“I don’t need to hire a developer to do my website. I can do it myself!”

-Mistaken entrepreneurs everywhere

Unfortunately, this is something I have heard my entire career.

Most business owners think – given today’s website building tools like Divi and Elementor- that they can build their OWN website and forego hiring an experienced web developer to save money.

The truth is – they’re right.

The CAN build their own websites and save a good amount money… but SHOULD they?

From my experience, I’ve found that entrepreneurs that go this route end up losing in the run. Building their own website leads them down the path of pain, frustration, and most of all – missed opportunities.

It’s not really their fault! They’ve been fed this idea that building websites is easy and that for a small yearly hosting fee – they get a free domain, hosting for a year, and even 24hr support!

But let’s think about this… Do most business owners REALLY know what a domain is? Do they know domains can be purchased by the boatloads for as little as $1.80/year?

Do most entrepreneurs know what web hosting is? Do they know how the internet works and why they need hosting?

I wonder if they know the “24hr support” they’re so excited about is a few IT techs, halfway across the world, who are feverishly typing support requests into chatGPT – hoping they can copy and paste in a solution?

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

The truth of the matter is, most business owners NEED to hire an experienced web developer to create their websites because they lack the knowledge, the interest, and the time to successfully make their own.

Knowledge

Becoming a web developer takes time. For some it’s 6 months in a bootcamp. For others it’s 4 years of college, but for most, it’s a lifetime of learning.

And just as soon as you think you’ve mastered something, a new game-changing tech comes along and it’s time learn again.

My point is, there is a lot of knowledge that needs to be gained through a TON of practice.

“But Eric, I’m not learning to code or anything… I’m just going use Elementor or one of the other WordPress builder tools to create my website.”

Ok, you’re right. You could certainly use them and get by. But what happens when something goes wrong? What about when you want to use a plugin that doesn’t work with your builder of choice, or Google tags, or you want to increase your SEO?

Again, I’m not saying these things can’t be learned, but I am saying they aren’t the easiest concepts to grasp – and I’ve found to learn them well, you also need to have a general interest in web development.

Interest

So that brings me to my next point – most entrepreneurs lack the interest needed to create great web pages. That’s not to say they aren’t interested in having a really nice website, I’m simply pointing out that they’re interested in other things like the nature of their business.

I mean, a small business owner that sells custom leather wallets is probably much more interested in his or her craft than getting on a computer and fighting with the WordPress editor.

Unfortunately this conundrum typically leads to the “good enough” website that most entrepreneurs will settle for.

It’s not that they can’t make their site better – they are completely capable – they simply aren’t interested and quite frankly – they don’t have the time.

Time

Now we get to the most important point of them all – time.

Money and resources come and go, but time is finite. We can never get it back once it’s been spent.

For entrepreneurs, time is money. Every second spent has an opportunity cost to it – and for business owners, creating their own websites is probably the biggest time expense of all.

Most of my business comes from frustrated entrepreneurs that have wasted a lot of money and time trying to put their own website together. They are simply FED UP with the struggle of trying to maintain their site and are desperate for answers.

Typically, when I give them the price to redo their website, they JUMP at the opportunity! They are in shock over how affordable it is, how quickly it will be completed, and ultimately they are relieved that their burden is over and they are finally going to get what they want – a clean, professional, easy to update website with good SEO and performance.

TL;DR

Although it may seem like a great way to save – ultimately entrepreneurs end up spending way more money (especially in opportunity costs) creating their own websites than they would have if they just went with a pro from the get go.

Maybe you own your own plumbing business, or perhaps you’re an amazing photographer and when I need your services, I will 100% call you. I’m a business owner that does websites. When you need a website, call me.