20 Ways to Streamline Your Web Business
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If I told you that there are twenty different ways you can streamline your web design business, make more money and work less, would you believe me? What if I showed you – would you believe me then? In this article, you will find twenty different ways you can streamline your web business. Some of which will cover work aspects while others will cover administrative tasks, but all in all, the end goal is the same: making more money and working less.
1. Create pre-made xhtml/css files for reuse
This was one of the first things I did when starting to streamline my web design business and I can’t tell you how much time I’ve saved since I’ve done this. Think about it: how many times do you actually create a website that has the same structure (header, sidebar, content, footer)? By creating a simple, minimalist xhtml/css structure for your website designs, you can cut your coding time down by a few hours (depending on how good you are at coding).
2. Buy a filing cabinet and use it
Something I’ve recently started doing is filing paper copies of files, sketches and other notes/contracts into a filing cabinet. Something so simple can help streamline your web design business because finding information when you need it becomes 10x easier when you use an organized filing cabinet with tabbed folders, utilizing a system like alphabetical or by date of completion.
3. Create a design brief template
How many times have you had to ask the same questions over and over again? With every new client comes the same types of questions: what type of website are you looking for, who is your target market, what websites are you fond of, and so on. Instead of retyping this countless times in a month, why not do what Brian from The Design Cubicle did and create yourself a form for your new contacts to fill out? That is sure to save you a bunch of time.
4. Have 2-3 different elevator speeches ready at all times
You never know when you’re going to run into someone who could become a client, so preparing an elevator speech will help you get your foot in the door. I mention to make 2 or 3 different elevator speeches because you want to be prepared for different types of clients. An elevator speech that appeals to an older gentlemen in a suit and tie will not likely be as effective if you try it out on a younger woman, so making sure you’ve got a couple stashed away can definitely help hit the nail on the head when delivering your elevator speech.
5. Use a Project Management for larger projects
I’ve sworn against project management apps for months now, but then again, I usually work with one person only for each job I currently have open so I never really had a need for a project management app. If you find yourself working with 2 or more people from the company who hired you, a project management app might do you some good in order to keep all files and notes in one central place instead of playing email tag with both of the people you’re in touch with from the company.
6. Make use of the canned responses in Gmail
Spending a lot of time in your email isn’t good for productivity. What can we do to cut down the time we’re actually inside our email in-boxes? One simple way is to utilize Gmail’s canned responses. By making simple replies that you normally send out numerous times, you can just click a button and POOF! It’s all there for you. I use the canned responses for my follow up email if I haven’t heard back from a potential client in a week or so as well as job board introduction emails and other various things I tend to rewrite a lot of the same information on.
7. Use a copy & paste design contract
Writing up a design contract can be a bit weird if you haven’t had any legal experience or guidance, so taking a bit of time to have a lawyer draw up some legal paperwork for you can be a great idea. You can also utilize the sample contracts from these various places, adjust them to your needs and keep them as a copy & paste contract system – changing out the names, dates and prices, but leaving all of the other legal information in place.
8. Offer referral bonuses to current clients
Tired of marketing? Feel like you’re spending too much time on the social media websites trying to find people who need your services? Why not utilize your current client base and let them know you offer a bonus for any referrals they send. After all, word-of-mouth is the most powerful and effective form of marketing. Ensure that they know the person they refer has to be a paying client (often keeping the referral bonus until the new client’s project is done, to ensure they’re not referring flakes to you) and you’re sure to find some clients that are willing to spread the word. Obviously, if you’re creating killer work, they should already be doing this for you, but just in case, offer them that incentive.
9. Create a pre-populated Photoshop file
When designing in Photoshop, if you tend to make a lot of the same layers and folders for your designs, it’s a good idea to make a stock Photoshop file for website designs. In mine, I have folders for the following: header, footer, sidebar, content and I also have some sample text built into each section and a 960 grid layer over the top (I recently added in a baseline grind to make sure the line height for my text matches the spacing between my boxes). This saves me a good 10-15 minutes every time, so multiply that by 50 clients and you see how many hours you can save.
10. Subscribe to job boards in an RSS reader
After writing a post on my blog that showcased 10 active job boards for freelancers, I realized that I could save time by just having them all in a folder inside of my google reader account. So now, instead of having to go to 10 different job boards to view the information, I can view them all right in my reader and click through to the ones that interest me. This is definitely going to save me some time, and could save you time as well if you keep up with job boards to find leads for jobs.
