketing, sales, and financial goals.

Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

The fill-in-the-blank template contains all the vital parts of a business plan, with sample content that you can customize to fit your needs. There is room to include an executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, financial statements, and more. 

Download Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

This business plan is designed with a Lean approach that encourages you to clarify and communicate your business idea in a clear and concise manner. This single page fill-in-the-blank template includes space to provide details about your management team, the problem you're solving, the solution, target customers, cost structure, and revenue streams. Use the timeline at the bottom to produce a visual illustration of key milestones. 

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

For additional resources, take a look at " Free Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Templates ."

Sample Business Plan PDF Templates

These sample business plan PDF templates can help you to develop an organized, thorough, and professional business plan.

Business Plan Sample 

This business plan example demonstrates a plan for a fictional food truck company. The sample includes all of the elements in a traditional business plan, which makes it a useful starting point for developing a plan specific to your business needs.

Download Basic Business Plan Sample - PDF

Sample Business Plan Outline Template

Use this sample outline as a starting point for your business plan. Shorten or expand the outline depending on your organization’s needs, and use it to develop a table of contents for your finalized plan.

Download Sample Business Plan Outline Template - PDF

Sample Business Financial Plan Template

Use this sample template to develop the financial portion of your business plan. The template provides space to include a financial overview, key assumptions, financial indicators, and business ratios. Complete the break-even analysis and add your financial statements to help prove the viability of your organization’s business plan.

Download Business Financial Plan Template

PDF  | Smartsheet

For more free, downloadable templates for all aspects of your business, check out “ Free Business Templates for Organizations of All Sizes .”

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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ColorWhistle

Digital Web Design Agency India

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Category: Web Development

Date: January 24, 2024

How To Make Business Plan For Your Web Design Agency & Web Development Startup?

I have started ColorWhistle in 2014 as a web development company , so called startup web development company 🙂

Are you planning to start a web design and development company? Whether you’re starting or growing your business, you definitely need a business plan.

Only a business plan can give you answers to a wide-ranging list of questions. It sure is tedious, but it definitely pays off.

The good news is you don’t have to spend days to write a business plan. We will walk you through on how to make a business set up for your  web design agency or web development company . In case you already created one, you can use our guide as a reference to see what you missed.

Web Development Company & Web Design Business Plan

If you want to stand out and be noticed and if you want to succeed, you need to have the right business strategy. Let’s take a look.

1. Who Is Your Audience (ICP)?

Investing in an ICP is an investment in your future. It’s the foundation for growth, efficiency, and a thriving customer base. So, don’t leave your dream customers to chance. Build your ICP today and watch your business soar.

Imagine your dream customer. Someone who not only needs your web design and development services but actively seeks it out, embraces its value, and becomes a loyal advocate. That’s the essence of an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). It’s a detailed portrait of your perfect buyer, built on shared traits, motivations, and challenges.

Targeting specific customers does not mean that you’re excluding others. You are simply targeting a particular set of audience who are more likely to buy from you. Answer these below questions to figure out your target audience.

• Figure out who will seek your web design and development services based on age, location, gender, income level, education level, occupation, ethnic background and relationship status
• Which medium does your audience turn for information?
• How and when will they use your services?
• Is your target audience easily accessible?
• Will they really benefit from your services?
• Can your target audience afford your web design and development services?

2. Understand Your Competitors

Knowing your competitors and what they are offering can help your web design agency and web development company stand out. You can set pricing accordingly and better prepare for rival marketing campaigns. Try to find out answers for these questions.

• What is their market position and what are people purchasing from them
• What is their pricing structure?
• How good is their social media review?

Also, figure out their weakness and find out how it can be addressed by your services.

In today’s economy, there is really no shortage for candidates for any position. It will appear as though employers can find the best candidate for any job. However, it is not that simple. There is always a possibility of hiring the wrong person which can have a negative impact.

Impressive work qualification and work experience are certainly required but, you also have to figure out if they blend with the culture of your organization.

Some of the ways you can improve recruitment process are by looking for a career-oriented person, accessing practical experience, determining strengths needed for the position, asking the right job interview questions, checking candidate background reference, and using phone interviews to pre-screen.

4. Finding Work For Your Start-Up

The next step is finding the work and here is where it can be a challenge to get noticed. One option is to try advertising on  webmaster forums  and business forums. Here you will find people who are looking for web design and other online services and you can connect with those people.

Alternatively, you can try using sites like ‘ UpWork ‘, ‘ Toptal ‘ and ‘ People Per Hour  ‘ which are aimed at connecting online workers with the businesses who need them. You can even try going around your local area and asking businesses if they already have a website!

5. Cash Flow Management

When it comes to financial management of a company, cash is king. Whether you’re a startup or growing business,  cash flow management  is essential for business survival. Failing to manage cash flow puts your business with too much stock, long payment terms, overspending and overtrading. So be prepared, an accurate cash flow projection can give you heads up before trouble strikes.

Looking for Web Development Services?

Seize and experience the transformative impact of Web Development Services & Solutions with ColorWhistle.

Few Takeaways

In order to compete, you are probably going to have to offer very low rates at least to start with and this is where things can get tough. But a great solution is to use a white label company like ours.

Many businesses hire ColorWhistle to provide work that they will then resell to their own customers.

As we’re based in India we can work for comparatively low rates, that means you can charge more for our work and still make a profit – and your clients don’t need to know we were involved!

You can then use our services either to outsource all your customers – making an almost entirely passive income, or you can use our services to lighten the load or to handle the bits that you don’t want to do.

Either way, you optimize your workflow meaning you can take more projects on and offer the most competitive rates around while doing what you love! Why not give us a call or send us an email to find out more?

In conclusion, running a  web design services company  is a great way to make money but you need to ensure you take time to research the market and that you do everything you can to increase your output while cutting overheads.

In quest of the Perfect Web Development Services & Solutions Buddy?

Be unrestricted to click the other trendy writes under this title that suits your needs the best!

• Website Maintenance for Corporate Branding: Ensuring Consistency and Optimization
• Outsourcing Website Development Services to One Vendor vs Multiple Vendors
• Divi vs Other Popular Page Builders: A Comprehensive Comparison for Website Redesign
• Custom Plugin Development to Enhance Your Business Growth
• Multi Vendor Website – All in One Guide
• Core Web Vitals Guide : Boost Website Performance
• Elementor Cloud – How to Grow Your Business?

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About the Author - Sankarnarayan. R

The founder and mastermind behind ColorWhistle is Sankarnarayan, a professional with over fourteen years of experience and a passion for website design services and digital marketing services. At ColorWhistle, our team has a wide range of skills and expertise and we always put our clients’ satisfaction first. This is what sets us apart from the competition – an eye for detail and the best website development services from the start to the completion of your project.

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How to write a business plan for your web agency.

Starting a web agency is a great idea because it allows entrepreneurs to leverage their expertise in web development to build a successful business, while also providing clients with valuable digital solutions to their web-based needs.

Additionally, web agencies are increasingly in demand as businesses continue to migrate online.

But, first thing first, you need to write a business plan.

Creating a comprehensive business plan is essential before launching a new project, such as a web agency. It helps to identify potential risks and opportunities, enabling the project to be successful.

In short, a thorough business plan will help ensure the profitability of your web agency .

What key details need to be in the business plan for a web agency? What should be the overall layout? Which financial figures should be part of the analysis? How can I streamline the process of writing a business plan?

Stay engaged with this article as it covers all these questions and offers answers.

Additionally, it's worth noting that you have the option to avoid starting your business plan from scratch.

You can download our comprehensive business plan for a web agency and tailor it to suit your project.

How to build a business plan for a web agency

Is it necessary to create a business plan for your web agency.

Yes, you should create a business plan for your web agency to ensure success.

Establishing a strong business plan will afford you the chance to:

• learn about the web agency market
• grasp the latest industry trends
• pinpoint what makes a web agency successful
• understand the website design preferences, branding goals, and online marketing needs of clients
• find a great unique value proposition for your digital agency
• examine competitor market share
• find competitive advantages for your web agency
• find a business model that will generate positive cash flows
• implement a comprehensive and tactical action plan to achieve success
• identify and manage risks specific to a web agency, including data security, project management, and client satisfaction

Our team has created a business plan for a web agency that is designed to make it easier for you to achieve all the elements listed.

How to outline a business plan for a web agency?

A carefully crafted business plan includes all the necessary information, numbers, and financial details. It needs to be organized so that it can be easily read and understood.

When we designed our business plan for a web agency , we ensured it was properly organized.

There are 5 distinct sections (Opportunity, Project, Market Research, Strategy and Finances).

1. Market Opportunity

The section that comes first is titled "Market Opportunity."

This section presents a comprehensive report on the web agency, including key data and metrics to guide your decision-making process in the field of web design and development.

We constantly update all the data there.

2. Project Presentation

In the "Project" section, you can present your web agency, outlining the range of web design and development services you offer, your design and coding expertise, portfolio of projects, client testimonials, content management system proficiency, and the unique value proposition that delivers visually appealing and user-friendly websites tailored to client needs.

Also include a short description about yourself at the end of this section.

