Five Quick Tips To Find Inspiration For Your Small Business Website
Ok so, you've found yourself here because you've decided it's time to invest in your website! Well, congratulations are in order because this is a huge deal! Investing in your business website means that…
a) you're serious about showing up for your business in a way that makes you stand out as a professional. (Did you know 78% of people look to a business website when deciding if they want to work with you!) that's huge! — We don't want you to miss out on the huge opportunity of attracting paying customers.
And b) you’re wondering where to start when it comes to building your fancy new website.
My #1 goal as a website designer is to walk my clients through a simple process to take them from dreaming about their new website to making that website a reality — and joining the 71% of other small businesses with a website.
This all started when my second son was hitting his first birthday. You know how it goes, if you are fortunate enough to have an extended maternity leave (admiration to all parents for however this precious postpartum looks for you) this is the time to head back to work. Quite frankly, I was ready for two things — I was ready to welcome a new chapter in my life. From solely wearing my mom hat for the last three years to creating a small business that allowed for something just for myself, and to provide for my family outside of the daily grind.
After a few Google searches I found myself intrigued by the idea of starting an online small business — one that I could run from home and still be present with my kids. Fast forward a few months later, I had started my small business and I found myself wanting to create a website. I really liked the idea of having something professional where I could send clients outside of Social Media and so my search to find the right website platform began. I remember nervously typing into Google my options for a website, at that point I knew absolutely nothing about websites. The two options that I found myself interested in were WordPress and Squarespace.
I confess I very barely attempted WordPress. At that time, it was all too overwhelming for this small business owner. Between watching my two boys, growing my business and doing client work — I simply didn't have the time to fumble my way through figuring out what template to use, which plug-ins would be beneficial for my website and I didn't like the multiple moving pieces that I would need to stay on top of to make a website that I was proud of.
Squarespace was my next choice and once I started, I have honestly not turned back!
My very first website was definitely just photos and text plopped right into the DEGRAW Squarespace template and it did the job, but I wasn't all that excited about it. I certainly didn't feel like sending clients to it.
I knew it needed to look more custom, to stand out from the template I chose. While I love that Squarespace offers so many amazing templates, what I love more is how customizable they are! A perfect starting point for Small Business Websites of all shapes and sizes. This is where I truly love the creation process.
What you’ll gain from reading this post are five different strategies for finding inspiration for your new small business website. You’ll be guided to pull inspiration from various resources to create your own truly unique website. What I have found is that by pulling bits and pieces from different inspirational websites, you’ll have fewer opportunities to copy and paste ideas directly from other websites — this is something we def’ want to avoid in our own small business website!
With that said, this is the part where I take you behind the scenes of my inspiration and creation process. The exact process I walk all of my clients through to gather all the inspiration for their new website and how to choose the right template for their small business.
Make A List Of The Top 5 Website You Like to Visit/Want Your Website To Look Like
I love a good brainstorming sesh! If you are anything like I am, you’re a list maker — even if you’re not, I’ll keep this short and sweet. Off the top of your head, think of a handful of websites you’ve visited in the last three months. Is there a website that stands out to you?
What was it that you loved about the website?
Was it the flow of the website?
The layout of pictures and text?
Set a timer for 30 minutes, during this brainstorming session I want you to make a list of five websites to draw inspiration from. After you’ve made your list, go to the websites and take a poke around. Note the different areas that you like. This can be as simple as taking a screenshot and writing a little note about what you love to remind yourself of later when you're looking at the photo.
Pro-tip: create a folder on your computer or Google Drive where you can save all of your website inspiration photos for you to later draw inspiration from.
If you don't already have your website/company colours, this can be a great way for you to see what colours you naturally gravitate to.
Action steps:
➡️ Set a timer for 30 minutes and write down five websites you love to visit
➡️ Take screenshots of the areas you’d like to incorporate onto your website and type yourself a note about what it is you like as the name of the file
➡️ Extra organization step: create a Google Drive folder to save all of your inspiration screenshots
Take the next step and plan your small business website!
