Website design is something we do every day. We love it and we think we’re pretty good at it. In this blog post, I’m going to be talking about how I (Daniel Grosso) started Developer Rocket and how it’s grown over the years since starting. I hope this gives anyone who’s interested an insight into what I do! Web design Kent and beyond!
Where Developer Rocket started | Website Development in Kent
I’ll be honest, I never saw myself getting into website development. When I was at university I wanted to continue what I was doing on my Computer Science (at the University of Greenwich) and do programming. I had my sights set on becoming a software engineer at a cool start-up or Google. Programming in university felt cool and difficult but in a good way. Solving issues in, basically, a different language felt like I was achieving something great.
The more I did it throughout my 3 years (4 if you count the sandwich year) the more I realised I enjoyed making the GUI’s (Graphical User Interface) look good. I would spend more time making these rather than having the actual functionality working properly, I think this was when I started considering making websites. Having something you can actually see seemed a lot more fulfilling than programming something in the backend that no one can see.
Finishing University and getting my first client | website design kent
After completing a Sandwich year at a big tech company in London I was still unsure what I was going to do when I finished University. My time there was definitely a big changing point in my life. I gained a lot of confidence by being forced to talk in front groups of senior people and pushed to do things I would never have thought I would be doing. In terms of technical knowledge, I didn’t really gain any, I was more of a consultant but it thinks my time there was worth it for the personal growth. During this time I was also experimenting with different programming languages in the form of making games. This was a big hit with my friends but it didn’t really take me anywhere or make any money, it was never about that anyway. I am still quite proud of them… You can see them all here https://dangrosso.itch.io/
Developer Rocket was born in March 2018, I literally made this so that potential clients knew I can make a website. There was no portfolio of clients yet but it was better than nothing! At first, I made my own logo but I quickly realised it looked crap so my girlfriend Ella made my logo for me, you can see her website here.
Getting my first website design client
I am unsure when exactly I decided I wanted to do this but I made my own website design. The intention of Developer Rocket at first was to be a software development business. I wanted to make mobile apps and program software. But I quickly realised the market for this was extremely competitive and hard to stand out compared to the big players. Also, it takes a lot of time and effort to make mobile apps and software, most small businesses didn’t have the need for it or the money that would make it viable for me to make them.
One morning I was reading the paper and I saw a new photography studio opened near me. I just Googled their name and found their website, saw some things that could be improved and emailed them. They replied back to me that same day and that was it, that was my first client. I went to their studio, met them, agreed on a price and made their website. Looking back it probably wasn’t very good but they were a great first client and it made me realise what I was doing was viable. The website design portfolio has grown considerably since you can see a few of them here.
Moving forward, making more websites and learning new skills
After that first web design client, I continued to email around, getting more clients and growing my portfolio. The second client went on to become a more regular one, I still work for this business now. In the early days, I would only get one or two website builds months but the more I did it the more I learnt and was able to get even more clients. A lot of the time I would get recommendations from people and they would become new clients. Learning that providing amazing service is the best advertisement you can do.
Search Engine Optimisation in Kent
After making a lot of websites, more people started to ask if I offer SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for websites, so I had to learn this new skill early on. After doing this for hundreds of websites and my own, I am pretty confident in this area now, but there is always more to learn. Offering this as a monthly service is a great way to get monthly business. SEO is one of the most important ways to get customers, getting people to find you on Google is hard but when it’s done right, it literally generates clients for you.
Starting our own hosting service
When making websites, we found that we were constantly using different hosting platforms. Places like GoDaddy, Bluehost, 123reg and loads others, it started to become difficult to manage. This is when we decided to start our own reseller platform to allow us to host our own websites for our clients. Giving us greater control of the websites we make and also adding to our growing list of services. With this, we could then offer the full range of services when making a website:
- Register the domain and set up hosting
- Create the website design
- Optimise for SEO
This way clients stay with us longer and we make things as easy as possible for them. So far its been a huge success!
Maintaining website design
After creating a hosting service, we also started to look after and maintain websites. This includes adding content, making modifications, making sure the site is secure and updating plugins and core files. This is something we do for a large number of websites as part of the hosting service. A WordPress website can quickly become slow and out of date if nothing is done with it for a while. Read more here.
Developing Ecommerce Websites
Creating an online store or eCommerce websites is one of the most satisfying parts of the job. Seeing customers business take off with an online store is visual proof of the work we do. It’s amazing to see people’s websites make hundreds or thousands of pounds before your eyes. These websites always require more thought and it’s more complication to set up. Creating a website that converts visitors into customers can be hard, but after making a lot of them it’s easy to know what makes people buy online. Some websites we made recently are: https://quinnspins.com/, http://printbeeuk.com/, https://www.starbrite.co.uk/, https://mayflowerbespokejewellery.co.uk/, these are just a few, but they have made tens of thousands which is great to see. Learn more about this service here.
Aiming for the stars | Growing and future plans
Custom web design continues to be something I really enjoy and with Ella on board, we now make brandings and pretty much everything a small needs. When this article is posted we are about to move into a new apartment together so we’ll have a new office set up. It’s been great using WordPress to develop our websites, and the more I do this the more we learn about the platform. Creating our own themes and plugins is a priority for Developer Rocket, this would be a great learning curve and it will expand the business to different levels.
Pleasing customers and building a relationship with all of our clients has always been the foundation of Developer Rocket. We have always been trusted, maybe this is because we have a trustworthy face, or maybe its because it’s in our best interests to do a good job.
As Developer Rocket grows, we are always looking for new opportunities to grow in different ways, not just getting more clients. Pushing our limits on the number of clients we have is always a challenge but we have a good process for dealing with this, using online tools and time keeping is a essentional for this. Helping businesses grow is something we always work on, as this is basically what website design is. If we help businesses grow then we have done a good job.