Interesting business approach
Ken, you make some good, logical, and rational
points for (web) designing for a market segment.
And I hope every "web designer" (used to mean any
developer of web sites for hire) takes your advice.
For I have a different approach...
The successful business owner knows his/her market,
his/her business, and has goals for that business and
their web presence. The web designer doesn't need
to intimately know the business. The web designer
needs to be able to effectively communicate the
business' marketing message through the web, and to
achieve the results the business owner seeks.
Maybe it's because I have many years (too many
than I'd like to admit here) experience (outside of
web design) dealing with a multitude of business
types.. that I'm comfortable with this approach.
My approach is to translate the business' bricks and
mortar success to the virtual world (internet). How do
I do that? That's a tutorial for future threads.
Is there some benefit to focusing on a market segment?
Yes, the web designer saves some time.
One advantage (to the business ower) of using a
designer with broader experience (or without a nitch
focus): An "outside the box" design, for what is
successful in another market segment might be
applicable to this one.
As far as a business plan yours is a sound approach
that is applicable to most businesses. But, if you
think of web design as "building" something.. like
a house. You would choose a builder that can build
what you want (to plan, by his/her skills). You
wouldn't choose a builder that can only build ranch
houses.
~Roland
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