Explain your expertise in web design and development, your range of digital services, and how you plan to provide tailored and impactful web solutions to clients. Highlight your portfolio of successful projects, your team of skilled designers and developers, and your dedication to delivering visually appealing, user-friendly, and results-driven websites and digital experiences through your web agency.

We prepared language in our business plan. Adapt it to suit your idea precisely.

3. Market Research

After that, comes the "Market Research" section.

In this section, you will find a detailed market segmentation analysis for your web agency.

It includes a presentation of other web agencies in the industry that will be competing with you. Your agency's competitive advantages are also highlighted. A customized SWOT analysis is included.

4. Strategy

In the "Strategy" section, you'll find a comprehensive 3-year development plan, outlining all the necessary initiatives to make your web agency highly profitable.

Furthermore, this section has a marketing plan, a strategy to mitigate risks, and a filled-in Business Model Canvas.

5. Finances

In the end, the section labeled "Finances" allows you to showcase the financial details and numbers of your project.

How to write an Executive Summary for a web agency?

The Executive Summary is a brief and condensed overview of the business plan of your web agency.

Keep it short and focused, with a maximum of 2 pages. Include only the key points.

This document is meant to get the reader interested in your business plan.

In the Executive Summary of your web agency, provide responses to the following: what services does your web agency offer? who is your target market? are there other web agencies in the industry? how do you differentiate from them? what is your budget?

How to do the market analysis for a web agency?

Analyzing the market for your web agency allows you to gain insights into factors such as client needs for web design and development, competition within the digital agency industry, and emerging trends in online presence.

By conducting a thorough market study, a web agency can understand client needs, offer professional web development services, optimize pricing strategies, and execute targeted marketing campaigns, ultimately leading to a larger client base, increased project contracts, and a prominent position in the web development industry.

You'll discover the following in the "Market Research" section of our business plan for a web agency :

• interesting data points and market insights about web agencyes, including web design trends, digital marketing strategies, and website development costs
• a list of potential audiences for a web agency
• the competitor analysis
• the potential competitive advantages for a web agency

The key points of the business plan for a web agency

What's the business model of a web agency, business model of a web agency.

A web agency's model revolves around providing web design, development, and digital marketing services to clients. Revenue is generated through project contracts or retainer-based service agreements.

The business model focuses on understanding client requirements, creating user-friendly and visually appealing websites, implementing digital marketing strategies, providing ongoing website maintenance or hosting, and building long-term client relationships through exceptional service and results.

Success depends on expertise in web design and development, staying updated with industry best practices and technologies, effective marketing to target businesses or individuals, delivering projects on time and within budget, and fostering positive client referrals and testimonials.

Business model vs Business plan

Don't confuse "business plan" with "business model."

A business model describes how a company generates income and operates successfully.

In a business plan, you illustrate your business model utilizing a mechanism known as the Business Model Canvas.

Rest assured, there is a Business Model Canvas (already completed) in our business plan for a web agency .

How do you identify the market segments of a web agency?

Market segmentation for your web agency involves dividing your potential clients into different groups based on their web development needs, industry requirements, and demographics.

These categories may include factors such as website design, e-commerce development, digital marketing, or clients seeking specific web services or industry expertise (e.g., healthcare websites, e-commerce platforms, SEO optimization).

By segmenting your market, you can offer specialized web services and solutions that cater to each segment's specific requirements. For example, you might focus on website design and create visually appealing and user-friendly websites for businesses or individuals, offer e-commerce development services and build customized online stores with secure payment gateways and inventory management systems, specialize in digital marketing and provide strategies and campaigns to enhance online visibility and reach, or focus on specific web services or industry expertise such as healthcare websites, e-commerce platforms, or SEO optimization to address specific client needs.

Market segmentation allows you to effectively target your marketing efforts, communicate your expertise in specific web areas or industries, and provide reliable and innovative web solutions that meet the unique needs and preferences of each client segment.

In the business plan for a web agency , you will find a comprehensive market segmentation that helps you know and understand your customers.

How to conduct a competitor analysis for a web agency?

It's clear that you won't be the only web agency in the industry. There are other agencies offering website development and digital marketing services to clients.

Thoroughly analyzing your competitors' strengths and weaknesses is a crucial aspect of creating a successful business plan.

Explore their weaknesses (such as outdated web design practices, limited digital marketing expertise, or poor project management).

Why should you pay attention to these factors? Because these weaknesses can impact the success of web agencyes. By addressing these points, you can offer innovative web design and development solutions, provide excellent project management and communication, and deliver exceptional customer service, positioning your web agency as a go-to partner for digital transformation and online success.

It's what we call competitive advantages—focus on creating them to differentiate your business.

Here are some examples of competitive advantages for a web agency: talented and experienced web designers and developers, comprehensive range of web services, creative and visually appealing designs, efficient project management, strong client communication and collaboration, reliable technical support and maintenance.

How to draft a SWOT analysis for a web design agency?

A SWOT analysis can provide valuable insight into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with starting a web agency.

As you can guess, there is indeed a completed and editable SWOT matrix in our business plan for a web agency

The strengths for a web agency

The letter "S" denotes Strengths in SWOT, indicating the project's positive attributes.

For a web agency, strengths could include expertise in web development, creative design capabilities, strong customer service, and a wide range of services.

The weaknesses for a web agency

W stands for Weaknesses, referring to the project's areas or aspects that have room for improvement.

For a web agency: inadequate technical expertise, lack of resources, lack of marketing skills, and limited customer base.

The opportunities for a web agency

O stands for Opportunities in SWOT, representing the external factors or circumstances that can benefit the project.

In the case of a web agency, potential opportunities include creating websites, designing logos, developing mobile applications, and offering digital marketing services.

The threats for a web agency

The letter "T" in SWOT signifies Threats, representing the external risks or potential harm to the project's objectives.

How to elaborate a marketing strategy for a web design agency?

A marketing strategy plays a pivotal role in a business plan as it defines how a business will entice customers and generate sales.

A web design agency can connect with businesses in need of professional and visually appealing websites by developing an effective marketing plan that highlights the agency's portfolio, expertise in web development, and ability to create engaging online experiences.

Clients won't choose your web design agency without proper promotion; showcasing your portfolio, expertise in UX/UI, and successful website projects is crucial.

Are you implementing effective marketing strategies for your web design agency? Consider showcasing your portfolio of visually appealing websites, attending industry conferences or networking events to connect with potential clients, and utilizing digital marketing strategies to increase your online visibility.

No worries if you have no clue about marketing and communication.

How to build a 3-year financial plan for a web design agency?

A successful business plan must include detailed financial information, such as income and expense projections, cash flow statements, and a break-even analysis.

As part of your business planning process, you'll be required to predict the revenue for your web agency.

When potential investors review your business plan, they need to see revenue projections that make sense and are backed by solid assumptions to feel confident in your venture.

Our financial plan for a web agency is user-friendly, providing automated validations that allow you to rectify any assumptions swiftly. This guarantees the creation of credible projections with ease and assurance.

Without a doubt, you will be required to draft a provisional budget for your web agency. Don't forget any expense (we have listed them all in our financial plan !).

The break-even analysis is vital for your financial plan because it tells you if you whether your web agency will be profitable or not.

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Website Design and SEO Company Business Plan

•   Website Design Business Plan Template(Microsoft Word)  –  $47.00
•   +Add Excel Worksheet (Recommended)  –  $25.00
•   +Add Funding Package Pitch Deck PowerPoint  –  $35.00

How to get funding for your website design and development business!

“Here’s the ‘Perfect Solution’ to getting your website development and SEO business funded quickly…even if you don’t have a clue on how to write a business plan and don’t have the budget to pay a professional to do it!”

If you want to get your website development business organized and funded then here’s the perfect solution:

Did you know that a well written and researched business plan is the key to getting funding for your website business?

But most entrepreneurs neglect this aspect of their startup.

That’s usually because they are not knowledgeable enough to write a business plan on their own.

Or do not have the budget to pay a professional business plan writer.

But if you’ve ever wanted to start a website development business and you need to write a business plan to get funding then our Hybrid DIY Business Plan Template is for you.

A Hybrid Business Plan Template is a high quality thoroughly researched business plan template, but also a business plan that has examples for you to insert your own market and business specifics into.

Our templates are high quality, in-depth and researched with the most up to date statistics available.

Each one takes us a minimum of 160 to 200 hours to write and has been reviewed and proofed by at least 3 professionals and a third party prior to being offered to you.

A website design and development business is a great first business for those interested in entrepreneurship.

With a startup cost more affordable than a traditional storefront as well as being able to change your location easily a website design and development business is a great flexible first venture. With more and more businesses coming online as well as many more legacy long term businesses needing an update to their current online presence there has never been a better time to start a website design and development company. The issue now is not so much educating clients on what a website is and how it can help them, now it is more on showing the clients how a website can help them grow as a business. How websites are effective mediums to get their business name and service or product out there affordably.

With a just few modifications (Like the name of your company and owners bio, market, financials and location specifics) you can customize this business plan for your exact needs.

Here’s why a free business plan template can risk your chances at funding.

Lenders and investors see thousands of business plans and they know when you’re using a template because the “Wording is just not right”

You can have the best idea for your venture and pitch it to them perfectly, however when you leave and they review your plan what will it really say about you?

