One marketing plan I wrote had these statements, which I reprint here as examples:

Example One - Web Development Consultant: “My consultations help small business owners learn to make the most of their site on the Internet.”

Example Two - Web Hosting: “My web hosting provides excellent customer service 24/7 for small business owners seeking a professional Internet presence.”

Example Three - Template Developer: “My blog and content management system templates provide an easy and accessible way to make sites look professional and well organized. Some templates will be unique, one-of-a-kind, artist-created works of art while others will be created with a stricter budget in mind. The blogs will be fully loaded with helpful plugins including automatic backups, and will be ready to use as I’ll offer to do template installation for my clients.”

So there you have it.
1. Choose your Core Services - write them down!
2. Write down exactly how each core service will benefit your clients.

When I started my web design business I was too optimistic. I thought I could offer everything. I thought that offering a variety of services would bring in more clients. So my original site offered graphic design, web design, web maintenance, internet research, desktop publishing, SEO, logo design, photography, press releases, and publicity planning. I’m really surprised I didn’t include content writing on that list!

Well, experience showed me that (1) web design clients are not hard to get, and (2) I can’t do everything. What I ended up doing was graphic design, web maintenance, and web design, with some SEO and content writing work tossed in on the side.

My recommendation for one-person home-based web design business owners, is to specialize in just a few things. Be the expert. Train yourself well and then take on only the jobs you’d be best at. Yes, you’ll have to prepare yourself to turn some people down. In particular, if it seems the client wants you to do something you’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable with, you can save yourself a lot of stress by saying NO. You’ll find that you earn more and work with a happier state of mind when you choose your projects wisely and turn away the rest.

Of course if you’re starting a large web design firm that will hire specialists in logo design, SEO, graphic design, content writing, and more, you can advertise and get jobs in all those categories. But for the one-person business, it would be a bit too much.

So evaluate your talents and decide exactly what your core service offerings will be. You might also decide now that you’re going to specialize in websites only for horse owners or artists, or musicians.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1 - Graphic Designer: If you’re an outstanding artist you might want to advertise your images to web design business owners. Let them know your artistic talents are available for their web design projects. They in turn will tell their customers that these amazing graphics are available (for a greater price) and you’ll probably find you have more work than you can reasonably deal with.

Example 2 - PHP specialist: If you know how to code PHP you’re bound to be in demand. You can offer your talents to web designers and to the public, with your PHP web design website. You might be able to make a business doing PHP only without dealing with the web design or graphics end of the business by working with a few talented web designers who will sub-contract work to you.

Example 3 - Flash specialist: If you’re good at creating Flash sites, this is a specialty that could be turned into a business, again without delving into the intricacies of design, SEO, and content writing.

Example 4 - HTML/XHTML/CSS specialist: If you’re like me, and are basically good at HTML, XHTML, and CSS, then make those your core products. If your customers ask you to include SEO and content writing skills in a job, you can add these to your contract if you feel competent to complete the tasks well.

Example 5 - CMS specialist: Some web designers specialize in setting up content management systems (CMS) and installing themes. You might advertise WordPress setup, Drupal setup, or whatever you’re really good at.

Whatever else you decide, remember never to offer to do something you are not sufficiently trained to do. You need to be totally confident in your skills. Make sure, before you start your business, to have your education (or self-education) complete and UP TO DATE. Well, the truth is, your web design education is never totally complete, because you’re always going to be acquiring new skills. The thing I’m trying to get at here is that you should be entirely competent to do whatever it is you’re offering as a core service.

Once you know what your specific core service offerings will be, you’ll be ready for part two on creating a marketing plan for your web design business.

If you’re planning a career as a web designer you should start as soon as possible to collect your favorite designs to keep as inspiration. You could start a web design idea gallery as the owners of the following sites did, or just bookmark all the inspiring, beautiful, amazing sites you come across.

Here are twenty web design idea resources to inspire your creativity.

Patrick Haney has collected over 400 web design ideas on his Flickr account: Web Design Inspiration.

A Site A Day intends to give web designers one new inspirational site building idea daily:

Web Creme collects screen shots of inspiring web design ideas:

Web Design File has more than 650 inspirational web design ideas waiting for your perusal:

Only the best: Inspiration King focuses on quality over quantity:

Unmatched Style is a community blog acknowledging designs using CSS and web standards:

At CSS Clip you can submit your CSS site to the gallery and compete with other great web design artists of the internet:

Best Web Gallery defines quality design as “Visual + Technical + Creativity”:

The Best Designs features quality CSS and flash websites:

You’ll find plenty of web design ideas and inspiration at CSSremix:

I Love Blog Design specializes only in (guess what?) …blogs!

The CSS Zen Garden is perhaps one of the most inspiring places on the web:

CSS Mania! Be inspired!

CSS Revue isn’t in English but you don’t need to understand the language to appreciate the beautiful web design ideas.

Design Idol features beautiful CSS and flash sites:

MotionSpire provides a gallery for impressive 3D, 2D and multi-media:

Frequent updates: CSS Envy.

FantastiCSS - a gallery of fantastic CSS web design:

We Love WP - showcasing WordPress sites:

Inspiration Folder requests membership…

I am a whitespace fanatic, especially for professional websites.

Anyhow, here’s the code I gave her. I’m putting it here in case someone else might need it.

Click here to see the result of using this code

You’re welcome to take this and use it in any way that suits your needs:

<html>
<head>
<title>YOUR TITLE</title>
<style>
body {
 background: url(http://www.lindajomartin.com/images/ybg.gif)repeat;
 font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;
 font-size: 1em;
}
div.whitespace {
 background-color:white;
 border: 2px #000000 solid;
 margin: 150px;
 padding: 30px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class=”whitespace”>
<p>Put your main text here.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>