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M$1 Answer
Running a webshop is very hard work. I've known a lot of people who've done this and they all admit that while it's rewarding to solve problems for clients, a service based business is a grind.
The major issue with service-based businesses is that the you have two variables you need to push in different directions in order to be profitable:
1. How much you charge.
2. How much you pay your talent.
Essentially you're always in a war to control the cost of your talent while charing your clients as much as possible. This can be a miserable process as talented people can be in massive demand and thus rotate from firm to firm. Clients can just as easily switch firms.
The result? You're constantly trying to find and keep both clients and talent. It's brutal.
That being said, there are a number of folks who love the lifestyle this type of business provides.
Alistapart.com is a webdesign zine run by Jeffrey Zeldman of the highly successful boutique consultancy happycog.
Adaptive Path is another smaller webshop/consultancy of note:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Also, Creative Good specializes in user experience and they have an excellent newsletter: http://www.creativegood.com/
I would reach out to each of these firms and try to setup lunch.
Finally, there are plenty of books on "management consulting" out there that would be helpful for you to take a look at. Management consulting is highly profitable and is probably a good component of a webdesign business (which is much lower in margin).
The major issue with service-based businesses is that the you have two variables you need to push in different directions in order to be profitable:
1. How much you charge.
2. How much you pay your talent.
Essentially you're always in a war to control the cost of your talent while charing your clients as much as possible. This can be a miserable process as talented people can be in massive demand and thus rotate from firm to firm. Clients can just as easily switch firms.
The result? You're constantly trying to find and keep both clients and talent. It's brutal.
That being said, there are a number of folks who love the lifestyle this type of business provides.
Alistapart.com is a webdesign zine run by Jeffrey Zeldman of the highly successful boutique consultancy happycog.
Adaptive Path is another smaller webshop/consultancy of note:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Also, Creative Good specializes in user experience and they have an excellent newsletter: http://www.creativegood.com/
I would reach out to each of these firms and try to setup lunch.
Finally, there are plenty of books on "management consulting" out there that would be helpful for you to take a look at. Management consulting is highly profitable and is probably a good component of a webdesign business (which is much lower in margin).
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
WOW. Great advice and thanks for the links. I'm starting off small by helping a local museum redesign their existing site using drupal (which I'm learning in the process) but I hope to branch out to more customers by word of mouth. Most of the work will be done by myself with some mentoring from friends. Hopefully once the business takes off, I will be able to do the managing and delegate coding, design, and admin.
I haven't thought of Management Consulting but that would be a great additional service and I love finding new and efficient ways to do the same task in my current job by leveraging technologies. Perfect fit!