To start, perchance to begin...

Once my friend Judy's coffee shop site was up and running, I started evaluating what kind of knowledge base I needed to acquire to make this whole web design business. Judy took a stack of my cards to give out to other business owners she knew that did not have web sites. That was one way to start off with advertising, but I knew I needed to do more to get my business name out there, and oh, I needed a business name!

I brainstormed a couple names by my family and we chose one. Seems like I should have maybe spent more time deciding on a business name, but somehow, it just seemed to be a no-brainer. I wanted "Web Designs" in my name, and when SL Web Designs was already taken as a web site address, I tried SLD (my initials) and that was available. So... I had a business name.

I registered the domain name and wrote a simple web site for my business. It's not flashy, but I want to appeal to the small business owner and non-profit that is looking for a simple, well organized web site that keeps their costs low and yet maintains ease of use for whoever will be maintaining it (either the business staff or myself). That's the business owner Judy is, and that's what I would like to appeal to. In my mind, every business, no matter the size, needs a web site. Hopefully I can find a few every year (maybe 20) and write their web sites. Maybe even keep them updated, if they would like me to.

So, with business name chosen, domain name purchase, web site written, I ordered business cards and some large magnets to put on my car as advertisement. There it is, I'm in business, right? Well....

I have a great friend, Barb, who is friends with the web designer for the library I work at. I called Pat (the web designer) and asked to meet her and have coffee or lunch so I could maybe ask her some questions.

Pat and I met at Starbucks 2 weeks later. We talked for about 1 1/2 hours. The best thing that came from this meeting for me was that Most of the things she brought up as issues, I had already faced, thought of or worked through. This was pretty reassuring. She did tell me she uses Dreamweaver for her web design software. I had researched software products and knew this was the software choice of most web designers, so no surprise there, but that meant I needed to purchase this software. I had done my research (I work at a library, after all), and knew that not only did I want this software, but that Adobe sells a suite of software programs that I would actually need for this new web design business. Problem is, it's not cheap. The Adobe CS3 Web Design Suite software package was running $1599.

After my meeting with Pat I knew that the software was going to be an issue. To design top notch, competitive web sites, I was going to need the web designer package of software. First, I would send for a trial version of the package. It cost $10, but the trial version on CD is unrestricted, while the one that you can download from the web has restrictions, so not a features are enabled. I also decided to take a course to learn Dreamweaver. I signed up at a place in downtown Chicago (at a cost of $1195 which included a free class in PhotoShop).

This is getting pricey and scary. Can I do this?