iframe not loading? Click the following link: http://link.mitchwagnerdesign.com/dvd-survey_1
Where did I get this crazy inspiration from?
When laying out my brainstorming map for this project, I sort of had absolutely no idea what to do. But one night, I was driving home from New Jersey glancing at all of the local businesses out the window. The previous day, Mr. Brown had told us to keep Da Vinci Day on the back burner. All of the sudden it hit me. What is it like to own your own business like that? Then my brain went in a million directions at the speed of light. Over the past summer, my mom started a Disney travel agency, Friend In Me Travels. She was going to go to a professional graphic designer to make her website, logo, and other marketing. But I insisted she let me try. I first designed a few different logos and concurred on the one on the website you just visited doing the survey. I also created that entire website (http://friendinmetravels.com) Many people have been telling me that I have skills for that so good that I should start doing it for other people and charging them money for it. So those two combined together made me decide that I would make my project on my attempt at running my own small website design business.
What have I done so far?
Figured out how to legalize a business in Pennsylvania.
So the first thing I did was figuring out how to officially legalize my own business in the state of Pennsylvania. I've read up about the different business structures (Limited Liability Company, Corporation, Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, S Corporation, Cooperative, etc.) and the fees and legal documents needed to officially my business. For ease and simplicity, I am choosing to run my business as a Sole Proprietorship. It is considered the most basic business structure, and I alone own the company and am responsible for its assets and liabilities as it is not considered a legal entity.Chose the name. As a Sole Proprietorship, my business must operate under my actual name. As long as I have some variation of Mitchell Wagner in my business name, I do not have to apply for a fictitious name. But the odd part is that if I every want to create a bank account, or have checks written out to my business, they must be written out to Mitchell Wagner. This is actually a reasonably hard decision as there are only a limited number of domain names that are up for grabs if I were to make my own website. I have chosen Mitch Wagner Design to operate my business by.
Made the logo.
An essential part of any business is the logo. It should not be busy, and should convey the message of the business.
Started to learn the important aspects customers want in a business.
I found these two huge guides from Shopify that I have been reading a little bit at a time:
The first discusses key aspects of website design businesses including branding, marketing, writing proposals, pricing strategies, customer service, and invoicing. The second discusses other things that are more specific to actual website design.
Where am I going next?
The next thing I am going to start doing is analyzing the data from the survey you took before reading this, and actually finish making my own website.