Earn path · Intermediate

Freelance Web Design Business

Turn your web design skills into a proper UK business: pick a niche, price with confidence, win clients, protect yourself with contracts and deposits, get the HMRC side right and build recurring income from care plans.

Who this course is for

This course is for people who can already build a good website and now want to get paid for it properly. You might be doing the odd site for friends and family, thinking about leaving a job to freelance, or already taking on clients but feeling unsure about what to charge, what goes in a contract, or whether you should have told HMRC by now. If you have ever underpriced a project, been stuck in endless revisions or waited months for an invoice to be paid, this course gives you the systems and templates to stop that happening again. It is taught from the UK, for the UK: GBP prices, UK tax rules and UK small business clients throughout.

What you should know first

This is an intermediate course about the business side of web design, so it does not teach you how to build websites. You should already be able to build and launch a complete small business website on your own, for example with WordPress and Elementor. If you are not there yet, start with Elementor Beginner and Elementor Intermediate on Begin2Code, then come back. You do not need any business, accounting or sales experience: every step of setting up, pricing, selling and getting paid is explained from the start.

By the end of the course you will be able to

Choose a niche and package a clear, priced core offer that local businesses understand, written up in a one-page business plan.
Build a small but convincing portfolio site with three case studies, even if you have no paying clients yet.
Price projects confidently using fixed-price packages, a minimum day rate you have worked out yourself and monthly care plans.
Find clients through your warm network, referrals, local networking, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and freelance platforms, using a weekly routine you can keep up.
Run discovery calls, write proposals with good, better and best options, and follow up without being pushy.
Protect yourself with a clear website services contract, deposits, staged payments and invoices that get paid on time.
Register correctly with HMRC as a sole trader (or understand when a limited company makes sense), know what Making Tax Digital means for you, and keep simple books.
Deliver projects from onboarding to handover, then sell, deliver and report on monthly care plans that bring in recurring income.

Your course project

Across the course you build the toolkit for your own freelance business, one piece at a time. Alongside you, Shaz builds a worked example for Northgate Web Studio, run by Sam Ellis, a freelance web designer in Sheffield who builds WordPress and Elementor websites and care plans for independent trades businesses (plumbers, electricians and heating engineers) across Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley. Sam's core offer is the Trade Starter Website: a five-page site (Home, Services, Areas Covered, Reviews, Contact) with a quote request form and click-to-call. From module 5 onwards you follow Sam's work with an example client, Dan Dawson of Dawson Plumbing and Heating, a two-van firm in Rotherham, from the first enquiry to the monthly care plan report. You see each piece done for Sam first, then you make your own version. By the end you will have a one-page business plan, a portfolio site with three case studies, a price list with care plans, a weekly client-finding routine, a discovery call script, proposal, contract and invoice templates, an HMRC and bookkeeping set-up, a project workflow and a care plan report. Together these form your capstone business toolkit, which Shaz reviews personally.

