marketing, brand, low-capital, cashflowI’m thinking of creating a tech company that offers website solutions for a fee. Is it important to have a “professional” public face with branding, a flashy website, etc.?
I’m concerned about spending too much money on trivialities when I really need money coming in, not going out.
Similarly, I’m not sure if paying for office space is a good return on investment.
How many people will be seeing my office anyway?
Might I not be better off working from home?
"Website Solutions" is a very broad description and is often a very competitive market and can take a long time to get a strong standing.
Definitely brand via the "flashy website". If you are the web developer for the site even better it just your time vs your money.
If you are not a web developer, I would opt for getting a great site template from Theme Forest (or something like them), and great book on HTML5 and Javascript. Dedicate time to YouTube videos learning about Responsive HTML5 design and Web Development.
Avoid getting office space until you have a enough revenue to cover the cost. You can pay some office leasing companies (e.g., Regus) for virtual office space. This will give you a mailing address, even a receptionist depending on your package level. According to their site you can reserve a personal office/conference room upon request(at additional costs of course).
If a Regus-like situtation is not unavailable or too expensive, I would opt for a co-work location for holding face-to-face meetings.
I am certain this is more than you asked for. I believe that establishing yourself as a Brand outweighs the benefit of a store front. Jason Calacanis has a great Start Up Basics video series covering a lot of this.
NOTE: I have no affiliation with any of the companies or persons mentioned in this answer.
Though you don’t give too much info about the company that you are thinking of starting, it is important to have good branding that represents what you do well.
In your case, you plan to start a company for website solutions, so I think that it would make sense for you to show your talents through your own website as it will likely be the first place that people will view you and your brand. Websites and online presence is both incredibly important in the modern world, and also (often) very cheap, so you won’t have to worry about too much capital being spent on registering a domain name.
Depending on how you intend to interact with your customers it might make sense to have office space (if you do intend to meet in person 1-on-1 with your customers. However if it is purely a digital enterprise, then office space may be too costly to maintain especially on a low budget.
I think Delicia laid it out pretty well. Spend money or time on a CLEAN website (does not have to be flashy) and give great examples of your best work.
Then make it clear and easy for people to contact you to get started (whether or a phone call or sign up process).
With that tool in your hand, you can go to meetups or start cold calling and use your site as a selling tool.
As for renting office space, for a website business that’s not typically something you need to get started. Meeting at a coffee shop or a cowork space should work equally well for you at the beginning.
It really depends on the service you want to provide and the market that you are catering for. If your emphasis is on fast and cheap, then your clients won’t really want to know that part of the fee you are charging is going towards maintaining an office space.
If you are trying to catch the bigger fish, then it is hard to compete with other providers if you can’t attract their attention with something catchy.
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