First off all welcome to Online-Startup.com, it's great to have you here. This is an exciting new venture for me and hopefully for you too. Whilst there is an about page I thought I should probably use my first post to talk about what you can expect from this site and why I decided to create it. To get started, I'll need to explain a little about me...
About Me - Freelance Developer And Startup Company Owner
I am a freelance website designer and developer. I own a startup company TBMedia that offers my services to anyone looking for a new website or a re-design of an existing site. Like a lot of developers, I began by freelancing on the side, working evenings and weekends whilst working a full time job. My full time job was well paid so I didn't do it for the money, mostly I felt the need to unleash my creative side but I have also always had a passion for the internet and website design. Whilst I was in a technology (software) orientated job, it was not web based so I began working on my own side projects. Word started to spread and I got a few clients here and there. After a while it became clear that I needed to set up properly so I went about setting up as a sole trader, as well as registering a company name, set up business banking and so on.
Startup Companies Need Developers Like Me
I started to get a lot of website requests from people setting up there own companies. Most website designers will be familiar with this phone call / email...
Hi, I'm trying to startup a new company called InsertNameHere, I need a website by the end of the week, oh wait that's tomorrow, but yeah it's pretty urgent and I have a maximum budget of £100...
Most designers at this point will shudder and then point out that there is no chance in hell of it being finished by the end of the week. They will follow on by telling the client their hourly rates which if you're lucky will get you about 2-3 hours worth of work max on that budget. The end result is that the client goes to some crappy instant webiste service and gets a generic website like thousands of others and with nothing left to distinguish their product or service from the crowd, the startup fails and turns into a finishup (or perhaps finishdown).
Whilst I don't believe in dropping my rates, in my experience there are a multitude of ways to help the startup company get a bespoke website quickly and efficiently and therefore at a cost effective price. If you are looking to get going with your own company or even just to establish yourself on the internet, the very next post will go into details about these methods, ways in which you can work with a developer like me to get yourself a great website at a low price. I have explained this many times, in the end it seems it is more efficient to write it up on a website like this.
Startup Companies Need Help And Advice
Let me express that I am not a business advisor, accountant, solicitor or anything like that, but I have gone through the process of setting up as a sole trader, registering company names, sorting out business banking, dealing with HMRC and so on, so I can offer you what you need to get going, in the very least I can point you in the right direction. There are a whole host of packages and software and helpful things out there, it's just a case of finding them, and realising how much (or in most cases - how little) you should be paying for them.
I hope you like Online-Startup.com
Stick around, it's just getting good. I hope you like what you find here and above all I hope I can help you to get your startup off the ground and up and running. Be lucky.