And free isn’t really free if it costs you your funding.

Why leave the future of your business to chance?

Our business plan templates are written for your specific market, up to date with the most current research available, references are included as well as current financials.

Start your business off the right way with our comprehensive Hybrid business plan template.

You will receive our 45 page Hybrid fusion business plan template which contains the following sections:

• Executive summary.
• The enterprise.
• The business concept and need.
• Industry / market overview.
• Growth strategy and implementation summary
• Management plan
• Risk factor
• Financial projections
• Use of proceeds
• Investor return strategy

( Click here to view sample pages – opens in new window)

Website Development Excel template available separately.

Investor Presentation Package avaliable separately. Includes: 

• eBook: How to pitch your business idea to investors
• eBook: Elevator Pitch Template and Examples
• 12 Slide website development PowerPoint Pitch Deck

(Click here to see sample pages of what you will be receiving)

See what our customers are saying about our business plan templates..

“The plan had some great points that were very beneficial and important to my business. I hope other clients are able to see the value you are able to provide in their business plans, just like myself. I would highly recommend you to other prospective entrepreneurs. It’s been a pleasure and I look forward to execute my business plan.”

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Pho Kingdom

“Black Box Business Plans has given me the tools and inspiration to pursue my business venture. Not only was the template helpful in helping me form my business idea it really explain how it would benefit my company.”

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Young Peoples Consulting

“Black Box has been a tremendous help to me and my business ventures. His templates were extremely helpful to me with regards to moving my business from the conceptual phase to something that could be successfully implemented.   Furthermore, his business plan example and associated materials allowed me to organize and structure my venture according to how I wanted to run and grow my business. I also found the process much easier with the materials (as opposed to doing everything on my own), since they provided a solid blueprint for my business.   I would recommend Shawn and his team to other entrepreneurs and business owners without hesitation. They have been great to work with!”

Kevin Cisney

The best part about our templates is that the TIME CONSUMING parts are DONE for YOU.

  Our Hybrid Fusion Business Plan Templates save you time as most portions are already completed for you, including the general narrative, market research, format, charts and financials are already researched and written for the website development industry.

What makes our Hybrid Fusion Business Plan Templates Different?

Here are just a few reasons why the black box business plan template is the best solution to begin planning your venture:

• Written by business professionals combined with real entrepreneurs with over 20 years of experience.
• Formatted layout for investor and lender use.
• References provided at the end of each plan.
• Most recently available market research and demographics used.
• Beautifully formatted to look professional and pleasing to the eye.
• Full narrative written from scratch for your industry.
• Industry financials at the end of each plan.
• Written in a persuasive way to show investors the true potential of your venture.
• Hybrid Fusion Cross between a business plan sample and template to make customization more realistic.

(Click here to view sample pages of this website development business plan template)

But we don’t want to sell you on easy.  .

We want to make sure you obtain a well-researched market specific business plan template you are able to build a realistic and truly investor friendly business plan upon.

Real investors and lenders see 3 to 15 business plans a day.

With the big “Corporate” business plan template companies luring you in with an “Easy” business plans those very lenders see right through them.

With our plan templates you will have something extensive, unique as well as currently researched to set you apart from the “Corporate” generic business fill-in-the-blank plan templates.

Do-it-yourself and not only save, but learn more about your business as well.

• Each complete plan takes us about 160 to 200 hours to research , write and create and is written in a way to make it easy to understand yet investor friendly. A professional business plan writer would charge a minimum of $650 to create a unique business plan of our length with the amount of research, financials, graphs and charts.
• This is the viable solution you have been looking for. A comprehensive, well written template with full narrative and financials research specifically for your industry. Our business templates are investor friendly, written by professionals and offered at a fraction of the cost of a professional business plan writer.
• We stand behind our quality. Our templates are in-depth and researched with the most up to date statistics available. If you are able to find a lower priced more researched, referenced, comprehensive, up to date website development 2017 business template we will refund your money.*
• Don’t believe the MYTH of “Fill in the blanks” business plan templates. Each venture is unique as is each market. If someone promises you a “fill-in-the-blanks” template or automated way to create your business plan then you are effectively getting a generic plan. Our hybrid business plan offered here is researched written and formatted in 2017 specifically for the website development industry.
• Before purchasing please understand the usage of this document (Yes you will have to put in some work) we are honest about what offer and provide screen shots of the documents you will be receiving so there is no misunderstanding.

A customized or turn-key document from a reputable professional business plan writer starts at $450 and an cost upward of $1,300 (A Google search will show you this.)

We are attempting to help you get started on a budget hence we are providing our extensive hybrid fusion business plan documents as a starting point for you to build your plan upon.

If you do not wish to do any work we do offer a fully customized plan starting at $850.

If interested please feel free to message us regarding these fully custom written plans.

Disclaimers

• This is a Hybrid Fusion business plan template, which is in between a business plan template and sample. This is NOT a complete Turn-key business plan. Modify and use this Hybrid Fusion business plan template as a foundation to create your own plan. See sample pages to see exactly what you will be receiving.
• We are unable to make any changes to this plan or excel sheet or pitch deck or documents for you.
• By purchasing these documents you agree not to resell, copyright or post them online.
• Digital Download for Microsoft Office XP 10.0 in Windows XP and higher versions.
• Will open in Microsoft Office for Mac however some formatting issues may be present and will need to be corrected. For this reason we unable to guarantee 100% direct compatibility with Microsoft Office for Mac.

The best time to start is now. Purchase with confidence. SSL Secured Checkout and 30 Day Money Back Guarantee if you are able to find a more comprehensive and up to date plan and funding package combination for a lower price point.*

* Click here for Money Back Guarantee terms and conditions.

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Sample Design Business Plan – Web Design & Graphic Design Business Plan

• 20. June 2016
• BrainHive Know-How Base @en , Business Plan Samples EN

This is an example of a completed business plan for a startup company providing web and graphic design services (screen design, online marketing, i. e. search engine optimization, social media marketing, click display marketing and web development) to companies in Germany. The company offers its services in the form of long-term maintenance contracts as well as complete service packages and campaigns, in order to enable the customers to focus on their actual core businesses. The location is the area of Giessen.

The company founder and manager has extensive knowledge experience in the field, both in practice as a web designer and internet marketer (8 years, employed/self-employed) as well as academically, being a graduate in electrical engineering and web design.

The business plan elaborates on crucial points like the concept (services incl. range of systems and programming languages, and the related operational procedures, USP, company vision), provides an overview of the market situation (competitive but with still increasing demand), as well as a risk analysis. It also gives information regarding potential business partners (an existing network of independent contractors) the marketing plan and financing.

While the expansion of the business is part of the strategy, it is expected that in the long-term the number of clients will decrease, so the focus lies on the increase of customer’s quality and loyalty (i.e. long-term and extensive customer relationships) by providing professionalism as well as high quality. It can be assumed that – given the current situation – the company will not only be well-established within short but also grow quickly.

While the facts as such might already be promising, their appropriate, convincing presentation is a crucial aspect as well. The financing of a business is an important issue, and a professional and adequate business plan will help establish the professional trust of potential investors.

Extra tip: A good way to get started quickly, efficiently and professionally is to hire business plan writers to write your business development plan. At BrainHive, we offer experienced business planning services. If you want to know how much a business plan costs , we can also help you out, being one of the most affordable and yet professional business plan consulting firms in the market. Don’t hesitate to approach us anytime if you want to learn more about us or get an individual quote for your business plan project. It is perhaps also worthwhile to note that we can also help you with your existing business plan , as well as prepare just the your business plan’s financial part . This way, you can rest assured that you will receive a custom-tailored business planning service that fits your exact need at the best price imaginable.

Sample Design Business Plan Overview

1. Executive Summary 2. Market and Competition Analysis 3. Opportunities and Threats 4. Location 5. Partner/s 6. Marketing Strategy 7. The Manager/Founder 8. Legal Form 9. Staff 10. Financial Planning

1. Sample Design Business Plan: Executive Summary

The primary business concept of the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. entails providing web and graphic design services to companies in Germany.

So far the focus of the manager’s work has been in these areas, both as a freelancer (self-employed) and on a permanent, long-term basis. Future clients will be supported in optimally structuring their digital marketing formation and choosing the right strategy. The [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will provide companies with adjustments to long-term maintenance contracts as well as complete service packages and campaigns, so that businesses can concentrate on their core operational competencies. The outsourcing of digital marketing work has become very important for companies in recent years in order to remain competitive. The manager is a graduate in electrical engineering and web design with 8 years of experience in web design / Internet marketing. He completed his studies in web design 2 years ago and has numerous references and professional certifications. A previous client and longtime employer who first hired Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder as an electrician was really satisfied with his work.

The manager will pursue further opportunities for expansion in the course of business. A particular focus in this case is the further utilization of existing knowledge in the area of screen design, online marketing (search engine optimization, social media marketing and click display marketing) and web development. Given the success to date, an existing network of independent contractors and the thought-out strategy of the manger is to assume that [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will establish itself well and grow rapidly.

