Your questions are very broad and show you've done little/no research in to what you're actually getting yourself involved in. Regarding the 'web design company':
First of all, you're right. Anyone can call themselves a website designer with no skills - many do.
What not everyone can do is sell.
When businesses use your services do you think they give a flying fuck how many languages you know or where you got your computer science degree from?
Of course not.
What they care about is how you're going to improve their bottom line, build their business and help them solve their pain points.
That could be paying little Jimmy's tuition fees or getting that new mega-yacht they just saw their next door neighbours buy. Every prospect's pain points are different. It's up to you to find them.
That's what so many web design companies don't get. Honestly, it's not hard to stand out with any semblance of sales knowledge in this industry.
With your current mindset you won't be building a business, you'll be creating a decent paying job for yourself. That may be what you want, who knows. But if you want to build a design agency I guarantee you you will use those programming languages you know for less than an hour a week. Seriously.
Your time will be spent on the phone, prospecting, chasing leads, networking, managing deliverables and collecting payments. You'll have employees/outsourcers coding for you because otherwise it's impossible to grow.
If you want to actually build up your agency, it will be far from location independent. Clients will phone you at 11pm with an urgent need and you better be ready to solve it. Last minute meetings will be scheduled to alter wireframes you'd agreed on three weeks prior. Your biggest client will bail last minute and you'll have to fly out and ply him with grey goose martinis and top-flight hookers until he signs on the dotted line.
Obviously if you're freelancing on the job board sites you won't need to do this. You also will just be creating a decent paying job. The difference between a 'company' and a 'freelancer' isn't just the name or legal formation. It all depends on the direction you want to take it and what fits your aspirations and life goals.
As for creating 'a business solution for $x/month' I think you know this is backwards thinking from your comments on research. You mentioned a gym member tracking application. What needs are you solving? There are some major players that have been doing this for many years in that industry, with contacts you won't be able to touch.
What are you bringing to the table that they can't/won't?
I've made some posts on here regarding similar concepts before that you can find in my post history that you may find useful.
Do your research properly, find a problem people are facing then start worrying about how you're going to solve it.
First of all, you're right. Anyone can call themselves a website designer with no skills - many do.
What not everyone can do is sell.
When businesses use your services do you think they give a flying fuck how many languages you know or where you got your computer science degree from?
Of course not.
What they care about is how you're going to improve their bottom line, build their business and help them solve their pain points.
That could be paying little Jimmy's tuition fees or getting that new mega-yacht they just saw their next door neighbours buy. Every prospect's pain points are different. It's up to you to find them.
That's what so many web design companies don't get. Honestly, it's not hard to stand out with any semblance of sales knowledge in this industry.
With your current mindset you won't be building a business, you'll be creating a decent paying job for yourself. That may be what you want, who knows. But if you want to build a design agency I guarantee you you will use those programming languages you know for less than an hour a week. Seriously.
Your time will be spent on the phone, prospecting, chasing leads, networking, managing deliverables and collecting payments. You'll have employees/outsourcers coding for you because otherwise it's impossible to grow.
If you want to actually build up your agency, it will be far from location independent. Clients will phone you at 11pm with an urgent need and you better be ready to solve it. Last minute meetings will be scheduled to alter wireframes you'd agreed on three weeks prior. Your biggest client will bail last minute and you'll have to fly out and ply him with grey goose martinis and top-flight hookers until he signs on the dotted line.
Obviously if you're freelancing on the job board sites you won't need to do this. You also will just be creating a decent paying job. The difference between a 'company' and a 'freelancer' isn't just the name or legal formation. It all depends on the direction you want to take it and what fits your aspirations and life goals.
As for creating 'a business solution for $x/month' I think you know this is backwards thinking from your comments on research. You mentioned a gym member tracking application. What needs are you solving? There are some major players that have been doing this for many years in that industry, with contacts you won't be able to touch.
What are you bringing to the table that they can't/won't?
I've made some posts on here regarding similar concepts before that you can find in my post history that you may find useful.
Do your research properly, find a problem people are facing then start worrying about how you're going to solve it.