7 Steps to Scale Your Web Design Business
Knowing when to hire your first, or even your 10th, team member is an art. And while there is no perfect methodology to growing your business, there are tried and true approaches to adding part- or full-time employees to your evolving web design business.
So whether you’re a solopreneur looking to establish a full-fledged agency or the founder of a growing team, there are organized and responsible ways to scale your business so that you can efficiently achieve your goals.
Are you ready to grow your web design business?
There are many reasons why you may feel it’s time to expand your business. For instance, you may find that you’re ready to hire help if you:
Consistently have more work than you can handle
See weaknesses in your current skill set
Determine there are gaps in how you can serve clients
Want to expand your team's offerings
Feel constantly overwhelmed by or behind on daily tasks
Want to delegate repetitive tasks
If you feel that you’re in the position to grow but are not sure what to do, the key is to actually start before you think it’s time to. Learning to anticipate your needs is both intuitive and logic-based, you just have to know what it takes to reach your goals and plan every step.
Even if you’re not ready to expand your team with multiple full-time hires, you can begin the process by hiring a virtual assistant for a few hours a month to help with small tasks. This can give you a better sense of the hiring, onboarding, collaboration, and scaling process.
Can you afford to grow your web design business?
As you consider bringing on new team members, it’s crucial to know whether or not you can afford to hire them in the first place. If you can, you’ll need to determine what you can pay for additional help.
The following are two great financial indicators that you are ready to hire:
Once you determine how much you’ll compensate for help, you have at least 3 to 6 months worth of payment in your bank account
You have a missing capability, such as email marketing, search engine optimization, design, or coding, that limits your current ability to land bigger projects
The benefits of scaling your web design team
There is a common misconception that adding team members automatically means less work for you. In fact, scaling a team does require a great deal of effort, including but not limited to communication, management, and documentation.
Like any worthwhile investment, the rewards can be indescribable, especially knowing that your team is handling client needs, collaborating with each other, and growing toward your business goals.
Before your first web design hire
When you’re ready to hire your first team member, there are several steps you can take to create a successful experience.
Define the culture
Culture is at the core of everything your team produces. Start by defining the top three values that you want your business to have and share these with your new hire during onboarding. As you evolve, revisit these values and ensure your team continues to operate with them in mind.
Define the vision
When it comes to accomplishing big goals, you need a vision to set the direction and intention of your business. The vision paints a picture of the future, motivating your team to take action in the present, so choose one that excites and sets the tone for where your business is going.
Start small
When you begin the hiring process, start small, bring on one new team member at a time. In doing so, you can learn how to hire, train, delegate, trust, and grow in a manageable way and avoid disrupting client work.
Create a clear job description
When you’ve determined the areas where you’d like to have assistance, write a detailed job description including the responsibilities, tasks, and work ethic that you are looking for in potential candidates. The clearer the job description, the more likely you’ll be able to find and hire someone who is the right fit for the job and aligns with your business goals.
Delegate slowly
Train and delegate one major task at a time. In reality, it may take months to train a new hire to design websites at the level you expect–and that’s okay. Take the time needed to train thoroughly, add new tasks slowly over time, and reap the benefits of your patience.
Team communication
Define what communication looks like for your team. Look beyond personal preferences and consider what will be most effective for discussing both projects and formal business-related matters. Your team can communicate via text, email, a task management app, phone calls, or many more channels. Whatever you choose, you’ll want to sort out these details, as well as how work will be tracked, before you begin hiring.
Scaling your web design team
Use these seven steps as a guide to scaling your team.
Step 1: Determine your needs
Based on your goals for your business and how you want to be involved in its day-to-day and big picture functions, determine how many people you want to hire, if you want roles to be full- or part-time, and if you want your team to operate locally or remotely.
Then, write out the specific tasks that each new hire will be responsible for. In the spirit of starting small, each new hire should be responsible for 3 to 5 major tasks. Once you’ve determined the ideal state of your business, prioritize the order in which you want to hire team members based on your needs and goals for serving clients.