Create a Pinterest Inspiration Board
If you are an avid pinner like myself this is a fun exercise! This step is all about finding the feel of your website and allows you to visualize the different pieces of inspiration and how they would work together for your website.
Related Reading: 10 Reasons Why You Should Host Your Small Business Website With Squarespace
Go ahead and create a new Pinterest board and call it "Website Inspiration"
What I want you to do is start entering terms into the search bar that would describe your ideal website.
examples:
Minimalist
Gold and Blue
Website inspiration
When you find a pin go ahead and pin it to your new board 📌
Pro-tip: Add a description to your pin under ‘Note to self’ so when you go back to it later you know what inspired you to save it. I like to keep it short and sweet and I’ll type in descriptions like Light & Bright, Intentional, Modern
Pull Inspiration From Websites Inside Your Industry
One way I like to gather inspiration is by seeing what people in your industry do on their website. This is a great way for you to see what information you should include on your own website. I like to use this competitor research as a tool to give my website and my client's websites an edge, by seeing what you can do better on your own website.
To start, go to our trusty friend Google and type in your industry. Go to the top 3-5 websites and start taking notes of patterns you see.
Take ten minutes to answer the following questions…
What do you like?
What do you dislike?
What could you do better on your own website?
Pull Inspiration From Websites Outside Of Your Industry
Sometimes you need to get outside what is done in your own industry and adapt ideas from other industries. For example, say you run a Podcast, and when you check out the competition's website, they kind of all look like the SUNDEW or PALOMA Squarespace templates. They are great templates, don’t get me wrong but you want your website to stand out from the rest.
My tip — look at websites in another industry or if browsing the Squarespace Templates, try previewing website templates under ‘Health & Beauty’ or ‘Restaurants’
What you’re looking for are opportunities to adapt features to your own website.
If it were me I would choose the LOAM template, I like the flow of the template and the placement of the photos. You could easily adapt this middle section to include the latest two episodes, a little blurb about your podcast and a link to all your episodes.
Such a small design change but it creates an impactfully different user experience because it doesn’t look like all the rest of the websites.
Take Inspiration From The World Around You
This is one source of inspiration I get excited by. How can you take what you see in everyday life and incorporate it into your own business?
Something that I did when I was in the process of creating my branding for my small business was to look at the packaging of products I bought on a regular basis.
I always loved how kettle chips wrote their values and used the cute designs on the packaging of their Salt and Vinegar chips and how Little Creek Dressing’s packaging — hands down the best dressing by the way, it’s pure magic the way it’ll get toddlers to chow down on veggies! — it's simplistic and represents the natural ingredients it uses in all of their family-owned dressings.
When I was starting my business, my kitchen window overlooked these beautiful and majestic pine trees. They were this deep green colour that seemed to allow me to feel at peace as I did the dishes.
My sons and I would walk through this little forest path every morning that summer and I loved looking at the little pops of color from the flowers. So what ended up happening is I used those colours as inspiration for my own brand colors.
I decided that I wanted my own website to be simplistic, with creative little details. Here’s a peek at my Pinterest board and inspiration sites.
On another one of my websites, I took inspiration from a bedspread that we used on the spare bed in our guest room. Take a peek below.
What I want you to do now is to take a walk around your house. Look at the different products in your home. It can be food packaging, a shampoo bottle, or cleaning products and jot down what it is that draws your attention.
If you’re feeling adventurous, talk a walk in your neighborhood to draw further inspiration. Sometimes just stepping away from your computer gives you the break you need to allow your creativity to spark.
RELATED READING: How To Pick A Template In Squarespace
Final Action steps:
➡️ Make a list of 5 websites you adore and take screenshots of what you love. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes per website.
➡️ Create a Pinterest Board and pin all the images that are the look and feel that you want for your website.
➡️ Do some friendly competitor research. Take note of what you love and what you could do better
➡️ Go to 3-5 websites outside of your industry
➡️ Take a break from your workspace and see if you can take inspiration from the world around you
After you’ve followed all the above steps, you should be well on your way to tackling the next step in your website journey — collecting all the different pieces of content that you have on your website!
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.
