Stuck On Your Website? Read This
I remember building my very first website for my very first company. I spent hours agonizing over every word, every color, every font. It took me months to finish it – and it left me exhausted.
The interesting thing was that, during that time, my business revenue tanked completely.
I was stressed about money all the time – but the reason why I didn’t have enough clients was because I was worrying about the website rather than taking actions to build my business.
In my 15 years of coaching, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with literally thousands of entrepreneurs, and I see this same pattern all the time.
There are four primary reasons why we tend to fall into this trap.
The first reason? We feel like every inch of our website has to be perfect before we can really launch our business – because our website is like our storefront.
If we opened a candy store, for instance, and people walked in and found half-painted shelves and dusty candy jars, they’d turn around and walk right out. Our shelves are the pages of our website. Our candy is our content.
But the catch here is that it’s impossible to perfect your website before you actually start getting clients.
Your website is going to change dramatically after you’ve worked with your first five clients. You’ll edit it again after your first 10 clients, and again by your 20th client.
Whether you’re just starting your business or entering a new target market, dedicating weeks or months to perfecting your website before you’ve really gotten into the market is a complete waste of time.
To get your website up and running, all you need is seven basic pages:
- Your Home page
- Your Start Here page – this will feature your free gift
- Your Blog page – you’ll publish your newsletter articles here
- Your Offerings page – here, describe your products, program, and/or services
- Your About You page – this page tells your story
- Your Testimonials page – for sharing success stories
- Your Contact Us page – where people can connect with you
I recommend that my clients spend no more than five to six hours writing copy for these pages, especially if they’re working on a new business. Once you develop more experience with clients and a better understanding of yourself and your business, you will have to make changes.
If you’re like many of my clients, the second reason you may be spending too much time on your website is because you’re using it as an excuse to avoid putting yourself out there.
Understand that, while it may feel like a reasonable excuse, hiding behind your website will leave you desperate and unhappy, burning through your savings and accumulating debt. It’s time to start taking actions to connect with people – especially sales conversations.
Which brings us to reason number three – and I think this is the most difficult pill to swallow – you’re spending months on your website because you’re avoiding making a decision about who you’re trying to reach with that website.
There are decisions inherent in creating a website. You have to choose your target market, narrow down your offerings and programs, and craft your signature story.
All of these decisions can be so heavy. It feels like if you make one wrong decision, it’ll wreck your business forever.
But that’s not reality. The reality is that you make immediate decisions, knowing that you can go back and change things later when you have more information and outside experience.
Fourth, and finally, know that everyone under the sun is not judging your business based on your website. Most of the people who end up on your website have already been introduced to you through other means, like social media, speaking gigs, or referrals.
When they visit your website, they’re looking to find some more information and make sure that you’re legit. As much as it may feel like this website is going to be seen by thousands of people right away, I promise you it’s not.
The good news is that it has become fairly easy to build websites – I often recommend sites like Wix or Squarespace. These sites give you some really lovely templates to work with, which means you can get your website up and running quickly and then easily edit it later.
Don’t let your website be a source of self-sabotage. Get it done, get it up, and move on to bigger things.
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