How to Know When You’re Ready for a Professionally Designed Website
Do you need a website if you’re just starting out? No. But, if you’re getting serious? Yes.
Gone are the days when all you needed was an Instagram profile and daily posts to build your business.
The decline of Instagram, a platform that is currently stifling the reach of many of the businesses it helped build, is a stark cautionary tale to people who put all their eggs in a basket they didn’t own.
More than ever, the importance of having an effective website is becoming clear, but how do you know when a DIY website is enough, and when you’re ready to invest more in yourself and your business’s future?
It depends on where you’re at in your business.
If you’re just starting out, a DIY website is likely all you need.
If you’re starting your new business, you need little more than an online business card. You need something simple that will show your business name, brand, and message as you get the word out.
Your first priority is probably cash flow with a lesser goal of building your list, and a simple site, with some clear content that describes the problem you solve for your clients and has some clear calls to action, is going to be all you need.
How to Get a DIY Website and Grow Your Business
There are decent free options, but if you can swing it, I’d recommend Squarespace. Their builder is the easiest to work in that I’ve ever seen. They also have the cleanest code of any DIY option out there, so they’re the most Google-friendly option. Get in there and build a site with fantastic descriptions of what you do and the problem you solve.
Next, start growing your list (Squarespace has a great email marketing option for beginners). Help your audience solve a problem and put great calls to action around your site inviting people to sign up for more.
Share your expertise and personality on whichever social media platform you prefer, tell your family and friends, and leverage the hell out of your current network. Get some clients, experience, and testimonials, and build your biz.
But if your business is taking off, you’re probably ready for a professional website.
So, how do you know when it’s taking off?
1. You’re ready to expand your reach.
When you’ve exhausted your current network and you’ve shifted to building your audience, it’s time for a new website.
A new website will attract new leads to your site with strategic SEO and content, expanding the awareness of what you do well beyond what you could do on your own, which brings us to our next point …
2. Your calendar is filling up.
In the beginning stages of our businesses, you probably had time to reach out to new people, follow up with every comment and DM on social media, and reach out to people for JV partnerships and guest podcast spots.
You probably also had time for a little scope creep here, a little potential sale follow-up there, and a little extra admin time on certain tasks.
But once your calendar started to book up with clients and people started coming to you through referrals, you didn’t have as much time to go around.
Now, that your coaching or wellness practice is thriving, it’s time to invest in a website that works like an administrative assistant, helping you streamline your intake and offboarding processes, easing the administrative burden on your businesses, and creating a better experience for your clients.
Now, that you’ve proven your concept, you might be ready to scale. If that sounds like you, then …
3. You’re looking to get out of the dollars-for-hours model.
If you’re ready to move from seeing clients 1:1 to leveraging your time and effort into a group coaching program or online course, a well-built website is essential.
And you’ll need a website designer with experience in conversion content and copywriting, business funnels, and sales strategy to help you build an online machine that will book your course or program.
Spinning your wheels trying to implement a marketing strategy that doesn’t work for you is an expensive, frustrating mistake.
To sum up, you’ll know when you’re ready for a robust, professionally-designed online presence when you’ve outgrown your starter site.
If that sounds like you, let me know.
I can help you build a site that will:
Attract leads to your site with effective SEO.
Build relationships with those clients with a stellar content strategy, including a compelling social media strategy.
Accomplish your business goals by converting site visitors into subscribers, clients, and customers.
Stop wasting time with a site you’ve outgrown. Reach out to me today for a website that will actively get you to your next level of success.
