Name of your website?DurbinDesign.net
Your name?
Mike Durbin
Your Location (city, etc)
Indianapolis
Please give us a short summary of your website?
A company starting off with the experience to back it up. We have over a decade of Web and logo design. After working with bigger businesses, we decided that it was time to break away from all of that and start our own with a personal touch. We offer all of our services which include : Hosting, Web Design, Logo Design and Branding. We can also do advanced PHP/MySQL codework and Flash work.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Well after several years doing contract work for larger companies, I finally was fed up with how they handled business and wanted to do things in a more personal manner. My fiance and clients pushed and pushed and I finally decided it was time. Things just fell in to place from there. I called on some friends to employ their skills and we started DurbinDesign.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website, silly as it may sound, was an Anime Fansite. It was just reviews and images I had posted on my favorite anime at the time. It was also my first interaction with a community. The community grew and grew and before I knew it, the site had become too large for me to control. Unfortunately I had to abandon it for other endevears but it was a lot of fun while it lasted!
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wanted something that was instantly recognizable for who I am and what I do. DurbinDesign just immediately says that! And it has an awesome alliteration to really drive it home.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Our website offers a more personal touch to things. I before have worked for companies that run down the assembly line process and many of the clients I worked with constantly professed how much they truely hated that. It was another lead to breaking away from it all. Its a nice sort of encouragement to have someone else's clients ask if they could just hire me instead.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Our goal is to continue offering personalized web service and design. We love what we do and want to keep doing it ! I can't see us ever selling the company off as that would destroy the personal touch fundamentals we have put into place.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Well, we find that our time is very well reciprocated and shows tremendously towards our success. We enjoy what we do and it has paid off in the end. Saying anything more seems unnecessary.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Thats a difficult question to answer. Since we are a web design company, we put a lot of time and effort into our own design. Who would want to buy web design services from someone with a poorly designed website? I don't think our development budget expanding would really make much of a difference.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
That is always a concern, and something we were afraid of at first. But given the fundamentals of business, as our demand increases, thats when it is time to drop supply by increasing our prices. Momentarily our prices are well below industry standard as we get the ball rolling here, and as we bring on more people, we will increase it to keep the demand high but supply low.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Well, our biggest headache so far has to be marketing and advertising. Now that we are doing things for ourselves, how do we let people know we are here? It is very difficult to tip toe around contracts and such to let past clients know we are available for personal services now. We have to be very careful with the legal wording of everything.
What has been your biggest challenge?
I think our biggest challenge has to be the same as our biggest headache. How do we let people know we are here to help ? It is something we are working through now as we speak. It can be very difficult and it takes time. Which creates a feeling of anxiousness and anxiety. Though we are very hopeful about the outcome.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I'd have to say word of mouth. Like I said before, many people had already wanted to hire me personally due to the work I did for them under contract with another company. Never underestimate the power of Word of Mouth. It can make or break a business.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Well, running a service website has been a farcry different than running one for entertainment. We have to very specifically target other businesses which can be a massive pain. Everyone wants to be entertained so its a lot easier to go "Hey check out my site for a good laugh" than it is to sell a specific.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site is very new, only a few weeks old as it stands. It used to be an old portfolio website of mine and it was only visited by potential employers. I don't see us failing to bring in traffic or income with it since at the least we can maintain it using local connections. I'd have to say at least a year should the worst happen. I'm pretty stubborn.
How strict are you on your pricing ?
Well, we do what we can to work with everyone's budget. None of our prices are concrete or set in stone. We are more than happy to make some discounts for an NPO or similar organization. If you would like to work out pricing, please don't hesitate to call or contact us using our website.
What is your website address?
DurbinDesign.net