11. Outsource the design related work
Are you a coder who doesn’t like designing as much as you like digging into codes? Why not outsource the design work? If you’re currently just offering coding services, you could open yourself up to a wider variety of client by finding a killer designer who can create Photoshop layouts for you to slice, dice and turn into fully functional web designs. It’s a win/win for you because you get more work, yet you don’t have to do any of the extra stuff 
12. While you’re at it, outsource the coding too
If you’re a designer, follow the step above but change designer to coder. If you’re a coder and you’re now following the above item, why can’t you outsource the coding too? Maybe not all of it, but if you’re full in your scheduling but come across a kick ass job, take it and put your project manager hat on for a bit, outsource the design work and then ship it over to an awesome coder who can code for you. Find out the pricing for each item that you’re outsourcing and add 10-20% into the pricing so you make some kick back from it as well.
13. Hire an accountant
Why worry about things that you really don’t need to worry about? With an accountant, it’s their job to crunch numbers all day and find out how you can save money when it comes time to file taxes, so why would you put that added stress on yourself? Accountants are a great way to let you focus on what you do best and also keep your web design business running in the back end, glitch free.
14. Make a FAQ sheet for the most common questions you are asked
Clients in your field will tend to ask the same questions, over and over (and over) again. Instead of being bored, typing out the same answers over and over again, why not take those questions you see the most, put them into a page on your website and just send that link to each new client? There are also many open source tools to help you automate your FAQ page, like FAQ-Tastic for Wordpress or phpMyFAQ (a standalone application which was just updated today). This is also helpful for web design projects because you can give step by step instructions (in a separate page) on how to upload, activate and customize the work you’ve done for them (great for Wordpress themes that have options panels).
15. Use a Wordpress theme framework (or two)
Speaking of Wordpress, take some time to build a framework that you can use over and over again. Spend time on all of the small details and then you’ll never have to worry about them again. I’ve done this with my web design business and it cuts down the coding time by about 3-4 hours every time. I still have to customize the code to fit the specific design I created (sometimes more than others) but it’s a hell of a lot easier than starting from scratch every time, knowing that there’s a header/nav/footer/sidebar/content/post div just waiting to be saved for later use. Another thing I do is use a dummy post file that puts in posts, pages, tags, categories and comments into my Wordpress install, which allows me to see how the theme looks populated, without having to type the same information over and over again.
16. Use the texter program
Along the same lines as the canned responses, I use a program named Texter which allows me to set pre populated blocks of text or code and insert them anywhere I feel like with simple commands. For instance, if I type in the letter p and hit the tab button, it puts paragraph codes in and inserts my text tool right in between for easy typing. Makes it a lot easier than typing these things out. I also use it a lot for Wordpress images. Typing the “<img src=” and putting the php code in for the stylesheet takes time, so instead, I just type in “wpimg”, hit the tab key, and voila! it’s there for me. You can check it out here on lifehacker.
17. Hire an assistant (virtual or on-site)
This is something I personally haven’t done yet, as I’m still adjusting to the idea of having someone else do my work for me (coding), but I hear a lot of great things about assistants from a lot of killer people like Chris Brogan and others. Think of a few things your assistant can do each day, for 1 or 2 hours and let them go at it. I’m going to personally have an assistant (keyword: maid) come to my house and clean my office once a week because it gets pretty bad
18. Find (and use) a to do list
I personally use Teux Deux (see my review of it here) and it’s a great way to keep up with what I need to do for the day, which in turn makes me more productive, which in turn makes my business run smoother. Also, by having a to do list, you can make sure priority items are getting done (usually quicker too) and allow yourself time to build other aspects of your web design business, or a side business.
19. Invoicing made easy
Instead of typing out your invoices every time you have to send one, why not use a site like Invoice Machine or Freshbooks which allows you to easily send invoices, accept payments via PayPal and it keeps track of who’s paid, who hasn’t and allows you to print off copies of the invoices for safe keeping. It’s a pretty simple process, which allows you to spend your time elsewhere, like doing the work you just got paid for 
20. Use a code framework (php, jquery, ect)
If you’re building websites and using the same bits of code over and over again, you might as well check out frameworks for that too. There are a ton of PHP frameworks out there as well as jQuery, Rails and CSS. Take some time to get used to them and you’re sure to pick up an extra few hours here and there because you can now breeze through some of the tasks that used to take you a while to complete. Check out some frameworks on delicious.
