KillerSites Blog

Failure: why it’s a good thing … in the Business of Web Design.

July 23, 2007

I don’t want to go on too long on how you should not be so concerned about failure … for fear of sounding like one of those self-help ‘gurus’. Ack!

But it needs to be quickly address anyhow …

Why are people so fearful of failure?

… Wait a second, that’s a really stupid question!

People hate to fail because we’ve been conditioned to think it’s terrible:

• You can’t fail a test – your parents will punish you.
• You can never fail a class at school – your whole academic career will be damaged.
• You can’t ever get rejected – because you’ll never meet someone new!

The problem with this FALSE belief is that it does not reflect reality and the patterns of the most accomplished people.

… To get anywhere, you have to try and fail. And then try again … and fail. And then try again.

WHY FAILURE IS A GOOD THING

When you fail at something, you can be sure that you are moving towards developing a new skill. If you’ve never failed, it is probably because you never challenged yourself – that’s a bad thing.

CONCLUSION

As you travel on the road to developing your web design business, you will undoubtedly face a few failures along the way.

… Don’t get too down on yourself when you do hit the expected road-blocks! Just recognize where you messed up and try not to do it again, and move on.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.studioweb.com

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The rules of risk and the business of web design.

July 23, 2007

In the business of web design (any business really,) there are two fundamental rules of risk you can use to evaluate whether or not you should take a particular risk:

1. If what you are attempting do does not work out … will it kill you?
2. Does the potential gain justify the risk?

THE FIRST RULE OF RISK

There is an old gamblers expression someone taught me years ago that sums this up nicely:

‘Don’t go to the track with money you can’t afford to lose.’

This rule tells you, that you should not take any risk that would kill your business, if the risk should prove unsuccessful. Keep in mind that most business projects fail; yep, most business ventures, new products whatever … fail!

All-or-nothing type gambles may work once or twice, but eventually something will screw up. If you are one of those guys/girls who puts it ‘all on the line’ everytime, you are doomed to struggle the rest of your life.

As a web designer building a business, you need to learn to take calculated risk that if they should fail, you will be able to continue along as you did before.

For example; lets take a look at a classic situation: the big contract.

Many times when people start a new business, they want to go after the big contract with the big clients right away.

… This is a fatal mistake because of a few things:

• Big business will almost always only deal with big companies … not small start-ups.
• Big clients and big contracts will cost you a lot of time just to make proposals and bids – this cost a lot of precious time where you could be earning actual money doing work for small clients.
• Big business can be tricky to deal with: they know they’re big and so they have a tendency to push their weight around.

Trying to take on a big contract is a high risk decision because chances are you will not get the contract. Also, the process of trying to get it will cost a lot … possibly your business. It is not worth the risk.

You are better to go after byte-sized contracts and slowly build up a stable of clients that will help you develop your web design work-flow and your financial base. In time you will be able to tackle the larger projects knowing that if you don’t land them, it won’t sink you.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.studioweb.com

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The Business of Web Design – Don’t reinvent the wheel!

June 28, 2007

Hi,

I released a new video related to The Business of Web Design course:

Don’t reinvent the wheel!

I appreciate your comments regarding this video and any comments regarding the new idea22.com UI changes is also appreciated.

–

There is still lots of new changes working its’ way through, so all the feedback you can give along the way will be helpful.

Thanks!

Stefan

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The Millionaire Myth and the Business of Web Design

June 11, 2007

This article has something to do with my Business of Web Design video course, so please bear with me!

–

What I am about to say, will probably get me into some trouble. Yet, it needs to be said because it is true.

In a nutshell: chances are, you will not become a millionaire!

A little background:

There is a popular belief, that if you follow the right steps, read the right books, that you can become a millionaire. The sense you get (from all the books and tv infomercials) is that it’s possible … very possible.

Some facts:

• Only 1% of Americans make $250 000 / year … let alone becoming millionaires.
• Something like 85% of self made millionaire live very modest (middle class) lifestyles.

Before I go on, I am not saying that we can’t reach financial independence (I will get into what that means later). Rather, I am saying that if you want to live the life of a movie star, drive around $250 000 sports cars, and live in mansions, then there is a 99% chance that you will NOT make it.

What it takes to become a millionaire:

After doing a lot of research, and having had few millionaire mentors of my own, I’ve found the following to be the keys to making it big:

• You probably have to work much harder than most people.
• You will have to be luckier than most people.
• You will probably have to be talented. Although many times, luck can make up for the lack of talent.
• You will have to take risks.

There is one thing that (just about) every rich/successful person I have ever spoken to, read about, or watched on TV has said:

that they have been very lucky.

… They had some stroke of dumb luck, that made things happen for them.

–

So, if you want to base your life on that less than 1% chance you will make the ‘big time’ … then good luck to you! I prefer to work toward the very attainable goal of financial independence.

What is financial independence?

For me, this means that you have more money coming in, than you need (to live comfortably,) … WITHOUT having to bust your butt, or be under massive pressure.

I did this through the web design business (but that’s not the only way,) and it is something that can be reasonably attained, even by reasonably untalented people … people like me!

About Talent:

It’s a sad fact in life, that not all people are created equal when it comes to talent. If boxing (and my broken nose) has taught me anything, it is this.

But it’s not all bad:

It is also true, that each of us can excel in one thing or another (and the trick is to find your talent!) but the fact of the matter is, that if you want to reach the very top of some profession, you need to have that natural talent that makes it easy for you.

What can talentless people do?

Ah, now that’s the trick: realize who you are, and then come up with a strategy!

1. Find out what your talent really is. You don’t have to be the best (and you probably wont be,) just so long as you are naturally able.
2. Start doing what you are good at.
3. Get people around you who can make up for your lack of talent.

In the ‘Business of Web Design’ videos, I teach you the brass-and-tacks of building a home-based web design business, and I also teach the strategy to becoming financially independent.

For example:

You may not be the best coder, or perhaps your design skills suck. Not matter, you can make up for that by leveraging other people and other peoples work (I show you how in the videos,) freeing you to excel in whatever aspect of web design you happen to be good at.

Thanks so much for reading!

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

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The Business of Web Design

May 22, 2007

I just finished my first video (of a series) that I am calling:

The Business of Web Design.

Being clever nerds that you surely are, I’m sure you’ve guessed that the video has something to do with the web design business.

… You guessed correctly.

This first video provides an introduction to a course that will guide you in starting and growing a home based web design business. That means the course is targeting web designers who have little to no business experience at all.

Some of the topics the course will cover:

• How to start a business.
• How to create web design contracts.
• How to charge clients.
• How to get your first clients.
• How to streamline the web design process to make it much more profitable.

… This is just a small taste, but I think you got the picture.

Check out my first video and send me some feedback … does it suck, was it interesting … or boring!

You can find it on my video tutorial site, idea22.com:

Business of web design – introduction

Many thanks,

Stefan Mischook

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