How to open a studio without start-up capital
Hello colleagues!
I present to you a certain “cheat sheet” for future studio managers.
Many people have a desire to open their own studio, but there are thoughts that stop you. These are “no investors”, “no customers”, “I don’t know how I will be advertised” and many others. We will discuss some of them in this article.
You can open your studio under any conditions and source data, including without starting capital. The main thing is the presence of a strong desire and willingness to spend all your time and energy on development. True, there may be a little more problems in this case, but there will be plenty of valuable experience.
If there is no money, but I want happiness ... (s)
Most often, the opening of the studio begins with the search for a like-minded person (co-founder) and the creation of the first site with joint efforts. Typically, start-up studios consist of a designer (aka art director) and a sales manager. The main thing at the first stage is to create a studio site of decent quality - it will be with its help that all subsequent interaction with potential customers will occur (which, by the way, he should bring). Usually the first site is done independently, with the help of acquaintances and friends, or for a very small amount.
Choosing a partner is a separate issue, this item is of great strategic importance. Now I’ll say only the most important thing: allocate areas of responsibility, conclude an agreement that sets out the rights, obligations and sizes of remuneration (shares).
So, the site is ready, the designer is waiting for orders, and the time comes for the crown exit of the sales manager, designed to ensure the influx of customers. And where can he get them without an advertising budget? Do not persuade acquaintances, in fact?
The main thing is to be soberly aware that for a studio without a “name” there is only one way - the Active Search Path, in which, like in any war for a place on the market, all means are good, but some are still better.
Look for customers everywhere.
Pay attention to studio PR. Publish information about each completed project on specialized resources - this not only increases the results of search results, but also forms the desired “information field”, the image of the company, and increases audience awareness. The slogan “A good product doesn’t need advertising” is morally obsolete in the last century - without advertising your product is simply no one will ever find in a saturated market today.
On average, it takes 2-4 months to deploy such a campaign in all directions. The results may not come right away - this is a feature of human perception, first the information must accumulate in sufficient quantity - and only after that it begins to be used. After the first responses have begun, in no case should you slow down - with today's information glut, everything that has fallen out of sight for a while is forgotten almost instantly.
In parallel with the promotion, the sales manager should be actively searching, including cold calls. This does not mean that you need to ring the organizations in the Yellow Pages directory by reading the text from the cheat sheet to the person who picked up the phone. Decide which companies you would like to work with, study their existing sites, think about what can be improved, prepare individual commercial offers and only then call, and after that send letters.
Everyone appreciates an individual approach without exception, and it is naive to be afraid that your ideas will be stolen and implemented on your own. If prior to your proposal to full-time specialists, it was too lazy to even think about improvements, they probably would not have enough enthusiasm to realize this at the right level.
To the great surprise of many start-up studios, the main difficulty is not finding clients at all, but what happens after the successful implementation of this task is competent work on the project.
In order not to spoil your own results, follow some tips:
- Get a direct number. Virtual IP telephony or mobile - depending on financial capabilities. This will give your company solidity in the eyes of potential customers (at least the direct number is associated with the office).
- do not rush to rent a room. At first, your main task is to survive in constant losses. Salaries of employees will "eat up" almost all the profits, and extra spending is completely useless. There is still not enough weight for a good office, and bringing a client to a room on the top floor of a warehouse means automatically losing it. To successfully organize the work of employees, an office is not needed - for this, modern communication tools and project management systems are quite enough.
- register a legal entity. Not a single respectable company will work even according to gray schemes, not to mention black cash. IP registration takes a week in total, and further work on the simplified tax system does not require fundamental knowledge in accounting.
- if you still decide to rent an office - take care of licensed software. The visit of the brave employees of the "K" department has not pleased anyone yet, but there are a lot of upset users of pirated versions left without working machines and with fines. If you don’t have enough money even for a single Photoshop license, look for alternatives among free software.
- carefully evaluate each transaction, and if something is alarming, do not rush to start work, even if the client is pushing. Demand prepayment - sometimes it is the most reliable indicator of overall adequacy and the guarantor of a successful completion of the project.
And most importantly - do not forget that to achieve success in the long term in the b2b sector, you can only work on a win-to-win scheme.
In the following articles, I can cover the following topics:
1 - Business is a direct reflection of the head. What a leader is, such a business. To make a successful business you need to work hard on yourself and get rid of mistakes.
2 - What prevents a person from starting his own business. Fears and wrong beliefs.
PS It just so happened that it wasn’t very interesting for me to write about web design, so if anyone has any questions about managing people, business, self-development, I will be happy to answer and help as much as I can!
I present to you a certain “cheat sheet” for future studio managers.
Many people have a desire to open their own studio, but there are thoughts that stop you. These are “no investors”, “no customers”, “I don’t know how I will be advertised” and many others. We will discuss some of them in this article.
You can open your studio under any conditions and source data, including without starting capital. The main thing is the presence of a strong desire and willingness to spend all your time and energy on development. True, there may be a little more problems in this case, but there will be plenty of valuable experience.
If there is no money, but I want happiness ... (s)
Most often, the opening of the studio begins with the search for a like-minded person (co-founder) and the creation of the first site with joint efforts. Typically, start-up studios consist of a designer (aka art director) and a sales manager. The main thing at the first stage is to create a studio site of decent quality - it will be with its help that all subsequent interaction with potential customers will occur (which, by the way, he should bring). Usually the first site is done independently, with the help of acquaintances and friends, or for a very small amount.
