HOW TO START A WEB DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS

What does a web development business do exactly?

A web design and development business offers a wide range of services to its clients – it all depends on your expertise and that of the team you put together.

We can cite, among others:

• Website development (e-commerce, showcase, blog, etc.)
• Site hosting
• Software development
• SEO (SEO, purchase of keywords on search engines)
• Community management, the launch of Facebook campaigns
• Graphics, video editing / audio-visual production
• Security audits
• Creation of mobile applications, a service increasingly offered.

Some web agencies, often called digital agencies, specializing in digital communication. There are also many website creation agencies. Once again, a web development business is like the person who founded it and the members of his team.

What investments should you plan to create a web development business?

For the creation of your web development business, several investments will be necessary, but, once again, these depend on the size of your project.

First of all, if working from home is suitable for freelance developers, you may need to consider setting up in offices to best launch your web development business. You can, therefore, rent your premises and take out a commercial lease or opt for a coworking space.

In addition, creating a web development business involves being more than a developer: sales, marketing, and accounting are key. All this comes at a cost: accounting solution,  CRM software for customer relationship management, marketing, etc. There are many expenses to be expected to get started on this excellent foundation.

Once the skills have been acquired and the right people have been hired, the biggest challenge is to find clients: there is no magic recipe here. It all depends on your motivation!

Note that if you are unemployed, you will be able to benefit from aid for business creation offered by the State.

What legal structure for a web development business?

Choosing your legal status can be difficult, the good news is that the activity of a web development business is not subject to any particular restriction: it is, therefore, possible to create a web development business in a company or even as an Individual Business. We come back to the essential points.

If you are more than one partner, your choice may be:

• The SARL (Limited Liability Company): by creating a SARL, you protect your personal assets from any difficulties: in fact, it cannot be threatened by your creditors, which puts you in safety. However, this structure is more difficult to change when your business itself changes.

• The SAS (Simplified joint-stock company): much more flexible than SARL, SAS is the preferred legal structure of French entrepreneurs. It is also a socially and fiscally advantageous structure: for example, the president of the SAS benefits from the “assimilated-employee” regime, which means that he has the same social cover as an employee (apart from unemployment insurance).

If you are embarking on the adventure alone, you can choose to create your web development business with one of these three statuses:

• The status of micro-entrepreneur (auto-entrepreneur): inexpensive and easy to set up this status can be a good option for testing a project. The auto-entrepreneur benefits from tax and social advantages but sees his turnover limited to 70,000 $ for a company providing services. In addition, this status has the advantage of being as easy to adopt as it is to leave: you will be able to develop your project in the company if the adventure takes another turn!

• The EURL (Sole Proprietorship with Limited Liability): a single member of the SARL, the EURL allows you to have a higher turnover and offer the advantage of protecting your assets.

• The SASU (a joint-stock company with Unipersonal): sole proprietorship form of SAS SASU also protects your assets and not be limited by a turnover threshold. It is also a way of benefiting from the advantages of the SAS (flexibility of operation, the social regime for assimilated employees, etc.).

What are the training courses offered for website creation?

Many training courses in website creation exist, whether online or in specialized schools.

If you are already an employee of a company, know that any employee who can prove at least one year of seniority in the same company benefits from 20 hours of work.training per year thanks to the  CPF (personal training account.

How much does creating a website?

The price of creating a website depends on many factors: type of site, number of pages, quality of design, features etc. This is why the web development business must clearly define the characteristics of the website requested in advance to establish an adjusted quote.

For example, while a freelance developer charges an e-commerce site between 1,000 and 20,000 $, a web development business can go up to 50,000 $, of course, a guarantee of superior quality.

Don’t wait any longer; get started!