Here’s When to Hire a Web Designer Vs. Making Your Own Website (Including a Quick Start Guide to Planning Your Small Business Website)
You’re here because you want to know if you should build your own business website or hire a web designer to build it for you.
Gotcha, that was also me a few months into starting my small business. I had all these questions swirling around in my head…
What website builder should I use?
Do I need to learn code?
How do I create a website for my small business?
How much does a website cost?
And, did I want to create a website for my business or hire someone to do it for me?
I had a lot of questions and not a lot of clarity around what I needed to do. What I did know, was that I wanted my website to look professional and I wanted visitors to my website to have a seamless experience without wondering where to go next or stuck staring at the page loading for several minutes. This was my starting point to becoming a Squarespace website designer and building custom website for small business owners just like Moi!
I sat down on my couch one afternoon, chamomile tea in hand, and wrote down what I knew I wanted when it came to my small business website.
I wanted to be able to make updates and changes to my website
I wanted to start a blog and build my email list with subscribers from my website
and, I had more time than funds at the time and I wanted to build my design skills
That’s when I decided to try out the whole DIYing my website thing.
With that said, deciding whether to go the DIY route or to work with a website designer is a big decision.
If I were to sit down with myself as a new small business owner looking to build my business website, the biggest piece of advice I would tell myself is to set some time out and research what's involved in creating a website and what my budget should be.
I would also ask myself, do I have the time to learn how to build a website from scratch? Or can I hire someone to build it for me?
Once you sit down to dig a little deeper, the answer will be right in front of you.
Lucky for you, I started the research for you. I’ll let you behind the scenes and tell you exactly what to do to get started.
When I decided to DIY my website it was because I knew that I wanted to be able to constantly be able to update it and build upon it as my web design skills got better.
I am also one to DIY in other areas of my life. I’m a self-taught hairdresser in our home. I watched a couple of YouTube videos, binged a few blog posts (with pictures of course) and voilà! I taught myself to cut my boy's hair, and I’m still at it 2 years later!
Something that I’ve had to learn in business is I don’t always have the time or experience to figure out a new skill set on my own. I’ve decided to take the leap and invest in a professional to either take over or teach me the skills I’m seeking. I think it's a great idea when you're in business because you can prioritize what you are going to work on at any one time and sometimes it just makes sense to have help.
It's been such a humbling experience in my business to figure out what I can do by myself and where I need help. If you can relate, let's walk through a few common scenarios and determine what path is right for you!
3 Reasons you should create your website
- You want to learn the skills for yourself so you can continue to build your website as your business grows
- You have the time to learn to build a website, or you are confident in customizing a template to match your business branding
- You are not looking for an overly complicated website and you think you can create a professional-looking website while you save money for a professionally done website
3 Reasons you should work with a web designer
- You have the budget to hire a web designer
- You've been trying to build your website for some time now and don't feel like you have the technical skills or an eye for design
- You want to hire a professional to create your website so you can focus on growing your business and working on projects within your skillset
Quick Start Guide For Getting Started With Your Small Business Website
You want to learn the skills for yourself so you can continue to build your website as your business grows.
This is great news! Learning the technical and design skills that go into building your website is always going to pay off.
So let me tell you a little secret about my web design process. I build websites in 2 weeks (psst, that’s the length of Squarespace trial), and the way I get websites together in such a short amount of time, compared to the industry standard of several months, is I have my clients prepare ALLLLL their content before our design time.
Meaning that when it’s time to create their spectacular new website, all I have to do is go ahead and build the website. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.
To get started with your website follow this step-by-step process for gathering all the content that makes up your website.
1. Gather the inspiration for your website by creating a Pinterest board and saving photos of what you’d like to be included on your website. You can also include notes within the pin to help you remember what you liked about the photo.
2. Write all the text for your website or hire a copywriter.
3. Take photos for your website, use free and/or paid stock photos, or hire a photographer.
4. It’s time to create your website! Go ahead and choose your template.
5. Start designing!
I’ve created a handy workbook that I provide to all my web design clients that walks them step-by-step through collecting all the important elements of their website. Download your copy of your Complete Content Planning Guide & Checklist What to Include On Your New Small Business Website.
Getting Started in Squarespace: Choosing The Right Template For Your Small Business
What I love about Squarespace and why I use it for my website and why I recommend it to small business owners looking to build their business website is that Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform. Meaning that important factors like SEO, and website plug-ins are already built-in. Meaning you can focus on other things like growing your business, and spending time with your family - oh and you don’t need to know a single line of code to build a professional-looking website.
Related Reading: 10 Reasons Why You Should Host Your Small Business Website With Squarespace
Let’s start our template search by heading over to Squarespace and then over to the template shop where there are 100+ templates to choose from.
Squarespace will encourage you to fill out a quick survey, asking you what kind of website you’re building and what your goals are. This helps Squarespace recommend templates that will best suit your Small Business. At the end, you’ll be able to choose between creating a custom template with Squarespace Blueprint or choose a professionally designed template. You can also opt to skip this part and dive right into choosing a professionally designed template, this is def’ the route I would choose when first designing your website.
The templates work great for a small business website because they are already curated to be a nice balance between photos and text, the colors used are well-matched and you are likely to find a template within your industry.
The template sections also flow well with one another and a big bonus is that all the buttons and pages required to create a great website are already there! Which means less work for you and I'm all for less work as a small business owner.
