How to Start A Web Development Agency in 5 Steps

In this guide, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process of how to start a web development agency, even if you have zero coding experience.

by Zaki Rezwana Chowdhury • 27 March 2024

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Look no further. Dorik –a no-code website builder- is a perfect solution for you to get over these obstacles. By utilizing its white-label functionality, anyone interested in owning a web development business can start their journey in no time.

In this article, we'll go over how to start a successful web development agency with a step-by-step guide with Dorik and get your business off the ground quickly and easily!

What Does Dorik's White-label Feature Do?

White-label refers to a product or service that is produced by one company and then rebranded and sold or used by another company under its own name. White labeling allows companies to resell or rebrand a product or service as their own without having to invest in the development, production, or distribution of the product or service themselves.

Dorik is a No-code white-label Content Management System (CMS) and website builder. With Dorik, you can create and manage websites for your clients while branding the website builder as your product - with no hassle. You will also get a white-label dashboard, documentation, agency branding, and client billing (Coming soon).

Check out details on Dorik white-label CMS.

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Dorik Website Builder for Agency

How to Start A Web Development Agency with Dorik in 5 Steps

When building something following steps makes it less hassle and easy to get the thing done. We will go through building a web development company from scratch.

Step 1: Plan Your Website Development Agency

Building a web development company/agency needs a clear planning of how your business will be. Map out the specifics of your business and discover the things you didn't know you needed. Things you should consider asking yourself —

What is the startup and how will it cost?

Start-up is a newly established business. So it can come-up with some backlashes too. You have to have a plan for it too. 

There are some basic costs like - setting up the office space with equipment when starting a business. It will cost about $5000. And in the first year, marketing will cost about $2000 to $5000.

Also, consider the ongoing expenses for your company. Things like utility bills, office supplies, and management tools costs are things you should consider for your ongoing expenses.

It seems starting a web development agency without cost is not a feat that should be taken lightly. The lack of financial resources can be a challenge, but with the right planning and execution, it is possible to launch your own business without spending any money upfront. 

For example, at the primary phase of building your agency can start small - hire developers and designers remotely on an hourly or project basis. 

This will save a lot of money and you will get a gross idea of the things you need to scale your agency. 

You can promote your service to social media groups where people usually talk about website building. Upwork and Fiverr is a great place to get your clients and let people know about your service as well as your expertise.

You can also try the white-label no-code website builder- Dorik, to save your time and hiring costs as you do not need coding and designing. Plus, you can add your own branding with white-label and many useful agency features. It will save a lot of money and hours for sure.

Check out Dorik agency features to start your web development agency.

Who is your target audience?

You should find your target audience when building a business. Without picturing the ideal customer, getting into business is not a wise decision. 

You must do competitor analysis and create buyer persona to understand your target market better.

Before diving into business, plan out the kind of projects you would take. Whether it is small projects or projects that have high profit with high workload?

How does a web development company make money?

Web development companies make money by charging their clients hourly or flat rate.

On hourly charging a customer presents his/her requirements and the agency changes according to the requirements with their in-house developer and designers. The charging is by hour it takes for the deployment process.

On a flat rate a customer presents his/her requirements for the project and selects a package or the agency provides the package to the customer and the customer pays once as the package price. 

How much can you charge your customer?

Pricing can be confusing when you are new to the business. In that case let us give you idea of it —

  • Full package: $400 - $1000 per year 
  • Entry level developers: $25 - $100 per hour
  • Entry level designer: $15 - $31 per hour

Package pricing goes with the customers who want a similar website that template has without major customization. Package pricing helps saving money than hourly freelancer hiring. 

Web Agency Example
Web Agency Example

Hourly pay goes with the customers who want a whole different thing, build something from their imagination. 

But website builders with templates provide an enormous amount of templates and components with cool features so that you will find something that your customers are looking for. You can build them anything they imagine. 

Check out this list of popular website builders to know more about your options. 

How will your agency profit?

Although building and running your web development company or agency smoothly is a big victory itself. The potential of getting high profit from the agency is huge. 

Profit for a one person website development company can earn up to $60,000 revenue a year. 

For a 5-10 persons website development company can earn up to $500,000 to $ 1.5 million in revenue a year. (Quora)

So, all the best to the venture of your entrepreneurship

Read on : How White Label Services Help Your Agency Grow

Making your business a legal entity is crucial for protecting yourself from being personally liable for any legal action. 

To do that you have to establish an company registration on —

  • Pvt Ltd Company
  • Sole Proprietorship
  • Limited Liability Company 
  • Partnership
  • One Person Company (OPC)
  • LLC or corporation 
  • Registered agent

You will have to register your business for taxes in different places depending on where you do business. Tax is the legal permission you do business. 

Different countries have different rules and regulations for tax. If someone does not abide by them, they will be considered to be breaking the law.

Finally for this step open a business bank account and credit card. Also get the necessary permits and licenses for your agency.

Step 3: Brand your agency 

You have to brand your agency to create awareness about your product and service. Look how it is perceived by the people. Does it require any changes on things?

Build your brand logo, business card and do the legwork to create awareness of your upcoming big things.

Step 4: Create website

Creating a website for your web development agency is the next step you should take. But creating a beautiful website doesn't just happen without the right web design workflow. As you are a website development company everyone will visit your website with a mindset to build theirs and they should be able to trust you.

Are you looking for the best way to start your own web development agency? Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of resources it takes to create a website from scratch, or do you not have access to the talents, software, and hardware necessary?

