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DIY has become all the rage these days, especially for someone that is starting a business. I completely get it – the cost of starting a business can be high once you factor in all the systems and training you need, so saving a few dollars can sometimes make a huge difference if you’re just starting out!

To work out if DIY’ing your website is the right fit for you, you need to think about your business priorities and weigh up the pros and cons of each option so you can make the right choice for your business. There are some great reasons to build your own website and some drawbacks as well, and the list below will help you to make an informed decision.

Let’s start with the Pros of building your own website:

• You will learn a new skill. This is a great way to keep you brain active! An added bonus of learning how to use your website platform is that you will also know how to update your website yourself in the future if you need to make changes. There are countless YouTube videos online that can help you to learn how to put your website together, and each platform will have its own set of tutorials that will walk you through the steps

• You will save money by not needing to hire a designer to create your website. You’ll also save money in the future if you need to hire a designer again to make any new changes as your business grows and evolves

• Most website building platforms, such as Squarespace, will have well designed templates and drag and drop options to make designing your website easy, meaning you don’t need to know how to code to bring your website together

• You do not need to wait in someone’s design queue to have your website built. If you are really keen and somewhat familiar with the website platform you choose, you could even have a website up in an afternoon!

And that leads to the Cons of building your own website:

• There is a big learning curve to figure out how to use your chosen website platform. It can be time consuming to figure out, which takes you away from other business tasks that need your attention, like your marketing or client work

• You will be starting from a template, which means it will likely look similar to other websites that have used the same template, especially if you don’t know how to customize it further with code

• It may not look as professional as you like, since you don’t know what to include where or the design best practices that help to take your website to the next level

• You won’t have the expertise to make your website work to the best of its ability. It may mean that your website isn’t set up to convert your viewers into customers, or maybe your website doesn’t end up looking how you’d like on a mobile screen, or you don’t take advantage of SEO settings for Google show your business in search results

Overall, DIYing your website can be a great starting point if you have the time and want to save some money. Just remember, you can always use a DIY website as a stepping stone until your business grows and you are in position to make an investment in a designer to create you a fully customized website.

If you do decide to go the DIY route when building your website, Squarespace is a great platform to do it on. You have a stack of clean, modern templates to choose from as a starting point, and the drag and drop system makes it quite quick and easy to bring a beautiful website together. You can check out this post about why Squarespace makes a good online home for creative entrepreneurs and service based businesses!

Are you ready to take your website to the next level by hiring a pro to take care of things? I can help you to create a beautiful website that matches your brand, helps you to attract your ideal clients and elevates your business to the next level.