Introduction

[How to Run a Web Design Business with Paul Boag] 0:00 [Marketing and Promotion, Deep Dive] 0:02 [Paul Boag] Hi, my name is Paul Boag, and I'm going to talk to you today 0:04 about running a successful web design business, 0:07 because I'll let you into a secret, knowing HTML and CSS 0:11 is not enough to make you a successful web designer. 0:14 You need to have those business skills, too. 0:18 What gives me the right to teach you that? 0:22 Well I guess it depends on your definition of what success is. 0:24 On the surface the agency I run is nothing special. 0:28 It's not really exceptional in the work that it puts out. 0:32 It does normal work that anybody else does. 0:35 We don't work for particularly big names like Coca-Cola or Nike, 0:39 and we don't win lots of awards—mainly because we don't put ourselves in for them, 0:43 but I think we are successful. 0:48 My definition of success may be slightly different to a lot of people. 0:52 For example, I don't believe success is the fact that we've been running for 12 years 0:56 It's not that we turn over a million and a half dollars each year, 1:02 or that we have employees that range between about 13 people and 20— 1:06 the number of members of staff don't really matter— 1:11 or even the fact that I take home a very healthy salary. 1:14 It's that we have come to a point where we can now pick and choose the work we do. 1:18 Work comes to us, rather than us having to chase it, 1:24 and, most importantly, we've built a lifestyle business. 1:27 As the old adage says, "Don't live to work, but work to live." 1:32 I will share with you the key things that have enabled me to achieve exactly that. 1:38 I've broken down this video into six stages. 1:45 First of all there's marketing and promotion. 1:49 How do you market and promote your business? 1:52 Also, there's sales and pitching. When the leads come in how do you convert them? 1:55 There's client services—how to keep those clients happy— 2:00 and then there's growing you business, 2:05 but, most importantly, there are lessons about building 2:08 a lifestyle business and actually getting work done in less time. 2:11