1.1 Services

The marketing services [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. offers are in the areas of web design, graphic design and other services (Screen design, online marketing and web development). The manager can cover the complete range of web design services, having studied it and having access to a network of freelance experts. The manager has exceptional expertise when it comes to sites with mobile end devices, making him the right partner in even the most demanding projects. The following list includes the complete range of systems and programming languages, in which the startup can provide services:

• HTML & CSS
• PHP & MySQL
• Database design
• Content management systems (building your own CMS, thus easy to adjust and flexible)
• Online shops

The right decisions can be made at the very start of the project based on the manager’s experience in the field of online marketing and search engine optimization. The client’s aims for a modern-looking website with good functionality and a stable, lucrative Internet presence will be fulfilled to his/her complete satisfaction. The manager has also carried out numerous projects in the area of graphic design and is particularly well-versed in professional Adobe Creative Cloud programs and the Adobe Document Cloud programs. Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder obtained a number of certificates in a period of four months, which gave him further expertise apart from that attained in the course of his studies, so that he mastered the most complex applications and can pass this knowledge on to his assistants. More specifically, the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. offers graphic design services in the following areas:

• Corporate Design
• Logo Design
• Flyer and brochure design
• Poster and print advertisement design
• Product, image and advertising photography

The other services can generally be divided in three areas: screen design, online marketing und web development. Screen design is mainly about design of user interfaces for applications. Web development involves mainly programming applications (native, web and hybrid) and online marketing revolves around the following aspects:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• SEM (search engine marketing)
• SEA (Search advertising)
• Facebook marketing / Twitter marketing
• Email Marketing / Newsletter marketing

Given this vast range of expertise, the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. can provide a very wide variety of services of very high quality and on great terms. The services can be provided as part of a maintenance contract for a fixed period of one year or as individual or package services. Currently, Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder already has a portfolio of clients from small and medium-size enterprises and associations. In the course of further expansion the product portfolio will also be extended because these clients will continue to be the startup’s most important target group.

1.2 Operational procedures The new clients acquired through various marketing activities (see marketing plan) make project requests by phone or email or conclude a maintenance contract. Clients can track the work done and the results through a seamless control system, and they also can ask for help and feedback in weekly video conferences. More complex project requirements will necessitate longer communication. Client requests are logged and freelance partners are informed what services have to be provided and for how long so that they can plan their time accordingly. The [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will have to outsource part of the services in the first few years to freelancers. Clients will be billed by adding up the working hours at the usual rates in this branch, which are in the range of XX-XX Euro.

The [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will create new synergies within its various business areas with view to benefit from further progressive marketing automation and digitization of the company, as being competitive largely depends on efficient use of marketing tools, particularly digital ones. The manager could attract a number of partners as a freelance web designer and online marketer / marketing consultant before founding his company, who would be suitable both as initial customers as well as references, making them crucial to the success of the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd.

The departments of the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. could support each other, but are interdependent only to a very slight extent. It is also assumed that demand for the different services will probably peak at different times, so there will be an even balance of the workload of the manager and the assistants and the utilization of infrastructural resources. The most important selling point is definitely going to be the highly trained and experienced industry manager with the extensive software and expert knowledge that he’s bringing to [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. His qualifications enable him to represent the company to the best possible extent. He has management experience both on site and by telephone.

1.4 Goal of the Company / Vision

The strategy of the company entails quality management without being too expensive for the main target group of clients (small and medium enterprises and local associations or establishments, public or private). This positioning can allow Design Ltd. to benefit maximally from the market environment on location and the prevailing demand and plan for rapid growth at an early stage. The company can be even more flexible by using modern technology with view to the Best Practice (communication, project management, management / accounting, etc.). Consistent analysis of business processes and the realization of cost savings at all levels will sustain satisfying conditions for clients. The strategy aims to present the company in the highly competitive online marketing field as service-oriented right from the start so as to increase its chances of being recommended by satisfied clients. The company’s professional services will ensure it is not forgotten by its clients and can serve their needs over a longer period. In X-X years the company would like to start hiring staff full-time to improve the capital planning and alleviate the workload of the manager so as to be active in other marketing areas as well. X-X full-time employees and a X-digit annual turnover with a profit in the range of XXX.XXX – XXX.XXX Euro are realistic X-year prospects.

2. Sample Design Business Plan: Market and Competition Analysis

 2.1 Market Situation: Digital Services

The market for the services to be offered by [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. is quite competitive in Germany, but despite this demand is not only high but on the rise. First, a European labor market study is used as an indicator of what trends are currently important. Then we examine the trends currently perceived by the major full-service digital agencies and established as part of a survey of the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) e.V. (German Digital Analytics Association – GDAA ). A recent labor market analysis of the European Web Association (https://de.webmasters-europe.org) in XXXX showed that compared to last year the number of vacancies for Internet specialists has remained at approximately the same very high level as in XXXX. Demand is highest for web developers and Linux administrators (more than X,XXX job vacancies for each), followed by online marketing experts (more than X,XXX jobs) and project managers (more than X,XXX vacancies). The demand for “pure” web designers, however, is not quite as high with just under X,XXX vacancies. The analysis of specific competences showed that new web technologies and development methods are becoming integrated within the current job profiles very quickly and companies are looking for very highly skilled experts that possess the latest know-how. HTML5 has become the standard for web designers. A lot of companies expect very good CSS knowledge and experience in the design of responsive websites that range from XX-inch screens to Smartphones.

There is still very high and urgent demand for IT specialists in Germany. According to the most recent data (XXXX) there were XX,XXX open and difficult to fill vacancies for IT professionals, of which XX,XXX at medium-size IT companies. It is estimated that companies in the ICT industry have created some XX,XXX new jobs in Germany in XXXX. The demand for IT freelancers is stable at a high level and will increase even more, as the GULP Project Exchange reported. The trade magazine Computer Week reported a strong and still growing demand for freelance Internet experts. Startups and smaller companies suffer most acutely from the lack of skilled workers, as they are generally not able to pay such high salaries as large companies are and the expenses and costs for staff are always higher.

The demand for social media experts (+XX%) and online marketing experts with know-how in Search Engine Advertising (SEA) (+XX%) and web analysis (+XX%) has increased significantly in the areas of online marketing and web business. Demand for HTML5-experts in web design has skyrocketed (+XX%), while that for Adobe Flash and Actionscript experts (-XX%) has decreased. In web development demand for Java experts sustains a high level (+X%), has increased for Python experts (+XX%), but dropped for PHP (-XX%) and Ruby (-XX%). The most web developer job vacancies are for JavaScript (XXXX, followed by Java (XXXX), JavaScript library jQuery (XXXX) and the programming language PHP (XXXX).

As for Content Management Systems, there are XXX vacancies for highly skilled Typo3 experts, which is slightly less y/y (XXX, -X%). Demand for know-how of CMS-applications such as WordPress (+XX%), Drupal (+X%) and Joomla (+XXX%) has increased. It is highest for Joomla with XXX vacancies, but this is just a bit more than WordPress (XXX).

Based on this data one can claim demand for IT services is stable throughout Europe. Social media is the leading aspect in the area of web business/online marketing, as it has always been. Know-how/experience in SEO, SEM and SEA is highly demanded by online marketing managers. About XX percent of all companies in Germany employ at least one person who takes care of social media. This is up X% from XXXX.

Below is a table showing data of a survey of the XXX top digital agencies, which generated turnover of X,X bln. Euro in XXXX (just under XX.XXX staff). This data is essential for t he prospects of [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd.

First we see that competition is rising – a tendency closely followed by freelancers on online forums (ex. selbstaendig-im-netz.de):

[DIAGRAM REMOVED]

Source: “Full-Service-Internet Agencies in Germany –Turnover, Developments and Trends 2015”, GDAA

The following data reflects the general market situation. Only about a third of agencies are resistant to fluctuation and a fifth are optimistic about the prevalent trend.

Most revenues are generated in areas where Sample Design Business Plan will be especially well positioned: the technical implementation. It is therefore of considerable advantage that the founder can contribute so much experience and expert knowledge. Marketing, branding and e-commerce remain the main revenue drivers for full-service agencies, which gives the founder an edge.

How is the web design industry changing? The Internet was a haven for newcomers and self-taught mavericks until recently and many companies underestimated its power as a marketing tool. However, many local SMEs are now thinking seriously about Internet marketing and want to have a professional website and Facebook page. Companies’ marketing efforts will move increasingly to the Internet, and with them the marketing budgets. When the potential of the Internet is recognized, the demand for high-quality work will skyrocket. The price will take a back seat to quality as the most important factor for customers. When that happens, the market will consolidate. Clients will contract for web designers who have a lot of experience and can demonstrate excellent references. They may also turn to consultants who can recognize good quality and look out for suitable web designers. The Internet continues to evolve rapidly, and its complexity is constantly increasing. Web designers, especially freelancers, have a lot of projects and there are always more. The Internet pervades our everyday lives. We are online always and everywhere – in front of the TV, as we travel, on our trackers. It is getting harder and harder to adapt web pages to all browsers and to ensure that no potential customers will be driven away by display errors. Even making a website visible in Google and potentially profiting from it takes a lot of experience and knowledge. The increasingly specialized requirements make it more and more difficult to be a one-man full-service web agency. Instead, specialized web designers will come together and work as experts in various fields under one roof. These teams need to develop highly efficient procedures and ensure high levels of productivity and professionalism. Clients are trying to be visible on as many platforms as possible. They expect their Internet agency not only to create an excellent website, but also to organize (for example) a Facebook campaign and integrate it into the rest of the marketing mix. With the increasing complexity it is becoming more difficult for small companies to offer a fully comprehensive product range. This is why they will build networks and cooperate with partners. The number of new clients will decrease. Loyal clients will be key to the agencies. Since an Internet project can never be 100% complete, there will arise new possibilities by means of new technologies. That’s why it is very important for the agencies to keep their loyal clients. It won’t be necessary to “learn the ropes” at new companies. It is important to know the clients in detail and to serve and consult them optimally. The opposite isn’t true: The ever more complex, interconnected Internet marketing activities cannot be carried out by third parties – not easily at any rate. When clients contract a new agency, they’ll take hours to find their way around.

