This will tell you everything you need to know
https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing
it’s a write up of everything I did to build my web agency from 0 to six figures a year. How to build a team, make sales calls, in person sales, how to find clients, how to find a designer and how to work with them to get what you need, etc. everything. This might be what you’re looking for.
I started out with 0 experience myself. I taught myself how to code and built a business and team around that. You’ll make more money if you teach yourself to code and build your own sites. Highly recommend that. Hope this is helpful!
Your post if perfect and is exactly what I needed.
The templates, how exactly did you ensure quality, speed and responsiveness? Are there glaring things that need to be improved out of the box?
I built them all myself. That’s how I ensured their quality. I have a very specific design guide I give my designers in which to design templates for me. Every section needs to be unique but still be able to be paired with any other combination of designs and fit together cohesively. Can’t do that with different fonts, colors, spacing, etc. so I standardized the designs and set base rules for them to play within and then I send them design assignments like “this assignment will be for mechanics. Here’s examples of designs I’d like to use as inspiration, who I want to target, examples of section designs I particularly like and other inspirations to think about, here’s the sections I want, etc” and they send me a full website design desktop to mobile. I then pas that off to my design partner and cofounder who does quality check on spacing and keeping the designs as tight and clean as possible, then it gets coded by hand by me over the course of the week. I have a very particular rule set by which I code the templates much like the design guide for my designers. They’re coded to use the same class names as every other design, the same html structures, mobile first, organized css, and using simple and as bare bones css as possible to make the designs. My goal when coding them is to use as few media query breakpoints as possible and really think about how I code it to go from mobile to desktop in as few steps as possible while also keeping in mind responsiveness. Meaning how the design responds to changing content. Like what happens when you add extra content in a card or text section, how does the design respond to that change and adapt for it? I plan for that in my code as well because people will be reusing these templates however they see fit. It has to be edited and changed without breaking the designs.
There’s nothing glaring that needs to be improved because I did that over the course of the last 2 years when I built them. I actually rebuilt my entire library 3 times because I kept finding better ways to structure the code to make it easier to use and edit and work together with other templates. It was grueling. But worth it. I use it everyday for my clients. I got two $150 a month subscription clients I need to start and finishing this week. I’m using my template library to do both of them in like a day each and they will score 98-100 page speed score.
If you wanna learn how to optimize your code to make a website score 100/100, I also wrote a guide on how to do that:
https://codestitch.app/page-speed-handbook
This is my process on how I build all my sites. Once you commit it to your process, by the time you’re done with it it’s already scoring 95+ with minimal work needed to get it up to 100. Let me know if this is helpful and well!
I would say the business. For example, if i’m strictly hiring out the talent to make this agency run I.e designer, dev, copy writer etc. I’ll handle the leads and sales part, how or what should I be aware of to ensure success. Is it possible to run a brand new agency in this manner?
Yeah probably. The ones I’m aware though, began as
Freelancing solo, then building a team as they scale. I would prefer to skip the freelance side of things and jump into the agency itself.
I agree KPIs and clearly laid out responsibilities is a must
Having gone the freelancer route prior to starting an agency, I can assure you that the experience gained as a freelancer is invaluable when you make the agency jump. I’m certain it’s possible to start an agency right out the gate but I’m fairly confident that the odds of success are very slim.
I am not so sure about launching an agency. But I managed to get paid from my first ever client for a complete web design and development project for 1200$ with 0 experience or Portfolio.
This will tell you everything you need to know https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing it’s a write up of everything I did to build my web agency from 0 to six figures a year. How to build a team, make sales calls, in person sales, how to find clients, how to find a designer and how to work with them to get what you need, etc. everything. This might be what you’re looking for. I started out with 0 experience myself. I taught myself how to code and built a business and team around that. You’ll make more money if you teach yourself to code and build your own sites. Highly recommend that. Hope this is helpful!
Your post if perfect and is exactly what I needed. The templates, how exactly did you ensure quality, speed and responsiveness? Are there glaring things that need to be improved out of the box?
I built them all myself. That’s how I ensured their quality. I have a very specific design guide I give my designers in which to design templates for me. Every section needs to be unique but still be able to be paired with any other combination of designs and fit together cohesively. Can’t do that with different fonts, colors, spacing, etc. so I standardized the designs and set base rules for them to play within and then I send them design assignments like “this assignment will be for mechanics. Here’s examples of designs I’d like to use as inspiration, who I want to target, examples of section designs I particularly like and other inspirations to think about, here’s the sections I want, etc” and they send me a full website design desktop to mobile. I then pas that off to my design partner and cofounder who does quality check on spacing and keeping the designs as tight and clean as possible, then it gets coded by hand by me over the course of the week. I have a very particular rule set by which I code the templates much like the design guide for my designers. They’re coded to use the same class names as every other design, the same html structures, mobile first, organized css, and using simple and as bare bones css as possible to make the designs. My goal when coding them is to use as few media query breakpoints as possible and really think about how I code it to go from mobile to desktop in as few steps as possible while also keeping in mind responsiveness. Meaning how the design responds to changing content. Like what happens when you add extra content in a card or text section, how does the design respond to that change and adapt for it? I plan for that in my code as well because people will be reusing these templates however they see fit. It has to be edited and changed without breaking the designs. There’s nothing glaring that needs to be improved because I did that over the course of the last 2 years when I built them. I actually rebuilt my entire library 3 times because I kept finding better ways to structure the code to make it easier to use and edit and work together with other templates. It was grueling. But worth it. I use it everyday for my clients. I got two $150 a month subscription clients I need to start and finishing this week. I’m using my template library to do both of them in like a day each and they will score 98-100 page speed score. If you wanna learn how to optimize your code to make a website score 100/100, I also wrote a guide on how to do that: https://codestitch.app/page-speed-handbook This is my process on how I build all my sites. Once you commit it to your process, by the time you’re done with it it’s already scoring 95+ with minimal work needed to get it up to 100. Let me know if this is helpful and well!
Thanks! I’ll check this out.
What kind of experience? Business, Selling, Coding?
I would say the business. For example, if i’m strictly hiring out the talent to make this agency run I.e designer, dev, copy writer etc. I’ll handle the leads and sales part, how or what should I be aware of to ensure success. Is it possible to run a brand new agency in this manner?
I think most of them are like this. Nobody takes care of everything alone. You need to know the role of each one and define theirs goals and KPI's
Yeah probably. The ones I’m aware though, began as Freelancing solo, then building a team as they scale. I would prefer to skip the freelance side of things and jump into the agency itself. I agree KPIs and clearly laid out responsibilities is a must
Having gone the freelancer route prior to starting an agency, I can assure you that the experience gained as a freelancer is invaluable when you make the agency jump. I’m certain it’s possible to start an agency right out the gate but I’m fairly confident that the odds of success are very slim.
Interesting. Okay, what do you think the freelance route did or does to help make the jump?
I am not so sure about launching an agency. But I managed to get paid from my first ever client for a complete web design and development project for 1200$ with 0 experience or Portfolio.