The Technical Side of Scaling A Web Design & Development Agency

I have been managing website development projects, and being hands-on building strategic websites for over 18 years. It started with notepad and HTML, then transitioned into Dreamweaver, and of course then CMS’s like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla and Shopify. I’ve worked on projects that had literally no budget, and managed projects that had budgets of well over 6 figures. I am currently the Vice President of Agency Media, a Marketing Agency that focuses on video production and website development in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. We’ve built and created an agency partner program where we help larger Agency’s handle smaller budget website projects and work with freelancers or smaller agencies on scaling their web design & development verticals. This all came to be by developing our own web development model and being able to scale it.

The biggest dilemma for anyone in the business of web development & design is how to increase business without losing quality of your projects. Processes simplify the resources required but if not done correctly they can be a massive detriment to the deliverable and you can end up with a poor quality product.

Where creatives often run into issues with scaling a “creative” business is that they are often too attached to the micro-level aspects of every individual project. By no means am I saying that you should not have strict QA (Quality Assurance) and UAT (User Acceptance Testing) processes in place at all, but rather, if you are going to be successful in business you have to detach from some of your own ego-driven desire for “perfection”. Perfectionists never get shit done, I can safely say that being this far into my career. They talk, they stare at screens, and they procrastinate. This is where the good ol’ battles often happen at agencies between developers and designers.

In order to scale a web design business you have to create systems and processes. You have to have someone operationally focused. 200+ websites later our web development model, that I had the opportunity to create, proved this to be true.

So here’s what I’ve learned and can offer as advice.

1. Separate “Production of Websites” from “Sales” of Websites”. Even if you are selling and producing, you need to always have a sales system in place, utilize your knowledge to sell, but remember that the goal is to create long lasting business relationships. I won’t go into much more detail on a sales system here, but its important its addressed.
2. Start building your web development model with a “value first” approach. Think of the things that matter most to your perspective clients and make sure you fully understand them. For us it was custom design, well designed, and performance based websites at a great price point.
3. Don’t do everything yourself. Figure out a creative way to employ sub contractors that can do some work for you (or team members if you are already a fully moving agency with revenue). Don’t put all of the pressure on one person. Realize that sacrificing some of your margin in having resources available to execute will be the only successful path forward.
4. Stress test your model over and over again with client projects. Know that your model and processes are going to need to be tested. This means that one out of every 5 projects at first will come at a much lower margin once delivered because they will stress test your model and make you create new processes.
5. As soon as you have a working process, document it. Build training around it, and ensure that your entire team from sales to design and development are aligned with the process. You may need to phase out resources\team members who are not onboard with your process. Balancing the creative freedom a designer needs with a process is not an easy thing to do, but you are going to have to figure it out if you want to be successful. Stick to your process. When you believe you have one that works, scale it, duplicate it and ensure you stick to it. This sounds simple but it will be the defining measurement of your success.
6. Detach from the creative process as much as possible when designing your business model and create significant points of “approval” throughout the process. Clients will respect this when it is effectively communicated to them.
7. Set expectations for those involved in leading projects to ensure that internal “debates” don’t happen between design and development. One of the biggest areas of “Bloat” in projects and Scope Creep is when a designer hands off a project to a developer and somewhere in between those steps the client wants significant changes made after approval.
8. Incorporate value throughout your process. If you aren’t looking to in someway create a value-driven web model, you won’t be successful. Those of us in the industry are seeing, and know that the traditional methods of web development are no longer cutting it. Fill your team with knowledgeable staff and those that are keen in learning. You don’t need to be a web developer to manage a web development project, but you have to be able to think about a project with a business perspective. Both internally, “Whats best for our agency” and in the client’s perspective “Whats best for this businesses website”.
9. Over communicate. Continually provide updates and ensure that your clients can get hand-holding when and if they need it. They are not the experts. That’s why they came to you. Drive and steer the conversation.
10. Don’t be too cautious when it comes to disruption. Web Design and Development agencies that have been running bloated processes for the last 2 decades shouldn’t be your desired model. This excludes the big agencies doing incredibly complex (And brilliant design) but for standard websites, the time has come and gone to get away with not providing true value for a business.

Remember that like any other business, you are a business. You are an entrepreneur and you are looking to have impact and make money while doing so. There is nothing wrong with that.