Structural change has some essential features of industrialization. With the above mentioned changes, the industry will focus more on cost minimization on one hand and profit maximization on the other. Since teamwork will dominate the future, it is important that all of today’s web designers acquire the relevant skills. There should be no limitations on the productivity achieved through specialization stemming from loss of resources during information exchange within the team. To this end, comprehensive frameworks are being developed and process optimization is being established. The Internet may be a global phenomenon, but the agencies will be working under the same roof as to facilitate communication between team members. In order for small agencies to remain competitive, they must limit their service portfolio to the core competencies and obtain other services from external companies. It is economically sound to standardize and automate as many processes as possible. This is why good programmers and ideas are needed – the more efficiently you work, the lower the prices you can afford without compromising quality. Every website and every Facebook campaign seems unique, but they are all based on reusable modules and systems that are adapted to the needs of the agencies. These systems with new, intelligent software replace people and automate some processes fully. We can conclude that the digital design industry is entering a period of consolidation, and the outcome for individual market players can be either positive or negative. It makes sense to deal with the prospects in such a way as to benefit from the changes. The data clearly show that the startup is highly competitive and entering a very demanding market environment. Recent developments have set the course, there is an economic necessity for modernization and the historical development indicates stable and strong future growth. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Limited’s market entry should be quick and successful thanks to its good references and the existing customer base.

2.2 Competition Analysis

The market for digital agencies is traditionally one of the most competitive markets in the service sector. Big and small agencies, in-house marketing departments and an infinite, often web-based number of freelancers all share the workload. There is no single big player on this market. A market share is acquired based on the number of employees, industry recognitions and key references one can provide. The unique selling points of the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. include the expertise of the founder, his existing network and acquired know-how. These are only some of the advantage this startup is bringing to the market, however. Few companies can afford to compete directly with Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan, whose impressive references and excellent technical know-how are unbeatable. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will be a very efficient player on the market due to the founder’s skills, knowledge and professionalism. The founder will run the startup in line with the prevailing trends in digital marketing, which is a very important element especially in terms of outsourcing and communication with staff and partners. The pricing strategy is quite flexible, so even extremely price-conscious clients could be accommodated.

It should be noted that the companies with the best prices are not likely to compete with the [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. directly because it is much more difficult for them to offer the practical and optimal, individualized, powerful digital marketing tools for specific target groups. Of course, the personal approach and professional communication play an important role.

The combination of professionalism and high quality gives the startup a definite edge over the competition. Vertical and potentially horizontal service coverage in the marketing segment will encourage clients to form a long-term partnership with the startup. Clients will help facilitate the market growth of [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. in all the areas it covers thanks to the excellent communication skills and impressive references of the founder. A clear and professionally designed website and the use of diverse marketing channels will prove decisive in terms of promoting [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. on the market (see also the marketing plan). Another important competition aspect involves the consistent pursuit of progress and continuous implementation of the latest technologies. The most important development in the industry in recent years was “Cloud/SaaS Services”, where companies don’t need to use their own hardware and software. Instead, they contract service providers that ensure access to all the relevant applications on the Internet. At the moment these are mainly storage systems and office applications, but soon the applications will become more complex. Cloud computing, automation and cross-channel integration still play a minor role for the target group, but they will become increasingly important as the market matures in the years to come. The [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. can keep up with these trends without any problems and even offer such services on the market after its successful establishment in the core segment. This is another reason why the startup will hold its own against the competition no matter how strong it may be and will even be able to improve its market status.

2.3 Target Group

[SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will offer services mainly to SMEs, but also maintain existing connections with associations and institutions. Its multifaceted marketing consulting services are applicable in every area, particularly house and garden, the construction industry, consumer electronics, IT, tourism, leisure and sport, textiles and clothing, food and the automobile market. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will initially cater mainly to SMEs, but in the long term efforts will be made to solicit business from larger companies and include lucrative, long-term training and maintenance contracts in the project portfolio. Fewer monthly revenue fluctuations mean better planning as regards recruitment, facilitating long-term growth.

[SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. is facing mainly operative risks. High marketing investments should lead to higher revenue. The prices must correspond to the quality of services. Long-term research on the competition was done to assess the effectiveness of marketing investments accurately. Comprehensive data on the companies managed by the founder was collected. Health and accident insurance and contractual details such as hiring freelance assistants and buying program licenses have been researched very thoroughly to ensure legal compliance and protection. We will be insured against damage to or theft of expensive laptops. Other security measures will include a powerful backup system, encryption of critical data and professional antivirus software to protect against data loss and other marketing-specific risks, especially in relation to cybercrime. Due to the complex nature of the business project, it is extremely important not to compromise on performance and to focus on quality, maintenance and reliability. This is the only way to ensure adequate pricing and the cooperation of other professional enterprises. Proper contract execution will help avoid additional costs to [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. in the long term and implement effective, predictable and transparent cost structures as a result of the focus on quality. The manager’s experience and qualifications, the solid business model and diversified revenue sources are quite likely to offset any and all issues that the complex and demanding environment may cause.

3. Sample Design Business Plan: Opportunities and Threats (SWOT-Analysis)

The following SWOT matrix gives a clear picture of all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:

4. Sample Design Business Plan: Location

The Sample Town is in the area of Giessen, which has been home to the founder for many years. It has numerous advantages as the location of the company. The Sample Town offers [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. good opportunities to attract clients. Nestling between Marburg, Frankfurt and Bad Hersfeld, the Town is a popular and easily accessible destination that offers many opportunities for collaboration and networking. The site infrastructure is well developed and the quality of life is high, so that productive, inspired work is possible in balance with a satisfying social and family life. The well-equipped office spaces on site and in the nearby towns provide a good basis for all kinds of business activities. Fast Internet connections allow for the unrestricted establishment of Internet-based companies.

5. Sample Design Business Plan: Partner/s

[SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. can rely on Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan’s existing network of contacts, developed in the course of his work as an independent marketing consultant performing various business activities. The following list contains information about the individual companies and reference persons, who will be contacted right after the startup launch:

[TABLE REMOVED]

6. Sample Design Business Plan: Marketing Strategy

6.1 Communication Strategy

The main focus of [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd’s marketing activities will naturally be on Internet marketing, as this will promote all the company’s services most efficiently. Adwords and advertising on social networks will play a major role. The website will be created according to all the best practices and will offer a variety of instruments to generate leads such as downloads, leaflets, forms and showcases. The aim is to encourage visitors to contact the company. A carefully thought-out email marketing and direct telephone contact strategy completes the marketing mix. Ads in local magazines are one possible approach for [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. This way the company can attract local establishments and clients who don’t first look online for service providers. Giveaways and brochures will be posted and handed out at briefings with clients on location to attract new clients and generate orders, ex. some clients might mention the company in conversation with other clients. This also strengthens the company’s professional image and status.

Participation in exhibitions is also among [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd.’s communication strategies. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. could be represented at industry conferences and fairs such as INNO IT (Kiel), IT & Business (Stuttgart) or IT & BÜRO (Friedrichshafen), and many other events. There are many networking events and lecture series in the greater area of Frankfurt specifically designed for SMEs, which build an optimal enterprise exchange framework.

6.2 Pricing Strategy

[SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd’s marketing services are oriented to the upscale European market. Signing maintenance contracts with loyal clients will enable us to achieve solid predictability of revenue and at the same time ensure longer-term customer loyalty in terms of fulfilling orders as compared to our competitors. The entry-level hourly rate of about EUR XX is very competitive. Other companies charge between XX-XXX Euro, and the working speed is difficult to estimate. This is why references are so important for a smart buyer. The quality standard will facilitate [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd’s success in communication to attract serious, well-paying clients. The fact that [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd.’s efficient organization can also assist in bringing the rates down will give us an advantage over German enterprises operating on the same market segment and level in terms of concluding service contracts. The startup is aiming for the premium marketing consulting segment in the long term so as to be able to offer outsourcers an attractive margin rate.

7. Sample Design Business Plan: The Manager/Founder

Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan will be a success manager thanks to his numerous qualifications. He studied electrical engineering and started work as an electrician at an engineering consultancy called Partner Firm Design Business Plan in XXXX after spending a year in the US. He still works for Partner Firm Design Business Plan, but has shifted his focus to web design and media in the last decade. He studied web design from XXXX to XXXX and graduated with several certificates in Adobe Design programming in XXXX. He has been active as a freelance designer since XXXX.

Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan can fulfill the expectations of his employers and clients in all areas. His excellent connections and running projects with key decision-makers and his numerous certificates will contribute to easy acquisition of new clients. Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan is fluent in English and speaks a little Spanish. He is a native speaker of German. His language skills, long-year experience in team and project management and international assistants will help him be an excellent manager.

8. Sample Design Business Plan: Legal Form

The Ltd. legal form is selected based on the premise of avoiding personal liability and entering the market in a form that is reputable both in Germany and worldwide. Other advantages are that more shareholders can join a Ltd. and the costs of founding and operating an enterprise in this legal form are easy to predict. The form is also a juridical entity, meaning that contracts and accounts can be signed and opened in the name of the Ltd., which later makes it easier to sell, among other things. Some disadvantages of this legal form are the slightly higher notary fees and the costs of drafting the partnership agreement. In addition, it must be ensured that no actions are taken that could be construed as gross negligence, because in this case the managing partner may be liable with his personal assets. The accounting and expenses for tax consulting services are usually a bit higher than those for joint partnerships. In conclusion, we can say the Ltd. provides some tax benefits and can also serve one well as a tax “piggy bank” for a rainy day. You can safeguard hidden assets / reserves because profits are not distributed as they would be with other business partnerships. The corporate tax is lower than the income tax levied on joint partnerships.

9. Sample Design Business Plan: Staff

One full-time office assistant will be hired in the first three years. Big parts of projects will be outsourced to freelance designers and developers. This is an approach to ensure lower and more flexible fixed costs. X-X more full-time staff members will be hired to enhance capacity and security in a five-year term.

10. Sample Design Business Plan: Financial Planning

10.1 Clarification

Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan is planning to provide equity contribution in the amount of XX,XXX Euro as the manager and sole shareholder. Target debt financing in the amount of XXX,XXX Euro is intended to complement the contribution. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. is expected to enter the market quickly due to its contacts, agree on good payment terms with partners and maintain cash reserves. Despite the high market entry costs (marketing, investment in equipment and staff) [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Ltd. will survive and grow without additional debt financing in the first 3 years thanks to stable organization of internal processes and close cooperation with customers and partners.

10.2 Revenue Source Clarification

The revenue will be limited in the first several months following market entry, as it will take some time to equip the company and attract new clients. However, revenue will solidify and grow after the third quarter. This tendency will continue in the following months. An increase of app. XX% y/y is expected in the third year. Thereafter the revenue will increase by XX-XX% a year due to the expanding project portfolio. Growth will level off at XX-XX% in X-X years. The positive effects mentioned in the market analysis can easily result to exponential revenue growth upon acquisition of the right clients, which is why the above estimates are rather conservative. The following table shows revenue estimate per month in the first three years.

[TABLE REMOVED] Source: Financial Plan (Manager’s estimate)

Web and graphic design will generate the most revenue (see pie chart). However, long-term maintenance contracts will account for a rising percentage of the revenue.

10.3 Capital

Mr. [SAMPLE DESIGN BUSINESS PLAN] Founder Plan is planning to provide equity contribution in the amount of XX,XXX Euro as the manager and sole shareholder. Target debt financing in the amount of XXX,XXX Euro is intended to complement the contribution, thus creating the economic potential for a good and fast market launch. Go Back Up

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Website Business PDF Free Download

How to Start a Website Business - Website Business Plan PDF eBook

Are you considering starting a Website Business and you’re in need of a website business plan PDF? if yes, you'll find this free book to be extremely helpful.

This is a practical guide that will walk you step by step through all the essentials of starting your business. The book is packed with guides, worksheets and checklists. These strategies are absolutely crucial to your business' success yet are simple and easy to apply.

Don’t Start a New Website Business Unless You Watch This Video First!

Checklist for Starting a Business: Essential Ingredients for Success

If you are thinking about going into business, it is imperative that you watch this video first! it will take you by the hand and walk you through each and every phase of starting a business. It features all the essential aspects you must consider BEFORE you start a business. This will allow you to predict problems before they happen and keep you from losing your shirt on dog business ideas. Ignore it at your own peril!

Here’s a Valuable Free Gift for You This is a high quality, full blown business plan template complete with detailed instructions and all related spreadsheets. You can download it to your PC and easily prepare a professional business plan for your business. Click Here! To get your free business plan template

The Single Most Important Ingredient for Business Success

The first and most important thing you need to acquire in order to succeed in a small business is... knowledge.

Sounds exaggerated? Listen to this...

According to research conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all small business failures can be traced to poor management resulting from lack of knowledge.

This is backed up by my own personal observations. In my 31 years as a business coach and consultant to small businesses, I've seen practically dozens of small business owners go under and lose their businesses -- not because they weren't talented or smart enough -- but because they were trying to re-invent the wheel rather than rely on proven, tested methods that work.

Conclusion: if you are really serious about succeeding in a business... If you want to avoid the common traps and mistakes... it is absolutely imperative that you acquire the right knowledge.

"Why Invent Mediocrity, When You Can Copy Genius?"

That's an excellent quote I picked up from a fellow business owner a few years back. What this means is that you should see what is working and try to duplicate Printing Business. Why go through all the trouble of inventing something new, that you don't even know will ever work, when you can easily learn from and duplicate something that has been a proven success?

[ Note: One of the BIGGEST mistakes almost all new businesses make is that they WASTE tons of valuable time, energy and money on trying to create something "new", that has never been tested or proven... only to find out later that it was a total loss. Don't make the same mistake! ]

Hi! My name is Meir. I'm the founder and president of BizMove.com, a successful internet based information business. I'm also the author of numerous books, mostly in the area of small business management.

I've been involved in small business for the past 31 years of my life, as a business coach, manager of a consulting firm, a seminar leader and as the owner of five successful businesses.

During my career as a business coach and consultant I've helped dozens of business owners start their businesses, market, expand, get out of troubles, sell their businesses and do practically every other small business activity you can think of. You see, I have been there .... done it ... and bought the Small Business t-shirt! -- This free book contains techniques and strategies I've learned during my 31 year small business career.

Here's what you'll discover in the 'How to Start a Printing Business' book:

Success Tip: Setting Goals

Good management is the key to success and good management starts with setting goals. Set goals for yourself for the accomplishment of the many tasks necessary in starting and managing your business successfully. Be specific. Write down the goals in measurable terms of performance. Break major goals down into sub-goals, showing what you expect to achieve in the next two to three months, the next six months, the next year, and the next five years. Beside each goal and sub-goal place a specific date showing when it is to be achieved.

Plan the action you must take to attain the goals. While the effort required to reach each sub-goal should be great enough to challenge you, it should not be so great or unreasonable as to discourage you. Do not plan to reach too many goals all at one time.

Establish priorities. Plan in advance how to measure results so you can know exactly how well you are doing. This is what is meant by "measurable" goals. If you can’t keep score as you go along you are likely to lose motivation. Re-work your plan of action to allow for obstacles which may stand in your way. Try to foresee obstacles and plan ways to avert or minimize them.

Click here! to download your Website Business plan PDF book for free

Here're other free books in the "how to start a business" series that may interest you:

Here's a Sample 'Executive Summary' for a Website Business plan :

Introduction: If you are a baby boomer and want to come along for the booming party, join me here and we will have a blast. COMPANY NAME supplies their followers with real life information for those that are approaching or are older than fifty years old. The Company: COMPANY NAME was conceived to share information on booming through the ages after 50. INSERT NAME wanted to take all baby boomers on the trip and have a blast. They will have fun reminiscing! and learn new things. COMPANY NAME will share experiences. Together they will learn how to take care of our old person suits while booming and blasting your way past fifty. This website/blog spot will seek to serve a niche market of those looking to take a ride into retirement. Our Services: Services for COMPANY NAME is simple; they post web content for their viewers and sell advertisement space to those companies looking to reach a niche audience of individuals approaching or have past the age of fifty. The Market: Social media gets a lot of discussion and even a lot of participation from marketers, but in most cases budgets remains low. One reason for the reluctance to invest more is the old problem of ROI, Return on Investment. While some marketers have created successful social media campaigns that they feel they can measure and determine a benefit from, many have still not solved the social success equation. Fame, as well as more monetization options/potential for your blogs, goes alongside personal satisfaction. Another advantage is that big blogs usually market or promote themselves automatically once a certain level of fame has been achieved.

Financial Considerations: The current financial plan for COMPANY NAME is to obtain grant funding in the amount of $300,000. The grant will be used to expand their market share, purchase equipment, and hire an employee. COMPANY NAME will also use the grant funds to begin an intense marketing and advertising campaign starting in 2011. A portion of the grant funds will be used to hire 1 new employee. This increase in employees will allow COMPANY NAME to give more personal attention to current clients as well as have the capacity to add new clients over the next 3 years. Without the grant funding it will make it almost impossible to add the additional employees that are needed to increase market share for COMPANY NAME.

