The question of hiring a website designer is an issue I wrestled with when I first got that entrepreneurial itch.  I was someone who wanted to start a business, preferably an online business, from scratch and with little to no money. 

The major roadblock, however, was putting up a website.  I didn’t want to spend $500 to $1,000 on a website designer because . . . well, I was just cheap. 

Going It Alone 

So I went at it alone.  I thought of a product (albeit one in a saturated market).  I bought a domain name on Go Daddy, bought their Website Tonight software (for like $150), paid for hosting with them, and I set off to build my website.

Because I work so much during the week, it took me over a month and a half to build the website.  It was quite a crash course for me.  I have a bachelor’s degree in English, and I have a law degree.  But I never learned anything in school about computers or web or graphic design.  So this was a harrowing experience!

Website Designer graphic 1I made a bunch of mistakes.  I didn’t understand how to use certain tools.  I found myself reading their help menu far more often than I found myself actually building the site.  It was a disaster.  And it took FOREVER. 

Finally, I got it up.  And . . . it was OK.  Nothing pretty or flashy.  Just a basic website that you can put up with Go Daddy’s software.  I spent all that time, effort, sweat, and tears, and my reaction was, “Eh.”

What’s more, since I didn’t know anything about SEO at the time, I did virtually no optimization (let alone understand what the heck that was.)

I ended up selling about $17 worth of my product.  A failure if there ever was one.  But it was a learning experience. 

Make The InvestmentWebsite Designer graphic 2

The major lesson I learned was that, if you don’t have the skills to put up a good-looking and attractive web site, find a designer and pay him/her to do it.  I can’t stress that point enough.  I spent $150 or so, and my end product (the web site) was just OK.  I knew that, if I was surfing the Internet, and if I came across that web site, I would have moved on.  It did not get the job done, and it was not attractive to visitors.

It’s much better and cost-effective to spend $500 or more on a professional designer.  There are so many advantages to doing so.

You Can Focus On Your Business

When you hire a web designer to build your site, you can let that person–and not you–worry about the details and annoyances that inevitably invade your project.  You’re the entrepreneur, and you need to focus on your product, how to sell it, and, in general, the bigger picture. 

Dealing with the issues of building and managing a web site isn’t worth your time.  It will distract you from your focus and your business.  By hiring a designer, you’ll have more time to dedicate to your venture, sales strategy, marketing, and other larger tasks that require attention.

Leave Web Site Nuances To The Experts

Not only can you focus on your business, but the designer or designers you hired are professionals.  In other words, they’re trained and good at what they do.  If you’re not good at something, you should outsource it to someone who knows how to do it.  That way, when problems surface, the experts can fix them, and you won’t have to put out any of those fires yourself. 

Moreover, they can figure out what’s wrong, what needs to be fixed, what needs to be improved, etc.  And they can take care of those issues faster than you. 

Website Designer graphic 3A Professional Look

Finally, the work you pay these designers for will result in a professional website that matches your business.  That’s the best part.  It may seem like a chore to hand over $500 or $1,000 to someone to build a web site that you think you can probably build yourself for 1/5 or 1/10 of the cost.  But make no mistake.  If you’re not a designer yourself, you simply cannot churn out a professional-looking web site like designers who build these things for a living.

Spend the money.  Make the investment.  You won’t regret it in the end. 

Remember, there are worse ways to spend $500 or $1,000.  That wide-screen television isn’t going to build passive-income-producing websites for you. 

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