Business Websites… When To Break The Bank
Are you starting a business and need a website?
Here are some important things to consider before getting started.
What’s the difference between using a website builder vs a web company?
Many startup businesses use DIY (“Do It Yourself”) website tools called builders. Wix is an example of such a tool. They are handy and much easier than trying to write code. Recently, some have an employee work with you to setup your first version for free. They are great but not perfect for everyone. A disadvantage is it takes time to learn how to use the builder. Most likely, you will spend dozens of hours trying to customize the look of your website. Time that most business owners would rather be doing anything else!…
Another problem is DIY websites may appear “off” or “slow” to customers. Sometimes this is an advantage if you want to be authentic as a start-up. Otherwise, not having a designer assist your look or a programmer “clean-up” your code is the reason for such problems. Website builders are definitely great for those who want to do it yourself.
For the rest, often it’s great to hire a web company. An example of a web company is IWD Canada. Web companies vary in price, from $500 to $20,000 for a website. Picking the right web company is a topic in its self. The advantage of using a web company is their experience. Most will be able to understand your needs and deliver a website that will work well for your business. A disadvantage of a web company is often the turnaround time. Expect your website to take about 1-2 months to be ready. Also unless they offer to write your content, expect a lot of late nights figuring out what you want to say on your website. Another disadvantage is that you will need to pay for other services like a domain and hosting as well.
So which should you choose, DIY or web company?
All-in-all builders are often cheaper than web companies but the quality of the design or speed of code suffers. Web companies are great because they can solve these problems but you still need to write content and often they are more expensive. If you have time, use a builder. If you have money, use a web company. If you have time and money, you’re lucky LOL.