If you’re new in business, do you have a website yet? If not, you’re missing out on potential big business opportunities if you’re relying on social media alone to run and market your business. You can read more in this blog post on why you should have a website for your business.
If you are already of the school of thought that a website is paramount to running a business in 2022, you might have considered cutting costs and creating your own website. With so much tech on your side, readily available for you to do this, there has never been a better time to DIY your website. But is this approach right for you, your business and your goals?
It might feel like a no-brainer in the early stages of your business when you consider the cost difference between a DIY website job and hiring a pro. But having, some years ago learned this the hard way myself, my question to you is: Do you really have the time? I’ll go into this in much more depth in a mo, but let’s have a look at what I’m going to go over in this post so you can weigh up and see what’s best for you. I’ll look at:
- The pros of DIY website
- The cons of DIY websites
- The pros of hiring a pro
- The cons of hiring a pro
The Pros of DIY websites
Saving money
Of course, the biggest advantage to ‘DIYing’ your website is the money you’ll save. Investing in a good website designer and developer can be costly and this can be daunting and seem a lot when you’re right at the beginning of your business journey when potential little to no money is coming in. Perhaps hiring a professional at this stage simply isn’t a priority to you and the only option you feel you have is to create a website yourself.
A multitude of website builder options
There are so many website builder options available to those who want to create their own websites. They’re super attractive and user friendly for those who don’t get the tech side of things and don’t want to.
Looking at Squarespace, Wix, Webflow to name just a few who promise yu can build a website easily with minimal or no code, this can be the most cost effective option for those opting to DIY their site. Then there are WordPress website builders like Divi and Elementor for example, which need a little more WordPress tech knowledge, but once you get the hang of things can work well for business owners looking to build by themselves.
Learn something new
If you’re looking to learn a new skill, then web design can be a super useful one. The question I would ask yourself though, is: Is this skill going to be useful to me going forward with my business? Will it help me achieve my overall business goals? If the answer is yes, then the DIY option can be an obvious choice.
The Cons of DIY Websites
Taking time out to learn
How much time do you have to invest in building your own website? This is something to really ask yourself before you get started. Often, clients come to me and say they have tried to start building their own site but it was taking up too much of their time and they were finding it too difficult to get their site looking as they wanted it. While using website building tools can make creating your own website simple, it’s by no means easy. There is a lot that goes into building a successful website that achieves your goals and gets you sales, rather than simply a website that looks good and there is a big difference between the two.
It can take some business owners months to create a site they’re happy with and even then, they’re not sure if their website will help them achieve their goals or if it works as it should. Like all business decisions, try to think about as far a s your website is concerned, is it best to invest your time or your money. What will the return on your investment look like once you have a website up and running?
Running into tech issues
If the tech side of things terrifies you then you’re not alone. If you’re working with some website builders, a bit of knowledge on the tech side of things can go a long way. But, if something does go wrong, who are you going to call? I use WordPress to build websites for my clients because it has a lot of advantages to it, working strategically. One of the disadvantages though, is that the tech side of things is more of a challenge to those who don’t have experience.
So, chances are if something ends up going wrong behind the scenes of your website, then you may end up needing to get a website expert involved to help you fix it which can be costly.
Limited knowledge
Bad design can cost you money in the long run. What if you create a website that doesn’t convert into leads, get you enquiries and paying customers? As I mentioned earlier, creating a website is about far more than just making it look pretty. Professionals will create websites that work strategically to get your business results, so ask yourself this: Will creating your own website give you the confidence you need that it is helping your business? Or is it going to cost you time and money anyway in the long run creating your own site?
Along with considering good design for your website, it’s also important that your website visitors stay on your site and buy, that your website is created with a responsive design, meaning that it works well on all devices, it’s easy to navigate and that it loads quickly. These are just some of the areas where a beginner might lack knowledge but that are key elements in creating a successful website.
Pros of hiring a Pro
They’ve got the skills
The whole point of hiring a professional is of course to employ their skills and experience. A professional website designer will have taken the time to perfect their skill, learn from experience and will have worked with business owners like you.
Hiring a professional website designer means they will take a deep dive into looking at what results you want to get for your business and work strategically to create your website so that it helps you achieve your goals.
Also, what might take you a day or two to figure out through learning on Youtube videos or online tutorials might take them a matter of minutes. So, consider whether maybe your money is better invested with an expert who knows how to help you and who you can trust to create something that will help your business grow.
A successful website should not only look good, but consider your users. How user friendly is your site? What do you want your website visitors to do once there on your site? There, among many others, are questions a professional website designer will ask. Your website designer should also have at least basic knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) enabling your website to be found through search engines. This is another skill that as a business owner it can be time consuming to learn.
The Cons of hiring a Pro
Website designers are so ‘expensive’
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, a website designer can seem like a huge expense for a business owner who is just starting out. While investing in web design can seem daunting, have you considered how much money a great website could be bringing into your business?
Maybe you’re not ready for the investment yet and of course that’s completely normal and understandable when you’re right at the beginning of your business journey. It’s worth considering having a basic but well designed and well thought out website rather than an all-singing-all-dancing site with bells on from the get go. Good website design doesn’t have to cost the earth.
So perhaps I have opened your eyes as to why it’s so important to have a website and to consider investing in a well designed, strategically built website rather than creating your own. Maybe you feel like you already have the skills and knowledge needed to put the basic site you need together at the moment to get your business started. Perhaps you already learnt the hard way and have spent months on a website project for your business that is still unfinished.
I hope this post has helped you make some more informed decisions about where to go next with your website. And if not, and you still have a ton of questions then get in touch and ask away or find out more about how I might be able to help you solve problems, reach your business goals and get results with my web design services.