Curriculum

Module 1: Is freelancing right for you? Niche and offer · 10 lessons
- 1.0 Course trailer and welcome
- 1.1 What you will build and how this course works
- 1.2 Freelancing honestly: the good, the hard and the money
- 1.3 Picking a niche without boxing yourself in
- 1.4 Your ideal client and their problems
- 1.5 Packaging a core offer
- 1.6 The one-page business plan
- 1.7 Project 1: your one-page business plan, with a worked example
- 1.8 Module 1 recap
- Module 1 worksheet
- Module 1 check (quiz)
Module 2: Your portfolio and online presence · 8 lessons
- 2.1 What clients look for in a portfolio
- 2.2 Getting portfolio pieces with no clients
- 2.3 Writing a case study
- 2.4 Building your portfolio site
- 2.5 Brand basics: name, email and domain
- 2.6 Project 2: your portfolio and first case study, with a worked example
- 2.7 Module 2 recap
- Module 2 worksheet
- Module 2 check (quiz)
Module 3: Pricing: fixed price, day rates and care plans · 9 lessons
- 3.1 Why underpricing hurts everyone
- 3.2 Working out your minimum day rate
- 3.3 Fixed-price packages vs day rates
- 3.4 Care plans and recurring income
- 3.5 Add-ons, rush fees and discounts
- 3.6 Talking about money confidently
- 3.7 Project 3: your price list, with a worked example
- 3.8 Module 3 recap
- Module 3 worksheet
- Module 3 check (quiz)
Module 4: Finding clients · 10 lessons
- 4.1 Warm network and referrals first
- 4.2 Local businesses and networking
- 4.3 Google Business Profile for your own business
- 4.4 LinkedIn for freelance web designers
- 4.5 Freelance platforms: Upwork, PeoplePerHour and Fiverr
- 4.6 Outreach that respects people
- 4.7 Your weekly client-finding routine
- 4.8 Project 4: your four-week client-finding plan, with a worked example
- 4.9 Module 4 recap
- Module 4 worksheet
- Module 4 check (quiz)
Module 5: Discovery calls and proposals · 8 lessons
- 5.1 Qualifying enquiries
- 5.2 Running a discovery call
- 5.3 Writing a proposal that wins
- 5.4 Good, better, best options
- 5.5 Following up without being pushy
- 5.6 Project 5: a proposal for the practice brief, with a worked example
- 5.7 Module 5 recap
- Module 5 worksheet
- Module 5 check (quiz)
Module 6: Contracts, deposits and invoicing · 10 lessons
- 6.1 Why every project needs a contract
- 6.2 What your website contract should cover
- 6.3 Ownership, licences and third-party costs
- 6.4 Deposits and staged payments
- 6.5 Invoices that get paid
- 6.6 Chasing late payments
- 6.7 E-signatures and record keeping
- 6.8 Project 6: your contract and payment system, with a worked example
- 6.9 Module 6 recap
- Module 6 worksheet
- Module 6 check (quiz)
Module 7: Setting up your business: HMRC, tax and admin · 11 lessons
- 7.0 Before we start: the figures in this module and how to check them
- 7.1 Sole trader or limited company?
- 7.2 Registering as a sole trader with HMRC
- 7.3 Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- 7.4 Setting up a limited company
- 7.5 VAT and freelancers
- 7.6 Business bank account, bookkeeping and expenses
- 7.7 Insurance, data protection and admin
- 7.8 Project 7: your admin set-up and accountant questions, with a worked example
- 7.9 Module 7 recap
- Module 7 worksheet
- Module 7 check (quiz)
Module 8: Project workflow and handover · 9 lessons
- 8.1 Onboarding a new client
- 8.2 Getting content on time
- 8.3 Project stages and a simple board
- 8.4 Managing feedback and revisions
- 8.5 Launching a client site
- 8.6 Handover and aftercare
- 8.7 Project 8: your workflow pack, with a worked example
- 8.8 Module 8 recap
- Module 8 worksheet
- Module 8 check (quiz)
Module 9: Hosting, maintenance and retainers · 8 lessons
- 9.1 Should you host client sites?
- 9.2 What a care plan actually includes
- 9.3 Your monthly maintenance routine
- 9.4 Monthly reports clients actually read
- 9.5 Selling retainers and upsells
- 9.6 Project 9: your care plan service, with a worked example
- 9.7 Module 9 recap
- Module 9 worksheet
- Module 9 check (quiz)
Module 10: Client communication, scope creep and your toolkit · 9 lessons
- 10.1 Setting expectations and boundaries
- 10.2 Spotting and handling scope creep
- 10.3 Difficult conversations
- 10.4 Your freelance tool stack
- 10.5 Your first-year plan
- 10.6 The capstone: what to submit and how it is marked
- 10.7 A worked example: the studio's finished toolkit
- 10.8 The final exam, your tutoring and what next
- Module 10 worksheet
- Module 10 check (quiz)
Final exam · 0 lessons
- Final exam (quiz)