Step 2: Prepare your business
Document everything! Your processes, training, guidelines, new hire paperwork, policies, and more need to be put in writing before you begin the hiring process. In addition to helping you identify areas for improvement, you’ll also be providing an invaluable resource for employees to reference as they gain their footing. Furthermore, you’ll want to ensure all training sessions are comprehensive and squared away, and be prepared to provide clarity, hands-on assistance, and guidance.
During this phase, ensure your legal and financial considerations are in order. This includes but is not limited to workplace legislation, paid time off (PTO) policies, compensation plans, potential healthcare benefits, workstation materials, wellness programs, and more. Each of these considerations will largely be based on what you hope to build for your business and what you can afford.
Step 3: Set expectations
Define your needs and goals so that each new team member will understand exactly what role they play and how they contribute to the larger vision of the business.
As your business grows, expect your own role to shift. For instance, you may do less of the development and design work, but your management and administrative responsibilities will increase. Try deciding what you want your role to look like early on, and hire people who can fulfill that vision.
Step 4: Find and interview talented people
As you think about how to grow a web design business, remember that people are your most valuable resource. Hire professionals whose skills complement yours and inspire you to sharpen and expand your own skills.
To find talented candidates to interview, check within your own network of freelancers and solopreneurs. You can also post on job boards, share on social media, and browse freelancing platforms. If you’re a Circle member, you can even share open positions on the members-only forum.
Pro tip: You’ll still be working on client projects as you simultaneously search for team members. Acuity Scheduling can help you keep track of your busy schedule, seamlessly integrating with your calendar so you never miss a meeting. Learn more about the scheduling solution.
Step 5: Make an offer
Remember to pace yourself. Start with one new hire, learn how to manage a small team, and grow from there. For instance, hire one person who can help relieve you of one task once a month. It may not sound like much, but your business can really transform in just 12 months.
And while you may have many more needs than just one per month, onboarding multiple employees or delegating multiple tasks simultaneously can be challenging, and your work can suffer. It’s easier to scale up than scale down.
When you are ready to hire someone, make a realistic but valuable offer, factoring in PTO, potential healthcare and wellness benefits, incentives, and more.
Step 6: Onboard your new hire
Now that you’ve hired someone, it’s time to onboard them. Start by giving your new hire access to all the necessary tools and schedule an initial onboarding meeting. In the meeting, talk about your business’s culture, vision, their role, and their first project. Explain how they fit into the business and share your processes, workflows, project frameworks, timelines, and expectations.
Step 7: Track progress
Get ready to refine your people-management skills. Just as with clients, you’ll likely manage people with different personalities and working styles. Set benchmarks for success and communicate the importance of the expectations you shared during onboarding.
For each person you hire, track their work and progress. In addition to providing ongoing feedback and guidance, you’ll want to do periodic reviews of their work and productivity. Standard reviews take place quarterly or biannually. From time to time, you’ll want to reward employees by increasing their compensation, so be prepared to account for those adjustments.
If you don’t know how to get the process started, look into using project management tools to help with tracking tasks and progress. Over time, identify your employee’s strengths so you can give them responsibilities that will encourage growth and make the most of their talents.
Pro tip: Ask your employee how they prefer to receive feedback, such as being told face-to-face or via email. Everyone has different preferences that impact how they process and respond. By taking this into consideration, you can ensure both encouragement and opportunities for improvement are conveyed and acted upon efficiently.
A few tips
As you hire additional people to expand your web design business, keep the following in mind.
If you’re not sure you want to hire full-time team members, try collaborating with freelancers and test out what it feels like to be a project manager.
Bring on team members who can complete the tasks you don’t feel passionate about, such as client communication, CSS, SEO, copywriting, or graphic design. The possibilities are endless, so it just comes down to what works best for you.
Research workplace legislation ahead of time, such as laws about working with freelancers outside of your country or policies for hiring within your state.
At the end of the day, scaling your team is about achieving a good balance between offering your clients high-quality service while keeping your costs to a minimum.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional web designers, developers, digital entrepreneurs, and creatives. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