The major focus for grant funding is as follows:

• COMPANY NAME is 100% women owned, INSERT NAME
• Hire a new employee
• Serve the elderly with good information

1.1 Objectives

The objectives for COMPANY NAME over the next three years are to:

• Achieve sales revenues of approximately $95,000 by year 2013
• Increase market share by 3% by 2013
• Increase name recognition

1.2 Mission

We deliver the type of content, interaction, and service that our customers demand.

1.3 Keys to Success

Keys to success for the company will include:

• Maintaining a reputable and untarnished reputation in the community. 
• Quality of content. 
• Competitive pricing. 
• advertisement.
• Web traffic

COMPANY NAME was conceived to share information on booming through the ages after 50. The Company wants to take all baby boomers with them on the trip and have a blast. We will have fun reminiscing! We will learn new things. We will share experiences. Together we will learn how to take care of our old person suits while booming and blasting our way past fifty. 

2.1 Company Ownership

insert NAME is 100% sole owner of COMPANY NAME.

2.2 Start-up Summary

The start-up summary includes long-term assets of office equipment and software. The equipment will include computers, servers, printers and laptops. The software will include but not limited to anti-virus and other virus protection software. The start-up expenses also have 2 months’ rent and the funds to build and host a new and improved website/blog for COMPANY NAME. All equipment and assets needed in the near future will be purchased in the start-up phase the additional cash not spent will follow to the cash flow and P&L statement. 

Table: Start-up

3.0 services.

COMPANY NAME is a site dedicated to guidance and information for individuals over fifty. The services that are offered by COMPANY NAME involve web content and information for views of this website. As COMPANY NAME drives traffic to the site more advertisers will use the site as a way to promote the products they sell. COMPANY NAME will sell advertisement space and product placement for companies that are looking to connect with the demographic that COMPANY NAME has.

COMPANY NAME has a niche market of those just about to turn fifty and those older than fifty. COMPANY NAME breaks the market down into ages 45-50, 51-59, 60-70, and 71 and older. COMPANY NAME breaks the market into those ages groups because of the different needs each of those groups have.

4.1 Market Segmentation

The market segmentation breaks down into the following:  

• ages 70 and up

Looking To Become A Business Leader? Read This Leadership is a word that anyone in the business world is familiar with, but few understand what it really takes to become a great leader. It takes time, effort and a lot of education. Here we have compiled information from some of the greatest leaders of all time in order to guide you on your path to becoming one of them. Continue reading and learn all you can about leadership. Be strong and decisive as a leader. When you are a leader, you will have to make decisions. Showing you're a good leader means making decisions that will benefit a group as a whole. Making decisions that bring advantages to only a few will be noticed quickly and even resented. Focus on the people you are trying to lead, not yourself. It can be difficult to do that, but when you are a leader, you think of everyone. You must forget about yourself and focus on what you can offer to those who would follow you. That is the right thing to do, and you will find that most people appreciate that behevior. Express a vision for the company. Great leaders differentiate themselves from great managers because of vision. They see where the company needs to be 5 years, 10 years and 20 years down the road. If you've got the vision, share it with your employees. Make them part of the team that'll help get you there. In order to be an effective leader, you need to stay in touch with your emotions. Do not allow yourself to make any of your positive traits turn negative. For example, if you are normally a very confident leader, do not allow added pressure to turn you into someone that is overly arrogant. As an effective leader, it is necessary to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Being too confident in your lesser abilities sets you up for failure. If you know that you have a weakness, try to turn it into a strength. Be a passionate leader. It is easier for other to follow a leader that truly cares about the group's goals. Great leaders should have a genuine passion and enthusiasm for the projects in progress instead of just making sure everyone is finishing their work. Express your passion and let everyone know that you care about their progress. When someone shares with the group, let them know that their contribution is appreciated. If you are the leader of a business, you should never let your personal opinions get in the way of how you do business. For example, never pass somebody up for a promotion simply because you do not like them. If they deserve to advance, you should set your feelings aside and make it happen. Listen to people. Listening is a quality that a lot of people no longer value, but remember that there are people in your company or organization who have good ideas. Show that you are willing to hear from others, and they will feel appreciated. That is something a good leader can do. Don't take exceptional employees for granted. Reward your best workers. Give them more varied responsibilities and better opportunities. Match their pay to their performance. Don't let hard work go unnoticed. Make sure that you are reviewing the performance of your workers on a regular basis. If someone is truly going above and beyond, reward them for it. Encourage your employees to express their concerns and offer suggestions without fear of embarrassment or retribution. An atmosphere that allows for open communication ensures that employees can do their best work, develop innovative ideas and express their thoughts. On the other side of the coin, open communication allows you to avoid conflict while offering feedback and handling problems. As a leader, you must set clear, uncomplicated goals. Be sure that your team can attain them, even if they are a challenge. Give a reward for each goal met, and when it is met, hand out the reward immediately. From the time we are children, this example of goals and rewards motivates us to strive to meet new challenges. It's how people work, and it will work in your workplace. As a leader, your words are the tools you use to motivate people, whether in good ways, or bad. Words are a powerful asset. To motivate your team, or workforce, use the most powerful motivating words you can. These include: thank you, please, great job, glad to see you, or any uplifting words that will boost the confidence of your team. The most effective leaders are ones who are not afraid to be themselves and to be vocal about their values. This does not mean spouting off religious or personal beliefs, but instead imparting wisdom and knowledge in related business matters using an authentic personal style. Be real and have a personality, as this creates a congenial atmosphere where creative ideas thrive. If you must give criticism, do so constructively and in private. Every member of the staff doesn't need to know about every mistake that is made. Being singled out in a crowd in this way is embarrassing. On the other hand, give compliments publicly. This not only build individual confidence, it lets others see that hard work is appreciated and rewarded. If you want to become a great leader, be prepared to set a good example. If you want your team to be positive and upbeat, walk around with a smile on your face. If you value error-free work, be sure you check yours twice! The bottom line is to demand as much from yourself as you want from your team. If you are in the business world, you most certainly know what a great leader is. If you are trying to become a great leader, the tips in this article will most certainly help guide you on your path. Refer to them anytime you are struggling with a leadership challenge, and use them to enhance your ability to achieve greatness.

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Get started with business development templates.

Discover how to build your business strategy with a business development template.

Starting a business can feel daunting. You don’t even necessarily know what you don’t know yet. What’s your unique value offering? What’s your profit structure? Who runs the business? How will you market your goods or services? How will you grow your business ? What will your business proposals look like? The list goes on, and it can seem endless.

Business development and growth plans help you highlight your mission and strategy and think through everything needed to get your enterprise up and running. Think of it as a blueprint for you to get your business going, as well as a guide for your partners and investors.

Learn how to create a business development and business growth plan template that reflects your unique company and goals.

What is a business development plan template?

A business development plan template helps you reach your business goals. It’s a document that is formatted to be flexible so that you can include different goals as your business grows. In your template, you’ll include specific steps to reach the goals that you set. You can even assign these tasks to different team members to provide accountability. You can set long, short, or start-up goals on your business development template.

How to build a better business growth plan.

Your business plan should reflect the business you want to run. Luckily, you’ll have many pre-existing templates to start working from. Make sure your business development plan and growth template include some of these essentials:

Situation analysis. Your situation analysis should be a comprehensive study of the business environment, economy, industry, and competitive landscape. This shows investors that you understand the market you’re entering and demonstrates the need your business will fill.

Business goals. Outline your broad business goals. If you have a hard time sorting out your goals, try the SMART goals technique: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Having detailed goals and a plan to achieve them helps set you up for success.

Marketing plan. How will you promote your business? It’s a good idea to have a general framework and plan for marketing your product or service.

Key performance indicators. Highlight how you will evaluate your business’s performance. What metrics will you use to quantify performance and report on progress?

How to write a business development plan.

To write your business growth plan, begin by determining what your goals are. The goals you set should be both challenging and within reach. As a team, it’s your job to set goals that are motivating. You may be focusing on larger or smaller goals, but they should further your mission as a business and help you grow. Taking the time to set good goals is essential.

To make sure that your goals are realistic, take some time with your team to figure out what achieving your goals might look like. Ask yourselves: What changes will you need to make to meet this goal? Then, broadly outline the path to success.

With your goals and plans in mind, explore pre-made templates to find a simple business development plan template that looks like it will meet your needs and help your business stay organized. It should be something that your whole team will be able to understand and work with easily.

Using your new template, take another look at the basic plans you’ve made to meet your goals. Your template can help you make your plans as specific as possible. The more specific your plans, the more likely you are to reach your goals. As you break your plan down into tasks, assign those tasks to different team members.

Here are the general steps you can follow to use a business growth plan template:

• Determine goals.
• Outline the basic path to achieving your goals.
• Find an effective template.
• Flesh out specifics in plans.

Using your business development plan template will help keep your team accountable and focused on achieving your goals.

Start and grow your business.

Explore business development plan templates, business growth templates, and other

PDF capabilities for your business. As the creator of the world’s most shareable document format, Adobe can equip you with the tools and support you need to help your business grow.

Adobe Acrobat can connect your team remotely and allow you to work with clients using forms and e-signature capabilities . It can help you keep your records organized so that nothing slips through the cracks and tax season is less stressful.

