Fellow Campers, I need your help!

I have been coding for a few weeks now and I know a little bit about HTML5, and CSS(bootstrap) mostly some basic stuff but just recently, I was asked by my friend to create a website for his business. Now I am kind of in a dilemma whether to accept the offer or no. The thing is I’m nervous if I can do it or not. What if I fail? What if the website I create won’t be good? and will my basic skill be enough to create a good website? Thank you in advance for your answers fellow campers! :slight_smile:

I was in a similar position a little over a year ago. Definitely accept the job. Don’t worry about or if you will get paid, and don’t worry if you fail. By making a website for a friend’s small business, you have a no-risk opportunity to get real-world experience making a website which far surpasses anything else. A little about my experience (over a year ago, about 9 months before I started FCC):

I was asked by a friend to help me move their Wordpress website from an expensive hosting provider over to godaddy, they already had the account and everything there ready. I had never done this before - in fact I only had a little experience in HTML/CSS. I asked my friend who made one of the most popular mobile learning apps for schools to help me, and he gave me some pointers and explanations for things. My first step was to get the website from their old host. This was a struggle at first because I was given no FTP access. I ended up installing a backup plugin and downloading their site to my computer. I then uploaded it to the new host confident it would work. It didn’t - I had failed (or so I thought). Fortunately my friend with the business had no time restraints, and I was able to ask my programming friend for help. To make it short I had to change some settings in the wp-config file, drop the old database and upload their old one, reconfigure their domain to point to the new GoDaddy nameservers, and a lot more. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no idea how exactly to do it. I got it done in a week with some help of my friend, and I am so glad I agreed to help them. I learned so much I would never have gotten with just FreeCodeCamp or as a hobby in my spare time. I was paid $50 for the job which took me over a week in all, but the things I learned were priceless.

Take the job, don’t worry about failing, and don’t be afraid to confess you don’t know everything and need help. I promise you will learn a lot and never regret it even if your friend hates the way it looks.

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Good Morning,

I am also in the same predicament. I do crossfit and the coach approached me to help him build a website for corssfit and eventually have a mobile app with the same thing. (he must have asked me as he must have gotten wind that i am into coding) I have very very little coding experience only from what I have tough myself and what I have learnt so far on FCC (which I am only half way though with the jQuery)
I also don’t just want to take it and then fail and waist his time. So I am not sure what to do or even know where to begin with the Website. IE step 1…(you should do this…)
From what you all have read should I do it or just let it go? I would also love some advice on this.

Thanks all in advance

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This really helped! Thanks alot!!

Here is my advice, coming from another freelance world (photography).

Just be upfront with your friend. Let them know your actual level of experience and let them know there might be a few bumps on the way.

I am assuming that you will take the job at a reduced cost (or as a total favor for experience), either way, your friend gets what they pay for. Keep working at it, do the best job you possibly can. Get it right.

Then use your friend as a reference and put their site in your portfolio.

Good luck!