# Opinions Please



## happyhomestead (Jan 19, 2011)

I just wanted some opinions on my future home based business and lifestyle, and would like to know if there are others out there living the dream as we speak.

In the next 5 years I would love to live a more rural lifestyle. I currently live in the big city and have been urban homesteading to prepare for this lifestyle change. I really have my heart set on coastal/southwestern Oregon. 

Over the past 5 years I have been doing internet sales and marketing. I love the home based lifestyle and have been successful, but I feel I am not reaching my full potential. I find myself so stressed with the ups and downs of living on a commission based job. It is either feast or famine, but ends up equaling out and has its pro's and cons. My passion is the arts.

I have been designing websites as a hobby for the past 5 years. I started off with a free host and domain, to promote my affiliates. It grew from there and I have made a few websites here and there for friends, and have an abundance of samples, and mock sites I have done. I really want to take my talents to the next level, but as with any change it can be difficult. I am not also not sure if a rural lifestyle can coexist with a website design career.

For example, If I live in a small town of 200 people it could be very hard for me to live off of my website sales. BUT it is the internet age, and more and more people NEED websites wether it be for business or hobby. It could prove to be very difficult to have an online based web design business as well. I would love to have a nice mix of in person and online clients, but getting there could be difficult especially in a smaller town. 

I have my mind set on this but I would like your opinions. Is this a good future career field to go after with the dream of living a rural lifestyle? I know many of you have home based business already but I am curious to know if any of you have careers in technology/web/graphics design, and how it works out for you. Along with the web designs I would like to own a few online stores as well as a backup income. Wether the opinions are bad or good I do appreciate them! TY in advance. Opinions from those who live in Oregon are especially helpful!


----------



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Why would you be limited by the town in which you live??

That's the benefit of a web-based business, afterall. 
You can live on ranch, 100 miles from a town big enough to even support a McD's and make a nice little living...

Errrr wait... I guess that's ME. 


Seriously though, you'd just have less in-person contact with clients and more e-mail, phone calls, etc.


----------



## Mickie3 (Aug 28, 2010)

Sounds like a plan to me. Only thing I can see that will be very challenging will getting a client base to do work for. You will want to develop this base in the large city before you move, I would think as its a very competitive field and a lot of face-to-face will be needed when you are starting out. (Was in consulting for years and its always like that.)

Good Luck!


----------



## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I have an online business and have had it for 8 years now. We live in a very rural area, which is also a low income area as well. My husband has designed a few websites off and on for people in our area. It's not our business though and he doesn't really want to do that full time. I think a rural area, small town type area is pretty good as there isn't as much competition. Especially if you are good at it.


----------



## clovis (May 13, 2002)

I do mostly ebay from home, and it works wonderful for our situation. I would think that web design, especially if you are good at what you do, and will do what you say, when you say you are going to do it, with fair rates for both you and the buyer, you'll never have a moments worry about finding enough work.


----------



## Mickie3 (Aug 28, 2010)

katlupe said:


> I have an online business and have had it for 8 years now. We live in a very rural area, which is also a low income area as well. My husband has designed a few websites off and on for people in our area. It's not our business though and he doesn't really want to do that full time. I think a rural area, small town type area is pretty good as *there isn't as much competition*. Especially if you are good at it.


While there isn't likely to be much competition, there isn't likely to be a lot of demand, either, IMO. People tend to set up websites for their business and then do minor changes only, although YMMV.


----------



## happyhomestead (Jan 19, 2011)

TY for your opinions. As I said I do live in the big city now, but I dream of a lifestyle where I can live in a rural community and work on my art in a secluded artists retreat.....Web design will still have its ups and downs, but it is my passion.

I know although my business will be based online, it is of upmost importance to "meet" clients in person, as well as online. However, it will be more difficult to "sell" online, especially designs that are expensive. Unfortunately, website design purchases involve much more then the click of a "buy now" button. I know in a smaller town there will be less demand, but I can also advertise my services in bigger surrounding towns and cities. The pros and cons are endless, but nonetheless, this is my chosen path. 

For me what it all comes down to is personal happiness. I will be happy making less money if I am doing what I truly LOVE doing. I also want to leave my options open and have several forms of income coming in, so if I do not sell as many designs, I will not have to worry.

I would love to have my design business up and going and making "side money" at first, and growing with it, along with a more passive income. I do not want to rely on design sales alone, if I had a bad month for business this could be devastating. I would love to start up a few online stores, maybe on ebay, etsy and quite possibly purchasing merchandise wholesale. I am not sure which route I want to go just yet, but I know I do have the experience in internet marketing to be successful. 

