7 Top FAQs of New Squarespace Designers

Becoming a professional designer on a website builder like Squarespace may seem like an easy venture to start, but just like any other field it takes time to get the hang of things and to feel comfortable with the process. Here are the top common questions of potential designers and those just starting out, answered.

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1. How Do You Price Yourself Fairly?

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While you may not be surprised to know this, a seasoned Squarespace designer can easily charge $10k and beyond for their skill set. Yes, experience and skill will determine your going rate, but one of the first core principles of charging fairly is to learn how to talk about money with your customers. Although making money is the ultimate goal for beginning designers, it may be one of the more challenging aspects of your new business. This is almost always related to newer designers succumbing to occasional imposter syndrome, or feeling unfamiliar with the average rates for a website build. Nevertheless, in order to earn what you are worth and become comfortable negotiating your fees, you must get comfortable discussing money.

The following list of questions can assist you in these money conversations to help you determine a fair wage.

• What is your budget? 

• Have you received work like this before? 

• What do you usually spend on these types of projects when your business is thriving? 

• What is the profit margin? 

• What is the revenue? 

These questions will help you uncover the client’s goals, as well as how much they can afford to pay you for your services.  For more information on talking to clients check this out here.

2. Where Do You Find Clients? 

Finding clients is one of the most challenging obstacles for a new business, freelance or otherwise. For some designers, advertising to friends, family, and a social media following can be enough to create a steady stream of clients and to pad your experience.

But even if this doesn’t apply to you, one of the best things you can do is build your portfolio. This portfolio should include 3-5 websites that can effectively showcase your talent as a designer. These websites can be your own - they can be done at a huge discount for small businesses (tip: check Google Business posts for businesses that may need web help), or they can be totally made from scratch for the sole purpose of practice. Whatever you’re able to work on, work on it as if you’re being charged your goal rate - because a portfolio will be the tool you use to validate your credibility.

3. Biggest Hurdles For New Web Designers? 

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One of the biggest hurdles preventing new designers from becoming successful is focusing too much on the technical aspects while forgetting these two core components: 

1. The customer is much more interested in solving a business problem than they are in the Squarespace platform. Focusing on fixing the issue will help you far more than trying to sell them on the Squarespace platform.  

2. Business owners shouldn’t become web designers. This is because you should be there to support them for the long term rather than simply completing each project and handing it off.  

4. How Long Until You Can Increase Your Rate? 

In the beginning you’ll most likely be charging on the lower end due to the credibility of your experience. Your ultimate goal in this field should be to build systems. Anything you repeat should have a system. This means you are streamlining your process, you’re familiar with the process and can negate common errors with ease. You also don’t have to guess or play trial and error when building websites, which can make your turn-around time much faster and give you a cutting edge in the design world. Tip: You can create templates to make the process much easier and more efficient.
Keep in mind that repetition is key. The more websites you create, the easier the process will become.  Which leads into Question# 5..

5. How Do You Build a Website in a Day? 

After becoming familiar with your own process, you can train yourself to build a website in a day or so by following the following three simple principles: 

1. Gamify everything. Parkinson's law states that the amount of time you give something is the amount of time it takes. So, challenge yourself by setting a timer and turning the process into a game.  

2. Avoid the perfection trap. Rather than focusing on building the perfect website, focus on doing your best for each client based on their budgets and preferences.  

3. Do not judge your work until you've done it ten times.  Judgement too early on can be unfair and leave you at a disadvantage by lowering your self-confidence. Give yourself grace!

6. What is The Biggest Mistake Designers Make? 

One of the biggest mistakes a designer can make is delivering their project to a client via email with no instructions on how to experience it. In other words, you should be walking each client through all aspects of the website to ensure they can use it properly and won’t completely undo hours of work through their own small additions later.  

Creating a send-off package that includes detailed tutorials or instructions that let the client feel prepared to handle the website without you is the star difference between a new and a high-value designer. Loom videos can be an excellent addition to your services as they’re user friendly and great for going back and reviewing when a question comes up.

7. Do I Need to Learn How to Code? 

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You do not need to learn how to code to be a web designer for Squarespace. Occassionally a custom code can improve a project, but these can be easily outsourced or researched without requiring a full background in coding. However, you may end up learning some code along the way.

Need More Help?

We’re in the business of new Squarespace designers, and regularly produce free resources to help developers and business owners alike come up to speed quickly on the Squarespace platform. The faster you learn the time-saving tips and tricks, the quicker you can get your online presence created, and the faster you can start earning money. Here is a list of a few of our offerings:

• Instructional guides on a wide range of relevant topics 

• A free newsletter delivered to your inbox every month 

• A powerful SEO audit tool to evaluate your Squarespace site