I recommend starting your search by narrowing the templates down by category and searching for a template that…
Has colors similar to your brand colors - When you choose a template that has similar colors to your brand colors, you can easily visualize how your website will look when finished and you won’t need to change as many design features.
Already includes the sections & pages you'd like to include - When they are already included and designed, you won’t have to stress over adding the pages later or creating sections from scratch.
This makes it quick for you to add your photos and text without having to make a bunch of tweaks to the original template.
Customizing the template to match your brand
Using a template to create your website works well when you are looking for something simple to send clients to, but you may not want your website to look exactly like a carbon copy of the template. With a few clever tweaks, you will end up with a website that looks like an original!
First, add your font and brand colors
Create backgrounds in Canva and upload them to Squarespace (just make sure to optimize by giving it an appropriate SEO description and resizing!)
Change the layout slightly by adding more photos or doing a text-only section
Making The Most of Squarespace’s Two-Week Trial
What I want for you is to have your business website completed soon after the two-week trial. I don’t want you to fall victim to starting your website during Squarespace's two-week trial only to add a few photos and a few lines of text. Basically, ending the two weeks with the template. No, what I want for you, is a custom-looking website that represents your brand and tells your future clients exactly who you are and what you can do for them.
Imagine this for a second if you will, imagine, you had all the steps you needed to take laid out for you and you had the guidance to know what will and won't work for your website.
Sounds nice doesn't it?
Sometimes there are just too many options and that leads to no decisions getting made at all.
Couple that with not really knowing what to put on your website or really how to create a website that will get you paying clients and customers, it usually means nothing gets done.
I help my clients out of this decision paralysis and towards their new website. My design process takes two weeks and is followed by completing prep work that lays out all the steps you need to take to collect all the info and content that goes onto your website.
Make sure to grab your copy of the Complete Content Planning Guide & Checklist What to Include On Your New Small Business Website.
Once you have your content planned and written down you can use your two weeks to the fullest.
This is what I want you to do, play around with the different Squarespace blocks, customize the template by changing the colors of sections, create custom designs in Canva and upload them to your website.
Add photos that represent your business. Worried that you don’t have photos of yourself to add to your website?
Try this! Go to a free stock photos website like Unsplash or Pexels and download photos that are in line with your business. You can search by photo colors by typing “blue journal”, searching a location or for a certain feature like ‘minimalist workspace’.
Another little trick I like to use for my website and what I suggest to my clients is to take photos with their phone, it could be something as simple as me sitting at my computer, what matters is getting good quality photos that represent your small business.
It’s definitely possible to build a website in two weeks, by planning ahead you could have your website done by the end of the trial!
Making the Decision to Hire a Web Designer to Create your Website
Running a small business means you’re constantly on the path of learning. If you're not learning about how to legally set up your business, you're looking into how to create a schedule that gives you more work/life balance or your learning to set up a new system to make better use of your time. There's only so much time you can dedicate to learning all the different things that keep your business going and sometimes you don't want to learn anything else. You want an expert that you trust and that has proof of results to take over your project.
Put yourself in the place post project where you've hired the right professional for your website, you have a solid plan for consistently bringing new traffic to your website and you're starting to get paying customers from your website. What would you do with that time you used to spend worrying about getting your website done?
Would you spend more time playing in the backyard with your kids?
Carve out more time for yourself to relax?
You get the idea. By having a website that is strategically set up to get you more clients, you're going to be able to free up more time and as a small business owner, time is such a precious commodity.
I know you have a few questions in mind…
You want to know how to start your search for a designer that understands your business and whose designs you adore!
You want to know how much to budget to hire a designer.
You want to know how long it takes for a website to be built and what’s included in the price?
Start your search by answering the following:
What is your budget?
Do you want to work with a local designer?
What website builder would you like to host your website with?
What features do you want for your website?
Once you’re feeling clear on what you’re looking for in your website, strategies to try are…
Ask other small business owners for web designer recommendations
When searching on Google if you come across a website you like you can take a look at the bottom of the website, most designers will leave their name in the footer
Use Google to search for a designer by typing in things like ‘Website Designer for Small Business Websites’ and ‘Custom Website for Small Business”
Finding the Right Web Designer: Steps to Make Sure You Align With Your Designer
You already know that you want to work with a professional but you're wondering how to know if you and a web designer are a good fit.
Here's where to start:
1 - Look at their portfolio and determine if you like the style of past projects they've worked on
2 - Take a peek at past customer reviews and see what their experience was like. Did they love their website and how has their website been working for them?
3 - Book a consult call with the designer, and ask detailed questions about their process and if they would be able to build your new website
Before the call, make a list of questions to ask the designer. Questions I often hear from potential clients are…
What’s included in your website package?
How long does it take to build my website?
What does your process look like?
What information do you need from me?
Do you help me maintain my website after the design period?
How much does a website cost?
RELATED READING: The Benefits of a Consult Call for Mom Entrepreneurs: Everything You Need to Know Before Working With a Designer
After the consult call check in. Are you happy with the designer's process and what’s included in the price of hiring a professional to create your website?
Do a quick gut check. You don’t have to hire the first designer you meet with. Make the choice to meet with 2 or 3 different designers before making your final decision.
You might also like to read….
Simply by Katie is a Canadian Squarespace Website Design Studio based in Victoria, BC and serves Small Business Owners from across Canada. Simply by Katie designs strategy-rich websites in a quick turnaround of just two weeks.
