How to start a web design business in Nigeria

Are you a tech-savvy and you are passionate about designing a website? or you are contemplating to become a web designer and do this for a living, you have to be commended. Seeing how the school is not helping matter in this country after graduation coupled with the desire to be independent (self-employed) many have decided to go into a web design business and now they are making big from it.

But how do you go about this? Well, that is exactly what we will be discussing in this post; things you can do to start a web design business in Nigeria.

We can’t talk about this business without touching the description of the job. It’s important to know what will be expected of you as a web designer because we have observed that so many have a misconception about this job and could not stand the test of time in the business. Would you want to see your business fail? I guess NO.

1. Web Designer job description

As a web designer, your job is to create the look, layout, and features of a website. You are not just limited to the layout of website pages, but you should have great knowledge in graphic design and basic knowledge in web development.

Having basic knowledge in web development will help you fix some code errors without calling on a web developer all the time.

As a web designer, your job also is to create and edit the website content, though you can hire a content writer to assist in this area, it will be good if you know how to write content in order to give clear instructions to your content writer. This is very important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes.

2. Web designer’s duty

As a web designer, your duty is to:

• Write and edit a website content
• Design webpage layout
• Determine technical requirements
• Update a website
• Back up the website content, this includes the database.
• Fix any code error on the site

If you plan on doing a web design business in Nigeria, the above-stated duties will be carried out on each one of your client sites.

3. Opportunities in the web design business in Nigeria

Do you know that not all businesses in Nigeria have a website? A large number of businesses are yet to get their own website, do you know why? The main reason is that they are yet to understand the importance of getting a website. So many Nigerian business owners need to be educated on the importance of having a website for their respective businesses.

If you are planning to become a web designer and do this as a business, you need to also learn how to sell your idea.

• So should you start a web design business in Nigeria? Yes, of course. As we have already mentioned, many people are yet to get their own web site. This is not limited to business owners only but other people like law firms owners, dentists, doctors, etc …
• Starting a web design business comes with an extra source of income like digital marketing or SEO.
• Keep in mind you can start a web design business without having a shop or office that is to say you can start a web design business with less capital and scale it in time.
• Web design business is a lucrative business in the sense that it requires less work but can yield a huge profit if you know what you are doing.

4. How to acquire a web design skill

To become a web designer, you need to have the following skill:

• Design software: Like any other craftsperson, you need some tools to carry out your activities. Learn how to use some essential design software like Adobe Photoshop and  Illustrator. These tools are important because you will need to enhance an image before adding to a site. Besides, you will need to create a logo for each site you will be working on.
• HTML: Although, you can use a content management system like WordPress or Joomla, having good knowledge in HTML will help you to know to tweak a website source code. For example, you may have to add a Facebook pixel code to your site or google analytics code to have an overview of your site visitors and their behavior.
• CSS: We use CSS to tell a browser how to format and style an HTML element or class. CSS is used to change the color, font, font size, font-weight, etc…  of an HTML element. The main role of CSS is to make your site look good and not boring.
• JAVASCRIPT AND/OR PHP: Though this is not very important like others we have mentioned, but having a good knowledge of PHP will help you create a dynamic website like Facebook whereby every user on your site will be seeing different things when they log into their account.
• SEO: You should have a basic knowledge of SEO in order to drive free traffic to a site from search engines like Google, Bing.
• Online resources: Youtube and google research are great sources to improve your skill.

5. Skills required in the web design business

Having all the necessary skill to be a good web designer is important but you will also need some additional skill to run your business successfully if you want to stay long in the web design market.

• Time management: You need to learn how to manage your time. Keep to the time you have agreed on with your customers. To illustrate this, imagine how you feel if you give a tailor your cloth to sew and he keeps postponing the day you will come and collect your sewn cloth.  How would you feel?
• Communication: To design a website, it can take a month or more depending on the project. Without that in mind, you can’t keep your customers without any update about the project for the whole month or more. You have to keep updating them on the progress of the work so that they can be assured that their work is in progress.
• Staff management: It is also important to know how to manage your staff if you don’t want your business to fail. Assigned to each one of them a specific task with the time he/she is to give a report about the work.

6. Tools and equipment needed in the web design business

Like any other business, you will need some tools to carry out your activities successfully. Let’s see things you will need in this business.

• A website: Come on, you can’t be selling a product you don’t use. Besides, it is not all about showing your customers that you do consume the product you sell but having a website is a great way to scale your business to the next level. Needless to tell you how important a website is in business life. Through a website, you can tell your prospects about the variety of services you render. It might not just be limited to web design but also SEO or social media marketing. Having a website will also help you to get in touch with your clients. it also helps you to track your visitors’ behavior, how they interact with your site, the bounce rate, etc …
• A laptop or desktop: Of course, without a laptop/desktop, you can design a website. If you have a staff, you need to equip them too with laptops or desktops.
• Social Media Account: Engage with people on social media via a Facebook group and pages.

7. Getting an office for your business

Since most of your clients will be in developing cities, getting an office in places like port-Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, etc will be a good idea.

Just of recent, many business owners in Nigeria are embracing the new technology, with that in mind, getting started with a web design business in Nigeria will not just be limited to the above cities. You can start your business almost anywhere you desire.

Also keep in mind that if people in your locality are yet to understand the importance of having a website for their business, it is your responsibility to let them know how important it is. You will be surprised by their turn out.

Take note: You can start a web design without any office.

8. How to get your first clients

The best way to get your first clients is to start talking to your uncles, church members, friends that might have parents running businesses, etc … Those are the ones you can reach easily with less effort.

besides contacting the above people, you can reach out to business owner in your locality. try to have a one-on-one discussion with the business owner instead of a secretary or a manager if the business owner is the one having the final say.

You can also become a seller on Fiverr.com

I don’t recommend sending a proposal to them or emailing them, meet them in person rather.

9. How to promote your web design business

After getting your first clients, it will be easier for you to get the subsequent ones in the sense that you will have more testimonials or case studies to prove.

• The best way to get more and more clients is to keep talking to business owners. This is very effective and cost you no money.
• You can as well make use of digital marketing to promote your business. I recommend using Google Ads instead of Facebook because there, people have more intention to hire a web designer than on Facebook. Facebook is based on the interest and the person might not be ready to take action when you are running your ads.
• Hire sale persons: They will help you promote your business fast especially if they know how to sell a digital product.

Extra income

You can add to your web design business, graphic design. We have a detailed guide on that too.

Conclusion

Should you go into the web design business? In view of the things we have discussed in this post, you can decide for yourself. Make sure you understand what is expected of you as a web designer. Overall, note that a web design business a lucrative business and many are yet to go into it. You may decide to take action now before it gets too late and becoming over saturated.