Setting up and running a successful web design business is a lot harder than it looks. Compared to other industries there are very few barriers to doing business so pretty much anyone can get an ABN, business name, website and get up and running quickly, easily and without much of an outlay. But getting good clients and staying profitable are much bigger challenges.

The location of your web design business is a factor in how you can meet these challenges and how successful you’ll be, and, in my opinion, Brisbane represents one of the best places on the planet to choose. Why Brisbane? well, to begin with, let’s zoom out a bit and first ask why Australia.

It is well known that Australia was one of the few countries to avoid the global financial crisis. If you live here in Oz it is sometimes hard to understand just how the rest of the world suffered – we’re in a very fortunate bubble. Imagine that you had set up your exciting new web design venture in the UK when the GFC hit big-time. The severe austerity measures that were put in place and the general lack of optimism would have meant gaining new clients willing to spend money on new websites would have been extremely hard and you would have faced a massive up-hill task just getting of the ground. It hasn’t been all plain sailing here of course, we’ve had our ups and down but compared to many other OECD we have indeed been the lucky country.

Geographic position is another reason why I think Australia is a great country to start a web design business. Our proximity to South East Asia means that there is easy access to the massive amount of technology and design skills that the region offers. The ability  to outsource to our near neighbours can be a real bonus for some companies and the fact that we’re on the same or nearly the same timezone is another huge plus.

So, we’ve established that Australia is a good country for a web design firm but why specifically Brisbane? Well, while I’d be the first to admit that Brissie is not necessarily the first town you’d think of in Australia, it packs a punch the others can’t match. It may play third fiddle to Melbourne and Sydney in terms of size and familiarity, but in terms of growth and development Brisbane is way ahead of the big two. Perth is another rapidly growing city of course and has recently joined the two million residents club but it is so remote and isolated that it loses out to the Queensland capital.

In the last ten years Brisbane has become immeasurably more cosmopolitan, lively, varied and generally better. The tendency for young Brisbanites to leave town to seek their fortune or even a good time in other towns is changing. Now many of the young and talented people are staying put and building their careers and reputations right here in the Sunshine State.

As well as being better able to keep hold of its own, Brisbane is also now proving to be a draw for overseas talent. The number of skilled European and Asian workers actively seeking out work in Brissie grows every year. Ask an aspiring web designer in London whether they would like to relocate down under and I think they’d bite your hand off!

So with all of these plus points in its armoury Brisbane represents a great place to start a business and, in particular, a web design business.