Starting a small business? Good for you! Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship, where now, you are not only a business owner and product/service provider, you’re also an accountant, social media manager, copywriter, graphic designer, shipping expert, customer service manager, HR, etc. Phew!
But that’s okay, because you were born to do this! You are ready to side hustle and make money part- time. You’re ready to run your passion project and spend more time doing what you love! Now, as a fellow entrepreneur, I know that it can be hard at the beginning to justify large expenses to get your business off the ground, and I’m not talking about a box of business cards from VistaPrint for $9.99. I’m talking about getting your own website.
When it comes to reasons why small business owners choose to forgo launching their business with a published website ready, I’ve heard it all. (Here, let me list some for you.)
Reasons Why You Would Skip Publishing a Website:
You do not self-identify as “tech savvy,” and have zero desire to figure it all out. Words like Domain, Editor, Publish, SEO, Embed or Code freak you right out.
You believe websites are costly. You may have heard stories from fellow entrepreneurs that launching a website can cost an arm and a leg, especially if you decide to hire help.
Designing a website is too time consuming. Did you find an easy-enough website hosting platform and started designing a site, but hours later it's still not perfect so you left it in limbo? Many of us do, because knowing how to edit a template or customize a site can be tricky. And on top of that…
You don’t know what to write or put on your website, so why have one in the first place? Clarifying what to say, how to say it, and where to put it, and with what image is a lot of decision making and strategy that you didn’t sign up for.
You truly believe social media is good enough. Having a FaceBook Business Page, Instagram account or professional Linkedin is good enough to connect you with your ideal clients. (Allow me to debunk this a bit later.)
BUT, when you opt-out of grabbing your domain and publishing a website for our business, you miss out on some pretty amazing perks.
Perks for Launching Your Business with a Website
Perk 1: A website can build a fast connection between you and your visitor. You have less than a second to impress a website visitor these days. People can often tell right away if you are for them or not. My favourite part of a website is often the “about section” that introduces you as the best solution to their problem! (Secret, if you are a solopreneur, don’t hide behind a pretty logo. Place that in the top left corner of your site, and then slap a big photo of your happy, smiling face on your home page! This let’s the visitor know who you are and that you are here to help. Check out my homepage www.ashleyavismarketing.com to see what I mean!)
Perk 2: A website can build authority and trust from the very beginning, which is great for helping you stand out in your industry. It also makes you feel pretty legit, especially if you face some imposter syndrome, which is totally normal BTW. A great website will highlight and showcase your positive reviews, associate you with credible partners, and it could even house blog/articles to showcase your education/expertise (P.S. Want a free email template to help you acquire better testimonials from current clients that will help you sell more? CLICK HERE)
Perk 3. A website will get you more sales. When done right, a website will showcase your offer suite so that it is clear what you sell, what’s included, and who it is for. You can go a step deeper, (which I highly recommend) and write sale pages for each of your offers that help people feel seen, heard and understood (because when that happens, they are more likely to purchase from you.)
Tip: Focus on communicating the benefits of your offer and what is in it for them. If you have published an e-commerce site, that means you can actually take payments too, which is fantastic, because we are living in the age of online shopping. Say hello to check out buttons and bye bye to e-transfers! (P.S. A great website can also help you run sales reports, track taxes, and even invoice clients for you!)
Perk 4. A website can and will grow your email list! If you’re ready to grow another business asset that will help you grow your community, and your sales revenue, email is where it is at! There are many ways you can grow your email list using your website! I love to use:
-pop ups
-banners -call to actions to join at the end of blog posts
Listen, if visitors aren’t ready to buy or book with you today, they still may want to stay in touch.
A website is also a great place to house your free guides or resources (I call these lead magnets) that people are willing to trade their name and email address for. I talk about email marketing all the time on my marketing podcast called The Ashley Avis Podcast. Listen to Episode 67: How to Start and Grow Your Email List.
Perk 5. It forces you to clean up your messaging and imagery for your brand.
When I work with small business owners to build their website, I always start with a branding session first in order to get a really good feel for how they want their website to look, sound and feel. This is where we pick out the colours, fonts, images and words you use on your site, which gets packages up in a pretty little brand kit. Once your brand kit is solid, you can design on brand social media content, email content and non-digital content easy and fast! Bonus!
Perk 7: You can get found on Google! Believe it or not, people are still using good old Google search engines to find solutions to their problems! Publishing a site and allowing it to be searchable on Google could be the very place that you find your first client!
I hope that covers seven great reasons why it can be super beneficial to start your business with a website.
Don’t feel bad if you have been in business for months, or even years now without one! Instead, open your mind to where your business could grow once you publish your own home on the big wide web.
If you are looking for some advice for first steps in DIY-ng a website, send me a DM on Instagram. You can find me @ashleyavisco
Interested in hiring me to get your website published? I specialize in helping small business owners publish a website that they love, and empowering them to manage their website on their own! That means, when you work with me, I will teach you how to use your website and edit it on your own, easy-peasy. CLICK HERE to learn more.
And one more thing, you got this!
Ashley Avis Web Designer, Marketing Podcast Host,
Social Media Coach
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