Through Acrobat online services, you can enjoy flexible solutions that allow you to convert files like Excel documents to PDF , insert or delete pages from PDF files , protect your PDFs with passwords , and more.

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1.1: Chapter 1 – Developing a Business Plan

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• Page ID 21274

• Lee A. Swanson
• University of Saskatchewan

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will be able to

• Describe the purposes for business planning
• Describe common business planning principles
• Explain common business plan development guidelines and tools
• List and explain the elements of the business plan development process
• Explain the purposes of each element of the business plan development process
• Explain how applying the business plan development process can aid in developing a business plan that will meet entrepreneurs’ goals

This chapter describes the purposes, principles, and the general concepts and tools for business planning, and the process for developing a business plan.

Purposes for Developing Business Plans

Business plans are developed for both internal and external purposes. Internally, entrepreneurs develop business plans to help put the pieces of their business together. Externally, the most common purpose is to raise capital.

Internal Purposes

As the road map for a business’s development, the business plan

• Defines the vision for the company
• Establishes the company’s strategy
• Describes how the strategy will be implemented
• Provides a framework for analysis of key issues
• Provides a plan for the development of the business
• Helps the entrepreneur develop and measure critical success factors
• Helps the entrepreneur to be realistic and test theories

External Purposes

The business plan provides the most complete source of information for valuation of the business. Thus, it is often the main method of describing a company to external audiences such as potential sources for financing and key personnel being recruited. It should assist outside parties to understand the current status of the company, its opportunities, and its needs for resources such as capital and personnel.

Business Plan Development Principles

Hindle and Mainprize (2006) suggested that business plan writers must strive to effectively communicate their expectations about the nature of an uncertain future and to project credibility. The liabilities of newness make communicating the expected future of new ventures much more difficult than for existing businesses. Consequently, business plan writers should adhere to five specific communication principles .

First, business plans must be written to meet the expectations of targeted readers in terms of what they need to know to support the proposed business. They should also lay out the milestones that investors or other targeted readers need to know. Finally, writers must clearly outline the opportunity , the context within the proposed venture will operate (internal and external environment), and the business model (Hindle & Mainprize, 2006).

There are also five business plan credibility principles that writers should consider. Business plan writers should build and establish their credibility by highlighting important and relevant information about the venture team . Writers need to elaborate on the plans they outline in their document so that targeted readers have the information they need to assess the plan’s credibility. To build and establish credibility, they must integrate scenarios to show that the entrepreneur has made realistic assumptions and has effectively anticipated what the future holds for their proposed venture. Writers need to provide comprehensive and realistic financial links between all relevant components of the plan. Finally, they must outline the deal , or the value that targeted readers should expect to derive from their involvement with the venture (Hindle & Mainprize, 2006).

General Guidelines for Developing Business Plans

Many businesses must have a business plan to achieve their goals. Using a standard format helps the reader understand that the you have thought everything through, and that the returns justify the risk. The following are some basic guidelines for business plan development.

As You Write Your Business Plan

1. If appropriate, include nice, catchy, professional graphics on your title page to make it appealing to targeted readers, but don’t go overboard.

2. Bind your document so readers can go through it easily without it falling apart. You might use a three-ring binder, coil binding, or a similar method. Make sure the binding method you use does not obscure the information next to where it is bound.

3. Make certain all of your pages are ordered and numbered correctly.

4. The usual business plan convention is to number all major sections and subsections within your plan using the format as follows:

1. First main heading

1.1 First subheading under the first main heading

1.1.1. First sub-subheading under the first subheading

2. Second main heading

2.1 First subheading under the second main heading

Use the styles and references features in Word to automatically number and format your section titles and to generate your table of contents. Be sure that the last thing you do before printing your document is update your automatic numbering and automatically generated tables. If you fail to do this, your numbering may be incorrect.

5. Prior to submitting your plan, be 100% certain each of the following requirements are met:

• Everything must be completely integrated. The written part must say exactly the same thing as the financial part.
• All financial statements must be completely linked and valid. Make sure all of your balance sheets balance.
• Everything must be correct. There should be NO spelling, grammar, sentence structure, referencing, or calculation errors.
• Your document must be well organized and formatted. The layout you choose should make the document easy to read and comprehend. All of your diagrams, charts, statements, and other additions should be easy to find and be located in the parts of the plan best suited to them.
• In some cases it can strengthen your business plan to show some information in both text and table or figure formats. You should avoid unnecessary repetition , however, as it is usually unnecessary—and even damaging—to state the same thing more than once.
• You should include all the information necessary for readers to understand everything in your document.
• The terms you use in your plan should be clear and consistent. For example, the following statement in a business plan would leave a reader completely confused: “There is a shortage of 100,000 units with competitors currently producing 25,000. We can help fill this huge gap in demand with our capacity to produce 5,000 units.”

Sample Web Design Business Plan

Web design company business plan sample.

The web design industry basically encompasses the design of websites and hosting of websites on the World Wide Web for both individuals and corporate organizations alike.

In today’s world, it is very uncommon to find companies, and individuals who seriously want to make an impact and do not have a website. With an active website, one can be able to communicate his ideas and message to an audience.

If you are keen on starting up a web design business, and have considered all of the basic things which you have to consider before starting the business, then this web design business plan sample will prove beneficial to you in writing a simple business plan for your web design business.

Here is a sample business plan for starting a web development business.

BUSINESS NAME: Incandescence Screen Printing LLC.

Executive Summary

Our Products and Services

Vision Statement

Mission Statement

Business Structure

• Market Analysis

Sales and Marketing Strategy

• Financial Plan
• Sales Forecast

Five & Six Technology LLC has been duly registered to fully practice in Los Angeles, United States. The business will be very delighted to offer its many products and services to customers all over the United States.

To get started, the owners, Mr and Mrs Smith will be responsible for providing two-third of the startup capital which amounts to $300,000 while the final third will be sourced from the owners’ bank.

The sole purpose of starting up this business is to maximize profits. This, we will achieve by ensuring we do all within the laws of the United States in operating our business.

Five & Six Technology LLC is a web design company which will be operating from Los Angeles, United States. The business has been established so as to maximize profit in the industry. The following are the products and services which we will be offering to our customers not just in Los Angeles, but in the United States at large:

• Designing of websites for corporate clients as well as individual clients.
• Developing of websites and custom platform web development.
• Optimization of website’s functionality for website owners.
• Code writing services and search engine optimization.
• Word press web development.
• Corporate identification design services
• Several other web design related services.

Our vision is to build a standard and world class web design company that will be providing its services to customers not just in Los Angeles, but also in the United States. We want to be counted as part of the leading web design companies in Los Angeles, United Sates.

Our mission is to establish a web design business that will be particular about providing its professional services towards assisting individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, to be able to promote their brands and connect with more prospective customers.

We are very interested in building a web design company that will become a very competitive business in the industry. We will start it small and grow it big into the web design company we hope it to be. It is in view of this that we will not take lightly our recruitment process. We will hire only candidates that meet with our qualification criteria. Candidates that we will recruit will have to be very honest, hardworking, qualified, and most important, they must be very ready to work with us. Below are the positions which we will fill:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Human Resources and Admin Manager
• Creative Director
• Content creator
• Web designer
• Client service executive

Market Analysis Market Trend

One trend in the industry is that the target market is always growing. More persons and organizations have become more aware of the need to have an official website, and also to seek the services of a professional graphics designer in the branding of their products so as to reach more customers.

Target Market

The following are the groups which we have identified to make up our target market:

• Financial Institutions such as Banks, and Insurance Companies
• Corporate Organizations
• Real Estate Owners, developers, and contractors.
• Television stations
• Political Parties
• Religious Organizations
• Sport Organizations
• The Government
• Blue Chips Companies

We have our goal for our business set at a very great height. For us to be able to accomplish our heights, we will do well to station our business amongst the very top web design companies in the United States. The following are the ways we would promote our business to our prospective customers:

• We will make sure to introduce our web design business to various institutions and individuals, all of which make up our target market.
• We will list our web design business in local directories ads.
• We will always stay updated by attending various seminars, expos, business fairs, and the likes.
• We will make very good use of the internet and social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote our business.
• We will encourage the use of word of the mouth in promoting our business.

Financial Plan Sources of Startup Budget

Having conducted thorough study on the industry, and carried out a feasibility study on our line of business, we have been able to determine the needed startup capital to launch our business from scratch. This total startup budget amounts to $300,000. We will do well to obtain this capital from the owners and from the owners’ bank. So far, the owners have been able to raise a total of $150,000. They are expected to raise $200,000 for their part, while the remainder will be sourced as soft loan from the owners’ bank.

Sales Forecast First Fiscal Year                   $100,000 Second Fiscal Year               $150,000 Third Fiscal Year                  $200,000

Above is the sales projection for Five & Six Technology LLC for the first three years from startup. This sales projection is based on what is obtainable in the industry, and it will only function as a guide.

The above business plan sample is a web design business plan sample titled, ‘Five & Six Technology LLC’. The business which will be located in Los Angeles, United States will be focused on providing its customers in the United States with its numerous products and services. The business will be run by the Smiths.

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