For those who do work with ebay, etsy, etc, I would love some more info on this. What exactly do you sell via your ebay and etsy stores. I would love to know how you got started in this! I see many of you making a living this way and it certainly has me intrigued. Having an online store and being able to work in my trade of choice would be a dream come true for me!


----------



## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

You are talking about doing several things at once -- a web design business AND doing eBay or Etsy, which is fine. It's great to diversify, especially in today's economy. 

Let's talk about the design business first. It sounds like you're in the process of transitioning from something you've been doing as a hobby/favor to paying gigs, right? First you need to put together a portfolio of your work -- links to sites you've already designed, etc. If you are going to pitch clients online AND in person, you probably will need two versions. Then you need to think about rates and what you're going to charge. Finally, there's advertising. Remember that networking often is the best and cheapest way of advertising! Referrals from satisfied clients (or friends whom you've helped in the past) are worth their weight in gold. Contact everyone you've done work for, let them know you're starting a business, and encourage them to recommend you to friends. (Will they let you put a link on their sites? "Website design by ..."?)

The safest way to launch is to keep working your old job while you build up the new one. It's a great way to find out how much demand there is for your services without cutting the strings to your regular paycheck! If all goes well, for awhile, you'll be working like a madwoman, but stash some of that extra cash so you'll have a nest egg when you make the leap. 

eBay, Etsy, Amazon and Craiglist also can provide a nice supplemental income stream. What can you sell? What do you have; what do you know about? Knowledge is really important here, especially if you're buying things to resell. For instance, I love books, so I deal in them and often can make an educated guess as to "winners." Yesterday I went to an estate sale and bought 2 books; paid $5 for one and listed it on Amazon for $47.50; 75 cents for the other and it is worth a whopping $145! Now, I don't score like that every day, and yes, I'll have to wait for a buyer willing to pay those prices (but they usually show up eventually  ).

I should note that I bought the second book during the closing hour of the sale, when everything was marked down. Dozens of dealers had passed it by, but I had a hunch it might be worth something. Sometimes ya just get lucky!


----------



## frogmammy (Dec 8, 2004)

Having DONE web design for $$$ I can tell you that if you're "stressed with the ups and downs of living on a commission based job", web design isn't going to be significantly better.

Before I go any further, I'll add, *I* did not sell the jobs, my SIL did. She lived in the DFW area, I live in MO. so of course, we did it long distance. I did 90% of the graphics and we both did site construction, she did sales, maintenance, upgrades & collections. Notice I said COLLECTIONS.

My SIL sold primairly to businesses and was head tech at a large ISP, so she DID have a steady income coming in and was able to find businesses willing to spend some serious $$$ for a web presence. This was all about 10 years ago and thought I'll admit, old info, some things remain unchanged.

You work two weeks on the project, tell the customer you'll have the site up for their viewing & approval in three days and they tell you, oh, their babysitter's younger brother can make a website for $30 and they decided to go with that.

You work several weeks on a mega-site, get everything PERFECT, all the apps working right, everything cross-platform compatable, all the graphics state of the art, the customer loves it, loves it, loves it....but money is tight...they'll pay next week. And next week they decide that gee, it didn't take THAT much work to make that site, you're overcharging and they won't stand for it. You can pull the site, but you'll never get paid for the work you put in for THAT job.

And that's just two examples that happen MANY times. Yeah, you can get a written contract, yeah, you can get some...but not all...$$$ in advance.

Just be aware, web design is fun, but not all lilacs and roses.

Mon


----------



## happyhomestead (Jan 19, 2011)

Willow- I know I am absolutely horrible when it comes to planning many projects at once, I guess I am a multi tasker in more ways then one! This is one of the reasons why my website design project has been put on the back burner, but this year I made a resolution to put my talents to use.

I will absolutely NEVER up and quit my "dayjob" to persue this, but I would love to one day make a career change when the time is right. Before I can make a career change, I must test the waters, build a clientele, and see where it takes me.

My plan of action consists of:
Make an online portfolio

Create a few mock-sites to use as examples in my portfolio

Reach out to friends/family and my local community via craigslist. When my portflio is complete, I would like to begin placing ads on craigslist and offer to make FREE websites (about 10 will give me a decent portfolio) to local artists and small businesses) I figured I would ask my clients to link back to my website, but some may not want to cross promote.

Once I have a fair amount of free designs, I can use them as samples for my portfolio and I can begin posting ads to SELL my designs.

I would also like to create facebook, twitter, all that fun stuff to promote and get traffic to my portfolio.

