Project Management for Web Design Agencies
Taking your Squarespace website design business from a solo operation to an agency with multiple team members may sound like a big leap, but it might just be a matter of having the right playbook to make that dream a reality.
Louise Everarts de Velp has done it, and in her Circle Day 2025 session, shared the roadmap she followed to go from designing websites on her own to creating an award-winning agency. She walked through her project management system, strategies for onboarding contractors, pricing approach, and the templates that keep everything on track.
Why and when to consider expanding
There are some potential drawbacks to remaining a one-person agency, including creating in a vacuum without peer input, valuable time tied up in back-end operations instead of higher-level work, and limited work-life balance with every detail on your plate.
Indicators that you may be ready to bring a team on board? Bandwidth cap (where requests for work surpass your availability), rising stress and slipping standards (warning signs that you're overextended), or you simply want more time for other pursuits (whether professionally or in your personal life).
When you do decide it’s time to expand, consider your purpose: why does your business exist, and what does it seek to accomplish? Thinking this through will give you a head start on crafting your agency’s mission statement, which is a crucial guiding light that keeps your business on track toward its goals.
A blueprint for the process
Starting a web design agency is really an opportunity to provide new skills and services to your clients. Charting out what those may be for your agency helps you define what your agency offers, whether that includes copywriting, building online stores, marketing, SEO, or another service.
The same mapping practice applies to project workflows, which is where checklists can be essential for tracking project progress. From admin tasks like preparing client contracts and sending client welcome emails; to creative workflows like branding, copywriting, and designing; to SEO and accessibility; all the way to testing and launching a client’s website, checklists are another way to visualize the entire process.
The tools you use internally to implement your workflows, from project management systems to accounting software, should also be part of your business mapping.
The right team with the right skills
Building your ideal team and identifying gaps that need to be filled starts with making a skills inventory to list what your studio currently offers and what it will offer. That helps you pinpoint the types of roles you need to hire.
You will also need to consider what your role will be moving forward. Will you continue to work in production or take on more creative direction and client relationship responsibilities? Defining your role indicates where your skills need to be replaced.
Then, you’ll want to decide what skills should be recruited (like designers), which can be outsourced (such as SEO), and which can be automated (for example, accounting).
When sourcing talent, Louise emphasized that new team members should fulfill your team’s criteria, such as having a portfolio that jibes with your agency’s aesthetic, communication that matches your preferred style, a personality that fits in with your brand’s culture, an autonomous working style, and more.
Client communication
Staying connected with clients throughout the lifetime of a project and after launch is an important part of expanding your business. You’ll need to decide who’ll be responsible for it and if you’ll want team members to correspond directly with clients.
Consider how client communication will take place as you expand your team—via email, phone calls, video meetings, or all of the above—and determine if you will use AI tools to expedite email drafting and polishing. Thinking these decisions through and deciding what works best for your agency sets you up to keep client communication clear and productive.
Pricing and payroll
Louise shared her approach to charging clients for studio services and paying her team for their work. Her client project quotes include a 50% markup from the estimated expense of creating and delivering the project, including paying her team. Some clients ask to pay an hourly rate, but most prefer a flat fee so they know exactly what the deliverable is and how much it’ll cost. New team members are paid hourly as she gauges their performance. Learn more about pricing your web design services.
Scaling a multi-location web design agency
Expanding your business to a multi-location or global brand is not a one-size-fits-all process. However, it’s worth considering if you find yourself stretched too thin, wanting to reclaim more balance, or eager to grow beyond solo work. Mapping out your services, workflows, tools, and team roles can help you build a structure that supports your goals as well as your clients’ needs. From defining your purpose, to setting up pricing and communication practices, to smart hiring decisions, you can shape expansion in whatever way best suits your vision and long-term growth.
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Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers and web design agencies. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
