How would I go about doing this then?

[SophieM]

Hello

I am looking to start a local web design firm, I know a lot of businesses who currently have no kind of website (or not a good one anyway). I am pretty creative and could handle the gaining clients side very well, as on my work experience I was handling clients for the computer modeling agency I worked for and loved doing the work and got on well with clients.

Now, the thing is (apart from researching competitors etc. which I still need to complete though I have done preliminary research) although I have good design skills, I have pretty lame programming skills, I haven't built a website in ages and can't remember much, also working with stuff like flash wouldn't work for me.

I have thought about using things like Wordpress and Joomla for the majority of the work and simply outsourcing the template creation, what do you think?

Therefore I would need to find a programmer to either hire/partner with. What is the best way to do this? Should I hire them and pay a % of the fee I get from the client? Would it be better to have them on board as a partner?

As I'm 16 I don't particularly want to partner with someone I don't know, which means I'm leaning towards the paying a % idea.

Where do I look for a programmer? How to I make sure they are reliable? What do you think the best way to set this up is for me?



BTW I'm in the UK.

[bdunndchi]

If you don't want someone you don't know, you are probably going to have to find someone local. You should look at some sites that have groups broken down geographically, and either make a post telling them what you are looking for, or skim the previous posts and see if someone fits your needs. I would check the social networking sites, as you will find the most people on there.

A lot of people use sites like elance to outsource their work, so if you can't find someone local, you can always check those sites out.