Conclusion
Streamlining your web design business can be as easy as you want it to be, and the rewards can be outstanding. Waiting to do these things might not seem like that big of a deal, but I promise you: once you do a few of them, you’ll be finding yourself with less to do during the day and more time to enjoy life - which is what we’re all going for as freelancers, right? The ability to do what you want for a living and spend time doing what you love with the people you love. If you don’t follow these steps for your own benefit, follow these steps for their’s – they’ll thank you every time you have a couple extra hours (or days) to spend with them.
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About AEXT.NET
AEXT is a design magazine that publishes all things web design. Articles here are published by web professionals for web professionals featuring tutorials, collections, and resources.
This is awesome article. But if i do all tips you suggest, money outcome may be more then income. :p
Of course, you’ll need to pick-and-choose which you should do. Like he mentioned about project management apps: these aren’t ALL applicable to everyone but you should be able to find one that works well for you. Take one step at a time!
Which one was your favorite?
Tjhe first what i can do is: 14. Make a FAQ sheet for the most common questions you are asked
Yeah, i’ll make it ASAP. It was great idea what i had forgot.
Like Nathan said, it’d be best to find what works for you. I’ve been full time freelancing for around three years and it’s taken me this long to find a system that fits me and works well for me.
Well for a newbie like me, I always use this point
11. Outsource the design related work
20. Use a code framework
the rest list maybe follow when I get more exprience
aditia´s last blog ..Table sorting collection using prototype javascript
Superb article, got me very interested, so i’ve read all of it.
Iniwoo´s last blog ..Desktop Backgrounds: 35 Cosy Moments of Frosty Winter
Excellent article and some really good ideas – some of them I’ve never considered before. Now I’ve got to get to work on making a FAQ sheet, offering referral bonuses to my current clients, and shopping for a filing cabinet…guess I should add them to my to-do list! Great job – thanks!
Brian McDaniel´s last blog ..A Social Media (and Life) Lesson I Learned From My 12-Year-Old
Haha, I loved this post of yours, Brian. I love your subtle humor
haha. Yeah, adding them to your to-do list is a good idea
I don’t do most of the points which I think should start. Thanks for these great tips
Smashing Share´s last blog ..Firefox Themes – 60 Most Popular Themes You Must See
Very useful tips. Thanks for these brilliant tips
Really nice post well put together.
julio´s last blog ..Weekly Inspiration: 20 Twitter Profile Backgrounds – N.3
Very nice article! Hadn’t thought of setting up pre-made XHTML/CSS files and a pre-populated Photoshop file. Great ideas!
Glad you like them
You’ll definitely see your time cut down when you do these things. I’ve found countless hours that I used to lose when creating the bases for each site I would build.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m glad you’re all finding the article useful
I’ve just started doing the WordPress framework thing (still needs work) and I’ve also done invoicing with Invoice Machine for the last month and it is awesome! Everyone should use it, especially because they have a free account for sending just a few invoices.
I’ve been using Invoice Machine and now feels disappointed with it. They doesn’t seem to be functioning any more. You may risk your invoicing and payments, if they suddenly close down the service. So I decided to move away from them to some other service. I’m still researching but CurdBee and Ballmark seems to be satisfy my needs.
These are great tips here! And I really like the blog’s new design, fits the site perfectly. Keep up the awesome posts!
Inside the Webb´s last blog ..Behind the Scenes at Vibrant and Inspiring Design Blog ilovecolors
Nice post!
I would also recommend to start using a versioning system like subversion together with a deployment setup. You can even do that for a static website. I user springloops.com and when a client needs a small change to their website I just edit it and deploy it worry free.
Vunky´s last blog ..Rounded Corners are Dead
Version Control. That’s a great addition!
I’ve never heard of SpringLoops. How is it compared to github.com?
This is one thing I haven’t done and should be doing. Thanks for reminding me. I appreciate it
Mike Smith´s last blog ..Curious to know what the top 25 design blogs make from ad sales?
