Most future business owners know that they need a website to show that they exist. So they hire a local web designer to build an awesome looking site. A good web designer will have a discovery period when they ask a lot of questions about target customers, current marketing materials.
After a couple of weeks, the website is finished. Done. It looks awesome.
They paid about $5,000 for it, and wait a couple of month to see result.
But there is no result. Nobody find and visit the website.
So it doesn’t bring in any sales.
So why did the website fail?
There are many small parts needed to build a successful local business. Things like recognizing what clients actually want, how to talk to them, how much to charge, what to sell, and how to sell it in a way that the client wants. And let’s not forget that you also need to figure out where the potential clients are, how to find them, how to present the service, or product to them.
All of these require time and commitment to find out.
These are not things that a website designer can figure out on their own. They do their best to create you an effective website, but you already need a deep understanding of your customers to help develop a website which will really boost and elevate your business.
Once I had a client who knew she needed a website for her business, but when we had the discovery session, she could not tell me how she was going make money off of her site. It was a great idea but was not developed completely, so I referred her to a business coach first, before starting on the website project.
How can you build a website without experience?
There are many different easy to do, DIY website builders out there, some of which you might have heard about already.
I have experience with a couple of them, but not all.
Website builders are great for small business owners just starting up and have no budget to hire a website designer for a real custom website.
The website templates are nicely designed and can be customized to specific businesses with the addition of images and text.
Even when you’re just starting out, you need a great looking website, otherwise you lose customers. People judge the website and make an assumption of the business based on what they see. So a good looking website is a must but is does not have to cost an arm and a leg.
If you are a little techy and willing to learn, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube how to work with these templates.
What do you need before building a website?
Instead of focusing your energy on the website, focus on more critical tasks:
- Get to know your potential customers to understand what problem they really need solved (it might be very different what you thought of before)
- Listen what they are really saying and not what you want to hear
- Develop your service offer based upon this information
- Start promoting your service which will teach you how to communicate with your market, how to convince them to use your product, and so on
- Start making money by running your business
A good website works only if your business works.
I am not saying that you do not need web designer, you will later, when you know your business and customers and when you can allocate a budget for a real custom website.