Going with no-code website builders with agency features will save you from the judgments, and loads of foundation work. And not to mention the months it will take to code from scratch and build an agency website that is business standard. 

So, Creating your agency website with a website builder saves you from all that scrutiny of maintaining the standard. 

Depending on the Dorik agency plan you choose you will get - 

  • Custom domains (client’s personal name/ brand name)
  • Unlimited pages, 
  • Unlimited collaborator, 
  • Unlimited blogs, 
  • Membership features, 
  • Custom fields and collections for customization, 
  • Agency branding, 
  • Documentation, 
  • and white-label dashboard 

Most of the agency website builders use top-notch tools and technology. 

Things like AWS hosting, global CDN, in-built SEO,  and social media integration, etc. by which site speed, content marketing, and email marketing get easy to implement.

Check how to start an web development agency with Dorik.

Step 5: Technical support

When selecting a white label agency plan for your agency, look at their technical support system. 

Will they help you in any technical misery? Do they have documentation? Do they provide live support (in call, in chat)? 

So, get the best white label website builder with technical support  (Dorik) for your agency.

FAQs On How to Start A Web Development Agency, Answered

What is a web development agency?

A company that provides web-related services to other individuals or businesses is known as a website development agency. The service can be a single service or a variety of services. The services are —

  • High-quality website
  • A website with end-to-end management
  • Effective eCommerce site
  • CMS website
  • Responsive and SEO-optimized website
  • Website technical support and maintenance

What is a Content Management System(CMS)? 

A content management system (CMS) is a software or tool that helps users to create, manage, and modify their website content. 

In CMS people do not require specialized technical knowledge or have to write code for building a website. 

With CMS you can build websites like —

  • Static websites
  • Blogs
  • eCommerce stores
  • Forums
  • Social networks
  • Online courses
  • Membership sites
  • Portfolios etc.

Why Do Most Web Development Companies Fail?

Study shows 30% of web development companies fail. This is a considerable number to be concerned about. 

Most companies lack the process of how to see the big picture. They try to reinvent themselves without looking into the ongoing things that need improvement.

As a company you should always think your website is not for yourself. You may know every functionality it does or what it is serving, people do not.

Always care for the target audience - 

what they are looking for, what will make it easy for them to find the things they want, what is new in the market, is your website well-optimized, are the user experience smooth, does your company deliver the things they promised?

Scaling on business is not all about getting new features and cool stuff. It is about stability and optimized reinvention. 

The irony of getting these things all lined up is no work for a faint of a heart. You have to put in a serious amount of research work and time too. 

Then try and analyze if the things are working out or how to improve/ what more we can do.

Why is having a solid process beneficial for you?

Having a solid process makes any work a step by step process. Following a solid process will make your employee know about the task or project your company will go through. 

It will make things clear, save time and resources, delegate work with the employees. Solid process will free you from micro-managing everything.

What kind of processes should you create?

At the first phase of your business if you have to work on the same thing a couple of times, you should document the process. The reason is that soon your company will be large in size. You have to hire - 

  • Designers 
  • Developers
  • Copywriters
  • Project managers. 

You have to pay them and get the work done. Without following a standard process things will lack quality and creativeness.

Why should you track your competitors?

Doing business is all about making it on the tops. To be on the top you have to compare with others doing the same business, add value and uniqueness according to the findings.

You have to know the inside-out of your competitors and analyze them with data. How their business strategy is, what kind of service or feature they offer, how they approach their customers?

Now make a detailed analysis and see the things you are not doing. What they lack, you can add on. Finally implement the things you think will make your company stand out.

How will you find new clients for your business?

Finding new clients is the whole point of starting a business. You can find new clients with –

  • Content Marketing
  • Social media Ads
  • Networking
  • Give free advice
  • Collect testimonials

Networking plays a huge part in getting the attention of the right group of people. You can arrange events, giveaway, ask your friends and family to spread, get help from cross platform influencing methods and all.

Giving free advice every day as your brand name will add value to the target audience. Make your presence in the communities, quora, social media groups and answer their queries.

If you have done any freelance work ask your clients for testimonials or offer some free work exchange of testimonials.

How to retain clients for your agency?

Retaining clients is what makes a business stable. Here is some ways you can retain your clients —

  • Constant communication
  • Offering discounts
  • Free valuable content offering
  • Giving them priority

You have to communicate constantly with your clients, replying comments, consider suggestions, reach out and interact with them.

Offer your clients a discount to a new feature or service. Or a reward for your loyal client.

Offer free valuable content to your long-term client. It can be a newsletter or pdf of the content that might add value to their life.

Finally, give them a priority. Respond to their queries fast, ask if are they struggling with anything, any suggestions, or if anything you can help them with.

Good Read: 

Wrap Up

Above we talked about the step-by-step process of how you can start a web development agency from zero. Any startup means hard work, long hours, uncertainty, and the occasional mental breakdown. There is so much at stake.

But it is also true that if you follow a guide with concise strategy and process in place you can get your goal achieved in no time. And your agency will be a success.

If you have any queries related to a website development agency and how to manage it, let us know in the comment.

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AUTHOR
Zaki Rezwana Chowdhury

Zaki Rezwana Chowdhury is a content writer at Dorik. She writes about technical and non-technical things. She has a degree in computer science and enjoys exploring new technologies. Zaki is an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction books. She enjoys rhetoric content, nomadic life, and lollygagging. Outside work, Zaki spends as much time as possible away from blue screens with her family and friends.

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