Web Design: The business where the more successful you get the more you want to kill the business.
If you are in a services business, and you catch the products bug, it's all over.
This is my own opinion of course, and based on my own experiences.
When you enter the Web Design business, you do so because you are both technically capable AND creative (hopefully). The business honestly feels perfect, like what you were MEANT to do.
Then the Client steps in.
You realize that your creativity is rather meaningless. You can be given "free reign" to come up with a design, but at the end of the project, the Client will probably murder it with no regard for your expertise. Your creativity is stunted, and your soul dies as you have to start asking for permission to implement every bit of genius you want to throw at a project.
Then there's products. You create them yourself, for who you believe the customer may be, and your creativity and know-how form the product. When you are done, it's your own masterpiece. Now you sell it. Some will buy it and love it, others will buy it and hate it, others won't bother, others will tell the world.
But it's all OK. You keep iterating. When your "customers" give you feedback, you don't have to implement everything. And the things you do implement are usually loved by yourself AND your customers.
Like I said. If you are a "services" person and you get a taste of the "products" world, there's just no turning back.
That's a little unfair. I think the eating-regularly aspect of the services world appeals to a lot of people. That's more hit-or-miss with products, and certainly more delayed in most cases. If you're good at what you do, you can pretty reliably make decent cash on a contract. If you're selling a product, you can make alarmingly close to zero dollars a month before it catches on (which might be forever).
If you are in a services business, and you catch the products bug, it's all over.
This is my own opinion of course, and based on my own experiences.
When you enter the Web Design business, you do so because you are both technically capable AND creative (hopefully). The business honestly feels perfect, like what you were MEANT to do.
Then the Client steps in.
You realize that your creativity is rather meaningless. You can be given "free reign" to come up with a design, but at the end of the project, the Client will probably murder it with no regard for your expertise. Your creativity is stunted, and your soul dies as you have to start asking for permission to implement every bit of genius you want to throw at a project.
Then there's products. You create them yourself, for who you believe the customer may be, and your creativity and know-how form the product. When you are done, it's your own masterpiece. Now you sell it. Some will buy it and love it, others will buy it and hate it, others won't bother, others will tell the world.
But it's all OK. You keep iterating. When your "customers" give you feedback, you don't have to implement everything. And the things you do implement are usually loved by yourself AND your customers.
Like I said. If you are a "services" person and you get a taste of the "products" world, there's just no turning back.