Category: (Book)
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Very Informative, helpful, and usefulReviewed by M. L. Davis, 2010-02-06
Jim Smith covers all the bases in this book about starting a web
design business. If you have some experience creating web pages and
want to know what it takes to move beyond creating web sites as a
hobby to building sites for profit, this book is for you. Mr. Smith
takes into consideration all the different roles that one must be
able to play when running a web design business (i.e. the saavy
business-person, the technical expert, the creative artist), and he
makes suggestions for alternative solutions to fulfilling these
roles, recognizing that most people are not going to be experts in
every role.
Mr. Smith uses his experience as a web designer to warn the
aspiring web design entrepreneur of pitfalls that he/she may
encounter, and he also gives useful tips for bringing more
business. He gives specific web sites as resources (i.e. hosting
providers; tech experts who take care of the tedious task of
maintaining and making sure a web site is running smoothly so you
don't have to; domain name registration sites), and he offers
suggestions for diversifying the services that the web design
entrepreneur should offer so that his/her income and marketability
can increase.
This book discusses different options for setting up a web design
business, starting with very little start-up costs to solutions
involving more start-up costs (i.e. if the entrepreneur is
purchasing his/her own server on which to host the web sites he/she
creates). This book is therefore just as useful for those with
little start-up capital who wish to start a web design business as
for those who have a little more money to start their
business.
In a nutshell this book, along with one or two other good
foundational books on starting and running a web design business
and any books about specific programs and software the entrepreneur
uses in his/her business, would serve a web design business
entrepreneur well as a reference book to which the entrepreneur can
refer when he/she has questions about how to run his/her business
or about specific situations he/she may encounter.
Outdated and very, very basic.Reviewed by Andrew Staple, 2010-01-05
I read this book a few weeks ago and have to say, its age shows
more than it should. After looking at it (3rd Edition - 2007) there
are literally dozens of dated things that should've been updated,
or at least removed before they ever published this again.
While there may be some decent advice for the very beginner looking
to get into web design, you can find all of this information in a
many other books that the authors seem to actually care about and
update as time passes.
There are a few good points with management and accounting in the
book, but other than that if you have the basic knowledge most
people do today in the design world this book is going to be too
dumbed down for you.
Let's be fairReviewed by Dimitri Vorontzov, 2009-11-11
I've read a few interesting reviews of this book and can see that
it stirs contrasting emotions. Some reviewers praise it and others
seem to hate it passionately.
I'd like to try and give it justice.
Is the author of this book a good web designer?
Emphatically, NO.
He is clueless.
In fact, If I were to follow author's own advice and have examples
of someone's bad web design ready to show to my potential clients,
I would definitely use his entire portfolio as a demonstration for
what truly horrible websites may look like.
On the other hand,
does the book provide helpful business advice to web designers who
wish to go it alone?
Oh, yes. Definitely so.
It's all based on common sense, and his ideas work; clearly, the
author is an excellent salesman, considering that he's had a great
number of paying web design clients, all the while being one of the
most terrible designers ever to grace the world wide web with their
work. This book is not about web design or web programming, it's
about setting up and selling your web design services. If the
author could repeatedly sell his mediocre web design service using
his business tactics, think of what you can accomplish if you make
websites even slightly better! Sample legal paperwork is excellent
and very useful for anyone in the business, and advice on how to
handle tough cases is practical and easy to relate to.
The quality of author's web design skills doesn't have much to do
with the quality of the book, and the book, I am certain, can be
helpful to many. I am glad I've read it.
home based web design businessReviewed by esource, 2009-09-11
Great book for beginners . Lot of areas unveiled and inside insight
is good .
Fell Short...Reviewed by J. Ryan, 2009-08-25
I bought this book hoping it would help me figure how to start my own Web Business. Granted he did talk about what he's done to get to where he is, but the only information I found out of the book to be useful, is his short in depth explanations between LLC, PartnerShips and other "Types" of businesses. Overall, I did read this entire book, but the entire time I was thinking "It's gotta get better, I have to learn something from this" =/
