Alright, guys!
This is Rejaul from rejaulsoft.com and welcome back to another post. Now what we’re gonna do in this post is take a look at whether you actually need a website for your new business. So it doesn’t matter what sort of business you’re starting, what I want to do in this post is give you some things to think about. So you can try to work out how important a website is to your business and whether it’s something that you need to spend time and money on. In the early stages of starting a business now, it doesn’t matter whether you’re starting an Amazon business, a print-on-demand business, or a more traditional business such as a window cleaner or a hairdresser. It doesn’t matter what I’m going to try and do in this post is just give you some different things to think about so that when you analyze your own business, you can try to prioritize where a website is worth the investment or not. At this stage maybe it’s something you want to delay, maybe it’s absolutely essential you need it ready from day one. so I’m going to try to give you a few different perspectives based on their own real-world experience with websites. I looked on Google this morning that I asked this very same question do I need a website for my new business and the resounding answer was yes. However, all those articles were written by web design companies trying to sell websites. All I want to do in this post is give you my honest opinion so that you guys can use it to make the right decision for you and your business.
So what I want to do to kick this post off is run through some of the questions that I used to ask clients when they would come in for a sales meeting so that walk through the door, would get through the usual pleasantries and they don’t ask them why do you need a website. Now quite often this was met with either a blank expression or quite a surprised expression with people simply stating well of course I need a website, I’m starting a new business. However, it’s not as simple as that. As you need to figure out actually what you want this website to achieve. There’s no point investing in lots of time and money on a website if you don’t actually know what you’re trying to achieve with that website.
Now perhaps you are starting an eCommerce store so in which case, a website is absolutely essential as that is how you’re going to sell your products. Alternatively, you may want it to be a lead generation tool so you may want people to go to the website and submit a form to generate leads that you can follow up on, and some people just want it as a referencing tool so that when the guide for big pitches or big tenders that the potential clients can then just look at their website to make sure they aren’t legit. So have a think about what you want your website to do? And then when you’ve clarified to yourself what you want the website to achieve think about how you’re going to market that website and that brings me on to the second question.
I used to ask people is, how do you intend to market this website going forward? As there’s very little point in investing lots of money in a website if we don’t do any marketing with that website. So are you going to invest money in SEO? Are you going to invest money in PPC? Or are you going to promote that website using social media networks? Have a think about what your marketing strategy is going to be because there is no point investing in a website unless you’re going to market it correctly.
The next question I’d ask them is, what budget that they have available for the website? Now, this isn’t a case of me trying to find out the budget so I can charge than the maximum possible. What I’m trying to do is find out the budget they have available. So I can find them the best possible solution that budget. So, for example, some people might have a large budget and they’re looking for a completely bespoke build and I happen to pay for it. I thought people might be on a really tight budget. In which case we might be looking at an off-the-shelf solution such as WordPress which we can just strap a design onto and then they can add content to. So it’s very important to think about your budget as that can impact the type of website solution that might work for you. If you’re on a super tight budget you might be looking at a web builder such as Squarespace and which are you know a very small fee. You can set up a website yourself without having to involve a web design company. So, have a think about what your budget is. Be realistic about your budget if you don’t have that much to spend. There’s probably little point-contact in web design companies looking to. Maybe starting a website yourself using many of the web builders that are available from a quick search on google.
Another extremely important question though it asks potential clients are, where are your customers at? You know there’s very little point in spending lots of money on a website and PPC and SEO if your customers are elsewhere. I take for example if you’re a builder, why spend thousands a pound on a website and SEO and PPC whereas you go and spend less money and less time building good profiles on places like trust a trader my builder, checkatrade, and places like that where they already have a captive audience. So think about where your audience is are they more cost-effective routes to market.
Now, this isn’t an either-or situation just because you choose one solution it doesn’t mean that you can’t still do the other. But if you’re starting a business think about where your audience is, where are the initial way that you can reach the most people with the lowest effort and lowest cost. You can always add a website at a later date once your business is established.
Another topic that often comes up in these meetings was whether the client needed lots of social media profiles. Now a few years ago everyone was coming to me as they all believed they needed to be on every single social network going. However, that is not the case. Think about your individual business, think about where your customers are. If maybe you’re a beautician then maybe you want to be on Facebook and Instagram. If you’ve got more of a business-to-business, then you maybe want to be on LinkedIn. Have a think about where your customers are, how can you reach them, how can you engage them, how can you interact with them. If you’re just starting as a hairdresser, Facebook can be a fantastic way to generate a following. You can also generate leads directly from Facebook and you don’t have to send them to a website that could come at a later date if you want to. But you don’t necessarily have to have a website for that to work. So think about your own business and what social media networks will make the best fit for your new business.
A couple of other points that come up in meetings from time to time or one the person wanted a customer email address that I thought they needed a website to do that. That is not the case if you want the customer email address you can sign up with an email provider with your own domain name and still have at your domain name.com or co UK without having to have a website. So if you want the custom email address you do not necessarily have to have a website for that to be able to happen.
Also, one of the things that people used to ask me quite a lot was, do they need a website to have a Google listing? No, you do not. You can create a Google business listing without a website. Now it’s always beneficial to have a website even if it’s just a domain and you can point that directly to your social media page or maybe for an Amazon storefront or something like that. It’s always nice to have a domain so it looked professional. But you do not need a website that has a Google my business listing. With those Google, my business sessions are super helpful now as they are coming up in the search results and people are searching for stuff without actually having to click through to your website. So the number of times now calls a company about clicking onto their website because I’m calling them directly from the search results. So if you did not do a website still make sure you create a Google my business and listing.
So all of those things in mind do you actually need a website for your new business? Well unfortunately that isn’t a question that I can answer for you. As it is specific to every person that is reading this post. You know if I was starting a business now, I’d be thinking about the needs of that business and if I was gonna start a website, I would think about whether it is worth that investment. Now to give you an example from one of my clients who has an Amazon FBI business which he started over two years ago. He did not have a website because he doesn’t think he needs to have it for that business. However, there are other people that sell on Amazon that do have a website as they want to drive traffic from Amazon back to the website. Whereas he has no desire for that. He just wants to leave people on Amazon as he does not want to have anything to do with the customer service or the fulfillment side of things. But that’s again is an individual choice think about your business, what type of business are you launching. If you are gonna launch a website, think about how you will then market it because there’s no point launching the website unless you’re going to market it properly. If you’re gonna motion website and market it are you gonna keep see SEO, maybe you’re gonna go on social media to promote it that way or maybe you just can do social media and not going to launch a website. Perhaps you’re gonna start with social media and then you launch a website later down the line where money and time are more available than it is at the moment. So have a think about individual circumstances, what works for you, what works for your business? and then hopefully you’ll be able to come to the right conclusion for your business.
So hopefully, you guys have found this useful. If you did, I’d really appreciate it. If you want a free trial of my consultancy, feel free to message me, just fill up the form below and send me the message. In this post, I talked mostly about why you should not have a website. If you want to know why you should have a website just click here.
