troyhyp

Hi there, I have been running a web design form for more than 3 years now and just wanted to get some feedback or advice from others in the same industry about creating customised designs for clients. I work with both Magento and Wordpress and find the whole process of meeting up with client, inspiration sessions, designs, back and forth before you get the design as they want it, then converting it all to a functional website, populating ect etc, in some cases months and months go by before you get to launch and in the end you wonder if it was worth the effort. If I had to calculate the amount of time that I spend on each project, the cost for the client could end up 3-5 times what we are charging. There are so many web design firms in the area, some are more expensive and may very cheap compared to my pricing. I see that several firms design websites based on templates, it seems that they have a stock library and then modify to suit the client and call it a custom design. Does anyone have feedback or ideas on how I can streamline the process and cut down the time spent on projects dramatically? I love the job and the industry but the "love" of the work does also need to pay well. I do a good job and most clients stay with me, haven't lost a client yet and haven't had any relationships go bad. Most of my clients keep in contact for regular updates, I charge hourly for updates but I don't see it being worth the effort in managing sites, I feel that the money is in new custom jobs where I can charge based on the total project rather than hourly. Any feedback greatly appreciated. Troy