Choosing a partner is a separate issue, this item is of great strategic importance. Now I’ll say only the most important thing: allocate areas of responsibility, conclude an agreement that sets out the rights, obligations and sizes of remuneration (shares).
Start
So, the site is ready, the designer is waiting for orders, and the time comes for the crown exit of the sales manager, designed to ensure the influx of customers. And where can he get them without an advertising budget? Do not persuade acquaintances, in fact?
The main thing is to be soberly aware that for a studio without a “name” there is only one way - the Active Search Path, in which, like in any war for a place on the market, all means are good, but some are still better.
Look for customers everywhere.
- Freelance portals. There sometimes very interesting offers for ambitious beginner teams appear, and in addition, it makes sense to notify all your old clients about the opening of a new studio and its offers. If in the past your cooperation was successful and ended in mutual satisfaction, there is a very high chance that you will be approached again with even greater enthusiasm in the status of a company.
- Social networks are an actively developing promotion tool that you need to learn to use. A huge number of potential customers or profitable partners, flexible opportunities for advertising or active communication with the audience. The main thing is not to let one of the directions freeze - the search for new people and maintaining contact with the existing pool.
- Specialized resources. They are of several types:
- Design (communities, portals, forums). It is here that you must “untwist” the work of your designer. Take time to design your portfolio, try to present the work of the community in an interesting way, be sure to advertise every new project, participate in discussions (and at the same time learn to respond correctly to criticism - that is, to remain invariably calm and polite. Do not waste your energy for free, entering into virtual skirmishes.
To popular, "fashionable" designer will handle much more than a man "without a name", even if performing high quality work.
- Industry portal - dedicated to construction, medicine, business and .d.
Choose a niche for which you have made a project or for which you would like to make and post on the portal a detailed practical article on how this will help this business. For example, on the portal dedicated to delivering meals to your home and office, tell us what is decisive for users when choosing a site: the presence of high-quality, delicious, truthful photos of dishes, pricing, ease of navigation, optimizing the online ordering process, linking billing systems - for example, the opportunity payment by plastic card, electronic money, etc. Good ideas are always valuable, and their authors are doubly expensive.
PR campaign
Pay attention to studio PR. Publish information about each completed project on specialized resources - this not only increases the results of search results, but also forms the desired “information field”, the image of the company, and increases audience awareness. The slogan “A good product doesn’t need advertising” is morally obsolete in the last century - without advertising your product is simply no one will ever find in a saturated market today.
On average, it takes 2-4 months to deploy such a campaign in all directions. The results may not come right away - this is a feature of human perception, first the information must accumulate in sufficient quantity - and only after that it begins to be used. After the first responses have begun, in no case should you slow down - with today's information glut, everything that has fallen out of sight for a while is forgotten almost instantly.
The secret to success in active sales
In parallel with the promotion, the sales manager should be actively searching, including cold calls. This does not mean that you need to ring the organizations in the Yellow Pages directory by reading the text from the cheat sheet to the person who picked up the phone. Decide which companies you would like to work with, study their existing sites, think about what can be improved, prepare individual commercial offers and only then call, and after that send letters.
Everyone appreciates an individual approach without exception, and it is naive to be afraid that your ideas will be stolen and implemented on your own. If prior to your proposal to full-time specialists, it was too lazy to even think about improvements, they probably would not have enough enthusiasm to realize this at the right level.
Hold high
To the great surprise of many start-up studios, the main difficulty is not finding clients at all, but what happens after the successful implementation of this task is competent work on the project.
In order not to spoil your own results, follow some tips:
- Get a direct number. Virtual IP telephony or mobile - depending on financial capabilities. This will give your company solidity in the eyes of potential customers (at least the direct number is associated with the office).
- do not rush to rent a room. At first, your main task is to survive in constant losses. Salaries of employees will "eat up" almost all the profits, and extra spending is completely useless. There is still not enough weight for a good office, and bringing a client to a room on the top floor of a warehouse means automatically losing it. To successfully organize the work of employees, an office is not needed - for this, modern communication tools and project management systems are quite enough.
- register a legal entity. Not a single respectable company will work even according to gray schemes, not to mention black cash. IP registration takes a week in total, and further work on the simplified tax system does not require fundamental knowledge in accounting.
- if you still decide to rent an office - take care of licensed software. The visit of the brave employees of the "K" department has not pleased anyone yet, but there are a lot of upset users of pirated versions left without working machines and with fines. If you don’t have enough money even for a single Photoshop license, look for alternatives among free software.
- carefully evaluate each transaction, and if something is alarming, do not rush to start work, even if the client is pushing. Demand prepayment - sometimes it is the most reliable indicator of overall adequacy and the guarantor of a successful completion of the project.
And most importantly - do not forget that to achieve success in the long term in the b2b sector, you can only work on a win-to-win scheme.
In the following articles, I can cover the following topics:
1 - Business is a direct reflection of the head. What a leader is, such a business. To make a successful business you need to work hard on yourself and get rid of mistakes.
2 - What prevents a person from starting his own business. Fears and wrong beliefs.
PS It just so happened that it wasn’t very interesting for me to write about web design, so if anyone has any questions about managing people, business, self-development, I will be happy to answer and help as much as I can!