Would I need a university degree?
Or do i just need raw skill and make a website for my company, and just hack the code out myself for the websites that i would be building. Any good advice would be great thanks.How would I go about starting my own website development company and creating a good reputation?
This is a huge question. If it were easy to answer, everyone would be doing it. Here is what I believe it takes.
Be good. That's right, good. not great, not awesome, not fabulous, just good. Why, because most of your competition is not. They start good and then degrade into mediocre, and sometimes slide into bad. All the while using their reputation from the beginning to continue business until they end up closing because people stop using them.
Before you even apply for a business license, create a business plan. You can buy software for about $100 or can visit any major university with an MBA department and ask for students to help you. They almost always need to do a business plan for their studies and need a company to do it on. Without this plan, you may succeed, but with it, you have a road map to success.
If you have a business plan you can get loans and grants (depending on your country) to help you start out. Without it, just because you say you will succeed, doesn't hold any weight with other business people. If you do nothing else, please, please, make a business plan. I promise, you'll be more successful with it.
Always charge for your services. Never ever give it away. Why, people equate free with something of little or no value. You don't want that. Offer a discount instead. So, if you would normally charge $1000 to do something, but need to get the business, discount it, don't say ';Well I'll do it for you for free if you just tell people you used me.'; Terrible idea. You will begin your reputation as a cheap inexpensive company. Don't do it.
Always spell out in great detail what you are being contracted to do. After a meeting with customers, write down in detail what you agreed on. There will always be something that is overlooked or assumed. Those things are costly. Not just in money but also possibly the relationship with the client.
Get and read books on system development methods and implementations. You will find that scope creep(changing the project as it goes) kills many system developments, large or small. Manage this scope creep. Have a system in place that requires both parties approval before any changes are made. Then, make them understand that the changes require some cost or change to the contract, what is known in the business as a change order. Don't be afraid to charge for these changes. If you don't, I assure, the customer will continue to ask for new things the just decided are absolutely essential(as everyone always does or else all software would be version 1.0). You have to resist saying, ';OK, I'll do it, that is a simple change';. Of course you will do a few minor changes for nothing: colors, layout, etc. But avoid changing functions and scope.
Before you type one letter of code, sit down with the user and ask them to show what they think is good software. Have them show you what a good user interface is. Ask them how long they plan to keep the system. How many people will use it. What type of documentation they want. Documentation is as costly as programming, never give this away either. It is very expensive! It is also almost always the one thing people skimp on. It will come back to haunt the system and you.
Also, don't just ask for the system requirements, ask what problem are they trying to solve and why? What benefit do they feel this system will deliver? How will you measure that success? How will they measure any savings? You'd be surprised how few people know those answers. They just assume something newer will help their company. It may not, or at least not as much as they expected. In the end, this will reflect on you. You didn't provide a great system that does what they want. Well how can you, if they don't know what they want.
Your reputation will grow based on how you do all of the above things. Never do rush jobs. Everyone thinks they can shorten the process, save money, and still deliver a quality project. Ha!! Not true in software or any other profession. Don't take a job that doesn't feel right. Good business is also knowing when not to take a job.
When you accept a project, create a project time line with dates for deliverables and milestones. Make sure everyone understands them. Always get paid on major milestones. Never wait until the end. Always work in late fees. If the customer says, ';We'll get you that information next week so you can begin'; and then takes 2 months, you should charge them for missing the milestone. If you miss a milestone, you should pay them or discount something. Why? Because money makes everyone focus on the issues. Deliver on milestones and you will complete the project on time, on budget and provide the customer what they asked for.
Also, no matter how long you think a project will take, your first estimate will be wrong! No matter who you are, IBM, or two guys in a basement. Always leave extra time. I always do my first estimate and then, using may factors, gut feeling, the clients personality, reading tea leaves, and looking at horoscopes, will figure out my extra time. A good rule is to double it. Sometimes 50% is enough, some times, tripling it is what works. Why? It just is. Everyone is optimistic to start but then life happens. Other work comes along, people get sick, quit, leave, vacation, etc.
And lastly, no matter who you work with, always get the sign off or approval from the one that makes the true decisions. Meet with them, and make sure this project meets their approval and they are committed to it. Get it in writing! This is so necessary, I should have listed it higher up. This person is called a project champion. It must be someone in high management with the ability to support the project. You want someone you can go to when things go bad and say ';Hey, I need your help to get things moving. How can you help'; If they are committed to the project, you will get their help. If not, you'll get, ';I'm sure they'll get it to you soon';. That's it, time to think about walking away or renegotiating. Always write in your ability to get out at a major milestone. Get paid first if possible, then say ';You know what, this isn't working out between up. We need to talk about what happened and moving forward either together or not.'; Then give them what is theirs, the code, and say ';Good luck, its been a pleasure doing business with you.'; End it friendly if possible, but sometimes you have to end it. I assure you, if you are good, they will be back. Why, see my first paragraph.
Your reputation will grow based on what you accomplish and how your customers perceive the value of your work.
HTH. Good luck.How would I go about starting my own website development company and creating a good reputation?
I have dabbled with web development for sometime now, and have a good friend who is in the web industry. Having good communications, graphics design, coding knowledge, and overall creativity are really the only requirements to enter the field. This friend if mine started out by going around her town to business asking them if they needed a website, and designing it for free. After having a few successful web pages and happy clients, she started to sell her services (I know that sounds awkward). As far as learning the code and whatnot, look around on the internet, go to a bookstore, there are a ton of resources available.
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