I am a developer, but really enjoyed reading this article and will forward for my designers.
Woow some really cool tips. Thanks Mike Smith
Nice tips, well structured! Thanks
SMiGL´s last blog ..Мнение
Very thorough and practical. Nice. The only preference I have that differs with this list is I prefer to do my own coding but it’s definitely a good idea to have some colleagues at the ready for sub-contracting, especially if the additional needs are beyond one’s skill set.
Skyrocket Labs´s last blog ..jDiv: A jQuery navigation menu alternative
Loved this list. They are all great ideas. Glad to say that I am currently utilizing all of them.
Thanks for the comments everyone. I appreciate it and again, am really glad that the article is being found useful.
Mike Smith´s last blog ..Curious to know what the top 25 design blogs make from ad sales?
Thanks for the article. Love #9, don’t know why it never occurred to me. Being a developer it’s a proactive way to make sure the designs you receive are formatted nicely.
Sidra, I love your homepage. It’s beautiful
Thanks Nathan, the full website should be up in a few weeks.
Keep up the quality articles, nice site.
Sounds great
Send me a message on Twitter when it’s up and ready! (@HelloLogic)
Very node article. I’ve done most of these, but it’s was great reading through and comparing notes.
This is one of the most helpful articles I have ever came across.
Goes in my top ten right away.
As a company that offers psd to html conversion we thank you for saying things straight out.
Some good tips, but about #3: People don’t want to fill out a form. They want to talk to someone. And, asking questions about the website a prospective client has in mind and listening to his/her answers is the best way to start to know one another. If you look at talking with people about their needs and vision as a bother, you’re not going to have a web business for long.
Ray Gulick´s last blog ..Keeping Safari (and Chrome) Hacks Out of Your Stylesheets
Hey Mike, I’ve bookmarked this article. A really helpful for freelancer. Specifically i liked the 9. Create a pre-populated Photoshop file, after following this point it saves my lot of time. Thanks again for sharing.
Yagnesh Ahir´s last blog ..The Paradox of Technology.
I just want to appreciate the way you have customized the comments from users, man its so impressive in the sense that when someone comments on your post, the comment also shows the updates of site/blog of the guest, who made comments, it feels like ” hey look that man doesn’t know much about me and he is showing the updates from my site/blog.”
I also liked the red-heart bubble showing the number of clicks.
Yagnesh Ahir´s last blog ..The Paradox of Technology.
Thank you for your kind comment, Yagnesh! Yeah, Mike, he’s really great and we love the way he’s following his reader’s comments.
Hi, great article with some really useful tips. Thanks!
Great tips
Ivan Mišić´s last blog ..Twitter vodič
great resource, have you been reading the unlimited freelancer?
I do a lot of WordPress theming, and I just got into the Hybrid framework. It really helps speed up development time, and offers some nice features too.
Actually, I have yet to read the Unlimited Freelancer in full. It’s on my to-do list for books, but I’ve been backed up the past couple months on book reading
Mike Smith´s last blog ..5 Dreaded buzz kill phrases every freelancer should avoid
Excellent resources, thanks. I think the streamlining of basic templates is a major time saver, I like to break my code down into specific modules that can easily be ported into applications, this is another huge time saver.
Wow. This a a very useful list. I’ve bookmarked it straight away. Much depends on the size of your business, but most of these tips apply to almost any web designer. Nice work!
Bart Jacobs´s last blog ..Mind, Ego, And Meditation
This is a great article, bookmarked. I was happy to see that I’m following most of these suggestions but will try to implement the others soon too. Very nice.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for your kind comment. BTW, I love the creative name of your blog!
Mike, this is a really amazing article. I would only add having a clear pricing matrix so there are know ambigous price questions. Also I find having a clear set of wireframes is a key way to avoid scope creep and it also gives me a overview of the entire project before starting, this in turn gives me a good idea of progress and time lines.
This article is invaluable for a newbie like myself. I’ve been using canned responses for a while now and they are a great timesaver. Freshbooks for invoicing is great, and I’m currently trying out Intervals for project management.
Awesome advices, links and ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Cayo Medeiros aka. yogodoshi´s last blog ..Problema na paginação de posts do WordPress
I didn’t see more then a few points that talked about secure new incoming business. Without a steady feed of new work it doesn’t how stream lined you are.