I absolutely love AMAs - so if there's anything I can provide of value to those of you out there interested in running your own web development agency, or just interested in the industry then I hope this may be a way of giving that. As well as a place to chat to others who may already run their own agencies. I've set up a new handle just for this thread, not that I'm a prolific poster elsewhere on 2p2, very few posts over the last eight years!
I own and run a UK based design, content, and development agency (not in one of the big cities.) We're not big by any stretch, around the same size as the majority of these type of companies. Bounce between 5 - 8 full time employees at any given time. The business has been around for coming up to ten years and has grown each year, turnover will be around the £300k ($415k) mark this year and been profitable each year. I do the sales, managing the workflow and the milestones of the projects. As well as all the normal 'running a business' things like the HR, finance, invoicing, etc.
Boring, I know, but I won't disclose the company here.
The bulk of our income comes from the web/software development, and that's an even greater bulk when lumping in associated services with a web development project. A very small percentage comes from clients who have not had their website(s) built by us. Generally if a client does come to us with a pre-existing website to manage, it is because they are going to have it rebuilt soon, allowing us time to understand their business before we do.
We work with some well known brands in the UK, some much smaller companies, some businesses in mainland Europe and a couple further afield. The sites we've built for them turnover £10m+/year. We've watched one-man-bands grow from their shed to a warehouse, watched other companies go from selling 50 holidays to 5000, and we've seen businesses come and go in that time.
As it's always the first question I get asked by anyone. A website from us will start out around £5000, we can build them for less, but we're busy and the project is more valuable to us (obviously) if the price is higher. Then they work their way up from there depending on the size, complexity, content work needed, etc.
Within our region we're one of the top three agencies who are always competing on the nice jobs. Lots of things are good with the agency, but that's not to gloss over the issues which anyone who's seen this kind of company before will understand. How to protect against under quoting, tricky clients, staffing, deadline management, providing a service of value to clients, staying ahead of others. All sorts of fun things!
All of our websites are WordPress based. Some are big ecommerce sites and others are simple brochure sites. It's what our developers are good at and it's what our clients want. No, we don't use off-the-shelf themes. I'm not a developer, so I can't go into any significant detail on that side of things, although I've picked up some bits and pieces along the way. Nor am I a designer, or copywriter, I'm someone who manages that whole process and (aims to) get clients what they want, and in turn create those valuable relationships between us and them.
I'm passionate about the value we can bring to other businesses, and thoroughly enjoy the process when that relationship can be built. Overall, I love what I do, there are frustrating days and weeks, the same as any other job. But it's an industry that interests me and I genuinely enjoy seeing a project go well for us and a client. Although we'll have wanted to kill each other a few times throughout the process I'm sure!
Anyway, I could keep typing for a long time, but if it's of interest to anyone, just ask away and I'll help if I can. If you're another agency owner or employed in one, say hi, it's always interesting to chat!