Many people are considering doing freelance work or starting a small, home-based business due to the global economic recession. Unemployment figures are frightening and the job market is worse than many of us can remember. Web design is a great home-based business for anyone who is Internet savvy and detail oriented.

I have worked as a freelance web designer for more than a decade. During the past ten years I have learned a lot about what works well and what does not work well in the web design business. I have also watched the industry mature and change as it continues to evolve. I actually wrote an entire e-book about starting a web design business recently and decided to offer some of the highlights here on Associated Content free of charge!

The Internet has been referred to as a “disruptive technology” because it has completely transformed so many aspects of modern life. The Internet has permeated nearly every aspect of society, from communication to banking, and from research to shopping. The Internet has changed our world to the extent that most people have a hard time remembering life before the Internet.

This amazing technology, coupled with the universal mainstream adoption of the technology, has created exciting new business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Many people now earn a respectable living working from the comfort of their home in jobs or businesses that were not even invented a few short years ago. The web design business is one of these new opportunities afforded by the popularity of the Internet.

As Internet usage continues to rise around the globe companies are constantly in need of web design services. Some large companies hire web designers and web programmers to maintain their websites. However, most smaller businesses (and a lot of larger business too) contract out their web design and web content needs to freelance web designers or web design businesses.

Web design businesses are also ideally suited to starting and operating on a limited budget. (This assumes, of course, that anyone interested in starting a web design business probably already owns a computer and has access to the Internet!) Web design businesses can be easily run from a spare room at home, a corner in the living room, or even from a local Internet cafe. In more than a decade as a web designer I have never had a client want to visit my “office.” Most communications are handled via e-mail or phone with an occasional visit to their office.

Web Design as a Business
The web design business could not have been imagined by most people just a few short years ago. I graduated from high school in 1988 and knew only one person besides my who owned a “home computer.” Computers were only beginning to be implemented in business and the World Wide Web would not yet be invented for another year.

The Internet is clearly the driving force behind the popularity of personal computers. E-mail, Internet chat, music and video downloads, instant access to reference material, and e-commerce all owe their very existence to the Internet. Without the Internet none of these popular services would be possible.

The web design industry has changed considerably over the ten years that I have been involved in the industry. In the 1990s most websites were simple, static sites with content that rarely changed. Most sites today are dynamic and powered by database applications. Modern sites may be updated daily or even many times each day. The type of sites customers need may be somewhat different now than in the past; however, businesses still need websites designed, set up, and maintained. The market may evolve and change but businesses will always need someone to take care of their website.

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