Ask HN: Is there any money in website design for small businesses anymore?
I think web-design in the SMB market is completely commoditized between website builders and even CSS toolkits like Bootstrap lowering the barrier to entry. I barely know CSS and will just buy a $20 design from wrapbootstrap and the client doesn&#x27;t care.<p>Anything related to web-design should be a side-effect of the true product you&#x27;re selling, which in your case should be web-based software application development (IMO).<p>My opinion:<p>#1) Get really good at a web-framework. Doesn&#x27;t matter which, but something like laravel would be a great choice. Learn MySql&#x2F;MSSQL to go with it.<p>#2) Market yourself as a specialized consultant and bill $100 hr+. I don&#x27;t know what market you&#x27;re in, but if this is a big leap for you then work up to it. The kind of clients you want to work with will pay this without blinking. Sometimes they won&#x27;t even know about the bill because it goes straight to AP. blah blah blah patio11.<p>#3) Never say you do web-design. Say, &#x27;I convert your MS Access application that runs a critical component of your business (barely) into a multi-user&#x2F;role, always-online, accessible-from-home web-application. Along the way we&#x27;re also going to streamline this to make your company more money. It will pay for itself. That will be $30k.&#x27;