I am excited and have begun working on my portfolio, I do have a few website links I can add and a few mock-samples I can use, but I would like to add a few more and have good references!

I have two examples built actually, one "professional" grey white and blue theme, the other an "edgy" grey white and lime green theme. I am uncertain which one I will use, quite possibly both in the future with different domains to cater to different clients.

MAMMY- TY for the advice. I know website design does have its ups and downs and is still a sales based job, but my happiness is what is most important. Every job has its own stressors, but I am so used to the work-at-home on the computer lifestyle, it truly does go hand in hand with my existing work and future goals, such as owning online stores and ecommerce.

What I would like to do to avoid "timewasters" as I call them in my business, is ask for half of the payment upfront to begin working on the website, and the other half of payment due upon proofing of the website. This way if there are any changes that need to be made, I can make them according to the clients needs, before the website is paid off in full. There are alot of flaky people out there and I do not need my time wasted. Asking for half payment upfront is how many of the website designers in my city handle this, and is the norm here. I absolutely will not put time and effort into a site unless I do have some cash in hand. It could lead to disaster. Proofing then paying will also keep my clients satisfied as they will be able to view the site and make any changes before it goes live and will know what to expect. I would rather have my clients view their site before it goes live, request any changes, and make them, rather then posting the site live, the client sees it and is not satisfied. This seems to be common practice with many corpo webdesign companies and it is very unfair, they do it so they can then charge the client more money to make "changes". Most clients, especially those who are first time website owners WILL need a few changes and updates made here and there. I woud rather do them, then ask for the rest of the fees to be paid. When the fees are paid in full, then the website will go live! Thankfully I will be independent, can work from home and will have very low overhead, so I do not need to charge outrageous hourly fees and extras, I can work with my clients and be more flexible with them compared to the average by the book company. I also can make my rates for designs much more affordable. As I look at the price list of my competitors out here (I have looked at several local companies to compare rates) I realize I can truly compete with them offering much more affordable rates, because I do not have much overhead. 

I am rambling a bit too much now, can you tell I have had this on my mind all day! It is nearly 1 am...I should be working on my portfolio right now but it is nice to get this off of my chest! Back to dreamweaver, before I have sweet dreams in bed!


----------



## happyhomestead (Jan 19, 2011)

PS Willow what an amazing idea with the books, I'd love to hear more about your business!

I am very crafty and would love to eventually begin selling handmade crochet items, clothing, homegoods, ragrugs etc. I would love to help people make use of older worn clothing, blankets, etc by giving them different useses and recycling them. For example that old sheet set u no longer use could make a great rag rug. That old blouse that doesnt fit but you just cant get rid of it? Can be made into a handbag or another accessory. 

I also like to make my own beauty product but I believe there are laws and regulations to do this and it could be difficult.

I have seen people selling so many unique crafts and things on etsy and ebay. Painted rocks, wooden sculptures, etc. 

Working in the industry I am in, and selling websites and homemade crafts will help me achieve more financial freedom! When more financial freedom is achieved I can make my career change and the possibilities will be endless.

I have felt so trapped for the past few years in this vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. I make a decent living in my present line of work but I need to expand and make use of my talents. I want to leave the big city behind and adapt to a more rural lifestyle. I want to lessen my living expenses, bills and diy more so I can have more freedom to do what I really want to do, the little things we all take for granted. I am very fortunate to have a work at home lifestyle that has influenced me to start new home based businesses. This year is THE year for me to stop dreaming and start doing. I hope to have my portfolio up and running by MARCH (day job permitting) I will let all of you know my progress!

I would also like to post an ad here to offer some free web designs to my fellow homesteaders and urban homesteaders when the time comes! I see so many of you with amazing ideas, selling things on ebay, etc...maybe we can work together in the future! I will make a post when I have my portfolio live!


----------



## dtsh (Feb 10, 2011)

happyhomestead said:


> I have been designing websites as a hobby for the past 5 years. I started off with a free host and domain, to promote my affiliates. It grew from there and I have made a few websites here and there for friends, and have an abundance of samples, and mock sites I have done. I really want to take my talents to the next level, but as with any change it can be difficult. I am not also not sure if a rural lifestyle can coexist with a website design career.


If you have the knowledge and the drive, you will succeed. If you don't have the knowledge, that can be fixed. I also work in IT (unix nerd) and if you have internet access, you're at work. Have you looked at craigslist? Friends have spoken of the odd database repair or blog software (re)install listed.


----------



## frogmammy (Dec 8, 2004)

My SIL went to written contracts finally...worked MUCH better!

Mon


----------

