Sam Crawford on Why Designers Should "Think Bigger" to Charge More
Location: Liverpool, United Kingdom
Started using Squarespace: 2019
Title: Founder, by Crawford
Like many web designers, Sam Crawford’s journey to the industry wasn’t a straight path. He explored various side gigs before a Squarespace ad sparked a passion that changed his career trajectory. Today, the Circle Platinum Partner and Community Leader manages a web design agency, by Crawford, helping to launch more than 700 Squarespace websites for clients around the world.
Sam’s mission extends beyond his own business. He shares his hard-earned wisdom with other Squarespace web designers through the Six Figure Design Club, empowering them to scale their business and earning potential.
In this interview, Sam shares the mindset and key strategies that have propelled him and his mentees to success.
What originally drew you to web design, and how did you get your start in the industry?
I was one of those people who tried to make money in every conceivable way. Whether it was buying and selling football boots or second-hand dumbbells, I tried it all. Then I got into service delivery.
Copywriting was my main gig for a year or two. That led me down a rabbit hole of running ads, social media management, and eventually, websites. I’d seen a Squarespace ad around this time, so it was top of mind. I took the leap and loved it. After three months, I dropped everything else and went all in on Squarespace.
That was at the tail end of 2019, and I haven’t looked back since.
In addition to your work in web design, you coach and mentor other designers. What is the most consistent piece of advice you find yourself giving them?
It’s okay to be terrible. Most people are when they strive for greatness.
What separates them is that they fail as many times as they can, they tweak their approach, and before they know it, they’ve accomplished everything they said they would.
The perfect moment is a fallacy. Sometimes you just need to brute-force your way to achieving your goals.
Many web designers start as freelancers and eventually want to scale their businesses into an agency. What are the key strategies you’d recommend employing to grow?
Stay solo for as long as you can so you know every aspect of your business, your industry, and your skill set inside out. I mean, really know it—like encyclopedic levels.
Once you have this knowledge, you can distill it down into a standard operating procedure (SoP) document. This acts as your agency’s guide and helps new hires get to grips with things more efficiently.
Don’t hire fast, either. People are always desperate to remove themselves as quickly as possible, without realising that sometimes the journey is the goal. Enjoy building—this is the most fun you’ll ever have with your business.
When it comes to hiring, your first acquisition should be a mirror image of you—personality, work ethic, skill, etc. These people are the easiest to slot into your business because they almost feel like an extension of yourself, making it a little easier to relinquish control. They will eventually take over the website building side of things.
After that, you want to hire someone who can drive growth. Without this, having a huge team is pointless, as you could realistically handle it all yourself. I hired an SEO agency for this, who have been working with me for three years, driving hundreds of leads.
You’ll then want to continue to improve quality and scale whilst removing yourself from operations. Your next hires should be: an excellent designer, a call-taker, and a client success manager.
This is the phase I am currently in, and it is surprisingly difficult to find the right people for those final two roles. But once you do, congratulations—you are now a strategic agency owner!
When working with clients, how do you manage their expectations and ensure a smooth, collaborative process from start to finish?
The client onboarding call always has to happen first.
They’ll tell you their problems and then you’ll present the solution. Try to caveat with any potential pitfalls right at the start. It’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver.
It’s also wise to list out all deliverables in a proposal for both parties to refer back to at all times and reduce scope creep.
What design principle is essential for creating the best user experience?
Simplicity, always.
No matter how fancy you try to be with your designs, I’ve found that most clients end up simplifying and reducing content by at least 50%.
As website users, we want the simplest way to get from A to B. As designers, let’s give people what they want—keep it simple!
What is it about Squarespace that makes it your go-to for building client websites?
Squarespace can do almost everything for almost everyone. I don’t know any other platform that is this universally excellent.
A common misconception is that it can only be used in a very limited manner, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Squarespace offers the best of both worlds, giving your builds guardrails with the Fluid Engine editor paired with the near-infinite potential of their code injection and CSS Editor. If your client wants an advanced website, they can absolutely have one. But they also have the confidence to manage their website, make changes with ease, and feel a genuine sense of ownership over their online presence.
Essentially, you can have your cake and eat it. I don’t think there is any higher praise!
What is your favorite part about being a Circle member?
Community over everything. Without it, I wouldn’t be half the designer I am today.
The fact that we also have a genuine voice directly to the Squarespace team is a privilege, too.
Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
As a business coach, it would be remiss of me not to say this: it’s okay to say big numbers.
Squarespace designers often pigeonhole themselves into thinking they can only serve small businesses, and therefore give themselves a self-imposed price ceiling. This just isn’t necessary.
At by Crawford, we’ve worked with three Fortune 500 companies in the past few months alone, with one even coming back for a second site within a week of launching.
Between these four sites, we charged almost $80,000. These numbers are achievable—and what’s more, they’re fair. Clients will pay for your expertise, and they’ll pay even more because you know the platform inside out. Your skill set is so much more valuable than you could ever imagine. Think bigger!
Key takeaways
These are the key takeaways from Sam’s interview:
Embrace failure, learn from each mistake, and continually adjust your approach
Don’t underestimate your value; set your prices based on your expertise
Learn every aspect of your business and industry before hiring a new team member
Develop a detailed proposal for every project that outlines all deliverables to avoid scope creep
Prioritize designs that help visitors get from point A to point B in the simplest way possible
Think bigger!
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.
