As traditional employment options disappearing because of the economic downturn, more and more job seekers are moving towards starting up a home business -- which includes freelancers, independent contractors and other forms of self-employment.

Many try to thread this path out of necessity (for example, unemployment) while others choose this option to gain more time for themselves and for their families.

Web design is one of most popular personal business, due to its lower business start-up costs, lower relative risk associated with starting a personal business and advances in the Internet resulting to a proliferation of freelance web designers, developers and other web-related work.

Many freelancers think that since they're freelancers they have much control of their time and do with it whatever they want. However, they fail to realize that the contrary to this belief holds more water and their lack of action in this area would eventually lead to their failure as a freelancer.

Knowing how to leverage your time effectively, particularly in the web design and development business, can help you reap greater rewards and more substantial income that you'll ever will.

There are basically two kinds of income that freelancers should know about: active income and passive income. Understanding how these income streams differ from another could give freelancers an insight on what they should pay more attention to.

Active income is a reciprocal type of income. It is the type of compensation received in exchange for a fixed amount of time and particular work performed. The more work you do, the more income you get. However, if you stop performing any work, your income will also drop.

This is the kind of work arrangement most freelance web developers have. Should they get sick or go on vacation, they will not be able to render work in order to receive a corresponding income.

On the other hand, passive income is the kind of compensation received even if you are not directly working on a particular project. It is the kind of recurring income you receive as a result of a system you put in place - even if you are not physically there.

It would be like duplicating or cloning yourself and have that clone do all the bulk of the web design and development work for you - giving you more time to spend on other matters.

Most people think that web design and development is a very complicated thing that would entail sophisticated technical skills, considerable hours of training and a significant drain to your resources - finances and time.

That's why many freelancers limit their income potential simply because they could do only so much for a limited amount of time. If they try to hire another skilled designer or developer to help them with a project, a significant amount of the profit simply goes to the contractor.

But this should not be the case. As a business owner you should know how to focus on strategies that will save time and also generate more potential income, instead of re-inventing the wheel.

For example, using website builder software packages and templates would be a very effective tool for freelancers to achieve just that. Despite its relatively ease of use, the websites you can create with these application can be professional looking, and suitable for clients with limited budget and cannot afford a fully custom made website projects.

By using website building software packages, freelancers can churn out a wide variety of website templates with sought-after features that most clients look for - but at a fraction of the time consumed when building websites using traditional programs or applications.

They can spend this extra time for other pursuits or for more focused and effective marketing campaigns to get higher-paying projects.

These website builder software packages often equipped with a variety of superb features that can rival the output of professional web design houses and developers. Not only can you build sites more quickly, you can also add in extra features to the site including website calendars, online video gallery, music players, photo galleries, clickable maps and a whole lot more.

Aside from that, you can consider employing less-skilled but trainable staff who you could teach using the website builder applications, so to maximize your income potential. You can let these staff handle these general website clients while you focus on the high-end and more complicated stuff.

This helps you to build up a system which can generate passive income, so that your team can generate income for you, even when you are away or not having time to work on all projects personally.

Knowing how to manage and save time effectively with available website design software, templates, and slowly build-up your team can help your personal business to grow gradually and become more profitable. It's just a matter or working smarter - and not harder.