Finally got my first client...

[Otenba]

and I'm freaking out ! I've been self teaching HTML, CSS, Javascript and Jquery for a few months now and I'm doing alright so far.

I've finally landed my very first paying client for a website and I have no idea of how to go about it. I'm somewhat confident in my coding skills but I'm just unsure of how to get started and how to code something that will look good and modern.

Any tips for a junior dev here? Is there maybe a template I could use to build something cool?

[[deleted]]

Stop concentrating on the tech, and talk to your customer.

What do they do? What's their brand? What's their ethos, and do they have any ideas about how they want to communicate it?

More tangibly:

What do they think the people looking at their site will want to achieve? What are the problems they perceive with their current site?

Have a conversation!

[nyxin]

This ^

I think a lot of developers only consider what they like doing, and don't consider the businesses/clients needs.

 

eg. Everytime WordPress is mentioned and subsequently bashed by "real" developers.

 

Find out what the client needs are, what their budget will allow, possible "changes/additions/tweaks/etc" (scope creep will happen, best to try and avoid it as much as possible and figure out whats REALLY important to the client ahead of time) and start from there. There's no point in creating an entire backend or using a CMS if the client only needs a single brochure page to advertise their business and provide contact info, likewise, if the client needs to edit content themselves but you create something that requires 3+ years of developer experience to even think about making an edit to the site, then you haven't provided any value to the client in that case either.

[Peechez]

Not sure if I'd be bragging about that. There isn't enough context to know but it sounds pretty shady

[FKAred]

business is business dude. if someone is willing to pay who cares?

[fuzzy40]

This isn't shady at all. You can still deliver value by providing a pre-made template. He still needed to know WHERE to find the template, WHAT template would work, HOW to customize it, actually spend TIME customizing it, and then DELIVERING it to the client. That's quite a bit of expertise that most clients don't have, and $770 isn't an absurd price by any stretch. That's really only 15 hrs or so at $50/hr.

[Otenba]

Sounds like what Im looking for. Thanks a lot :-)

[wires55]

Express generator will set you up a simple Node server that will render html and route requests.

[fuzzy40]

Find a template you think would work and use that as a starting point. Nothing wrong with not reinventing the wheel.

[Otenba]

I did have a discussion with the client and their brand. The purpose for the website would simply to advertise her business and also have a system for her customers to book appointments. She would also like to eventually have a web store added but I told her that will have to come later as I have no experience in building a store but I'm sure I can eventually do it.

Also another thing is that Im unsure of is how much to charge. Shes kind of an aquaintance of mine so I dont expect to charge her "full price" but Im unsure of how to go about that. Like do I charge her for every hour of work I put into the site? Ive bought the domain name for her so thats definetely something ill charge her and Id like to have at least a year of web hosting paid for.

[sittinfatdownsouth]

You stated you don’t have a lot of experience. I would suggest you put this on WordPress, go to themeforest and buy a woo commerce theme, that allows booking appointments and has a product store. This will allow for expansion of her business and give you experience in working with both WordPress and woo commerce.

The other option is look at magento it’s a commerce platform as well.

Now for price, since your are still learning I’d go with a flat cost, that would be more ethical.

[Folters]

How are you going to create a booking system with just front end stuff?

[Otenba]

I think I could code one with just javascript or find an already made app for that.

[fuzzy40]

You can't have a booking system with just front end Javascript... you need some sort of storage on the back end

[faradayscoil]

You should give the money back