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As a freelance web developer, you’re often battling between too much and not enough work. If you’re tight on time and you struggle to say no to new jobs, it might be time to switch to an agency setup.
Making the transition from the autonomous role of a freelancer to the more interdependent nature of a web development agency can be daunting without the right guidance.
At QualityHive, we have a comprehensive understanding of web development needs and have developed a tool to help web developers ease into the development process with seamless feedback, supporting your QA process and UAT testing needs.
If you’re thinking about transitioning from freelance to agency web development but don’t know how to start, this guide is for you.
If you often find yourself overloaded with things to do, you should consider transitioning from a freelance web developer to an agency owner.
Being a freelancer comes with complete autonomy and independence in running a solo ship. But there’s a limit to your growth potential in terms of income, complexity and the scope of projects you can handle.
By starting a website development business agency, you can:
Offer more comprehensive services
Cater to a larger client base
Hire more people to diversify your services
Switching to running a web development agency means you’re no longer just a web developer, but a business owner with more power and greater responsibilities.
The transition from freelance to agency web development certainly means significant changes, but it opens the doors to immense growth in terms of your finances and project management opportunities.
Starting a website development business is no walk in the park. The move from a solopreneurship to an agency setup involves more steps than just managing your clients.
Let’s take a look at what’s involved.
The first step is to define what your agency’s specialisation will be. This step allows you to determine your business goals and the agency model best suited to your target market and strengths.
Before you consider starting an agency, you ideally want to have a strong pipeline of clients. This ensures you have a steady stream of projects to work on and helps in maintaining relationships with your current and former clients. Building strong client relationships improves your reputation and attracts quality leads.
You should also ensure your business systems are up and running, particularly your agency website.
A considerable amount of finances goes into starting a website development business. We recommend having a sizable upfront startup capital along with three months of personal finances as a back up to ensure your agency gets off to a good start.
After the initial investment, remember to factor in the costs of operations, marketing, and salaries. Assessing the success of your agency business is dependent on key financial metrics such as gross margin, EBITDA, and net profit margin.
A positive net income means your business is profitable, while a negative figure could indicate that you may need to revise your business strategies. Managing your agency finances also means routinely analysing and reviewing income and expenditure statements. Keeping a close eye on these metrics and documents will give you enough insight into your business’s financial health.
Owning your web development agency involves various necessary legal and administrative tasks, including registering your agency, securing permits and licences, following tax protocols, and maintaining thorough records.
When you move from freelance to agency web development, you’ll need to register your agency as a legal business entity. This step is essential to legitimise your business’ operations and ensure you’re compliant with government and tax regulations.
If you don’t have them already as a freelancer, you’ll also need to secure licences and permits that your agency needs to avoid legal challenges that may affect its operations.
Business tax and self-employment tax are two different ballgames. Before you start trading as an agency, establish the necessary tax protocols to avoid penalties and maintain your agency’s reputation.
Finally, you should also make sure to keep accurate records of all legal and administrative documents and paperwork, including insurance policies.
Complying with administrative and legal formalities goes beyond mandatory compliance with the enforcement agencies. They build a foundation of a trustworthy agency, instilling confidence in your current and potential clients.
A good agency’s strength lies in its team. To bring in the best professionals for your agency, you need to master the recruitment process, from conducting interviews to performing background checks.
Using a combination of freelancers with full-time employees within your team often allows for the best collaborative dynamic, enabling you to scale your workforce according to the project demands without overstretching your finances. Bring on external help if some tasks feel too overwhelming.
If you want to take on more projects, you can’t transition from freelance to agency web development without hiring a team.
Your agency’s success depends on your ability to deliver high-quality projects on time, every time. The specifics of the services you’ll provide must be clear, including fees, timeline and scope to prevent any misunderstandings and stay true to the client’s expectations.
Consistent and clear communication is the key to delivering projects on time. Only when your team and clients are on the same page can you minimise communication gaps, misunderstandings, and errors while building trust and lasting client relationships.
Communicating and delivering on client feedback is integral to any project you undertake. Your developers and designers can miss client and QA testing feedback and risk project derailment. QualityHive can help you plug any gaps in communication and gain insightful feedback whenever needed. You can visualise feedback and comments in real-time on the Kanban board and make any suggestions crystal clear with video.
Our manual feedback and QA tool helps you look forward to feedback by bridging any gaps in client-team communication and streamlining project delivery. Learn more about our tool’s features and pricing, whether you’re just starting a website development business or an established freelance web developer in the UK.
Beyond internal and external communication, planning, time management, and allocating roles and responsibilities can all enhance client project delivery.
Promoting your agency in an already crowded and growing digital space is challenging without a well-laid-out marketing strategy.
The key is to understand your target market and deliver marketing messages that resonate with them. Embrace email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing initiatives to convert prospects into potential clients.
Once your agency is established, you’ll need to adapt to managing relationships with a broader client base to sustain and grow your agency. Having strong connections with existing clients can lead to referrals, essential for business’ growth.
Network and engage with your connections to attract new clients and retain existing ones.
Hopefully, this guide serves as a good starting point if you are looking to learn how to start a web development agency from a career in freelancing. Once you’re ready to make the move from freelance to agency web development, follow these steps for successfully building and sustaining a web development agency.
QualityHive’s project management features are integral to any web project, particularly for ensuring successful and timely project delivery. Whether you’re a web development freelancer or building a web development agency, let our feedback and QA tool help you deliver on your commitments and support you in establishing a firm foothold in the market and growing your client base.
Leverage our tool’s easy-to-use features to build bug-free and QA-checked web development projects.
Find out more about our tool by booking a demo today.
