9 Reasons You Shouldn’t Hire Me to Design Your Website

I want to be honest and transparent with you. Which is the reason for this blog post.

Over the years (since 2010), I’ve worked with some amazing clients and really enjoyed designing their websites.

But, NOT everyone is a good fit or suited to working with me. That is just fine.

Hiring a freelance website designer to build your website is a large investment and an important decision to make.

You’ll see below nine reasons why I think you shouldn’t hire me to design your website.

Let’s get started!

You expect me to trade my time for free

Plainly, I don’t work for free. I would suppose that you don’t either. I spent ten years designing websites for corporate America, and the past fourteen years as a freelance website designer.

Past clients have been well established businesses, contractors, and ecom stores. They respect me and pay me for my expertise. If you would like me to build and design a website for you I’d be more than happy to quote you for your project.

You don’t have the budget or can’t afford it

If you walked up to a car salesman and asked “How much to buy a car?”, he would probably ask you a variety of questions to drill down to what you are specifically looking for.

And, then based on that, he could give you a price range. An exact price wouldn’t be given until all the specifics were determined.

It’s no different for the cost of a website. It varies. Three critical factors are the size of the website, how complex it is and when you want it launched.

Generally, the average cost for a small to medium website can range from $5,000 to $20,000 or more. Enterprise businesses would be much larger, and take a lot more time to complete.

This may be an initial shock to some business owners, but your website is a significant investment, as well as, an asset to your business. If you plan on selling your business one day, this will hugely impact the selling price.

My website design prices fit nicely within the above range. There is a lot of foundational work that goes into building and designing a website, such as, research, brand, design, content, images, platform, hosting and more.

If you are looking to put up a “brochure” type of website, then I’m most likely not the right fit for you.

To have a website that draws qualified traffic, converts it and brings in leads and sales, it will take investing and some of your time to deliver those kinds of results.

You want to work with a large agency

You will be working directly with me – Patrick. I am a freelance website designer who is personable, who wants to build a long-term relationship with my clients and help you build an online presence, grow your authority and bring in more revenue through the sale of your products and services.

I work directly from my home without a fancy office, shiny coffee machine, added staff or a glossy website. This makes my overhead and your investment lower.

If you do wish to work with an agency with all the added fluff, then I’m not the right fit for you.

And, that is ok.

You want your website to solve everything

If you build it, they will come! This strategy worked well in the nineties when the internet was fairly new to small-to-medium businesses. In today’s environment, it doesn’t exactly happen that way.

It would be great to pay a web designer to build you a website, without your involvement, and sit back and wait for the “You’ve got money” message to ping on your mobile. Again, this is very rarely the case.

Once your website is built, it will require you to invest time to promote and plan to attract visitors using SEO, content, paid ads, email campaigns or offline marketing.

If that is what you are hoping for, I would suggest rethinking your expectations and start over.

Also, if you believe having a new or redesigned website will make all your business problems go away – you are going to be disappointed. Your website is an asset to your business and can be a 24/7 salesman for your products and services, but it won’t solve all of your business’ problems.

Your website is in addition to other marketing you are doing, as well as, providing information to visitors.

You want a website fast

If you are looking to have your website built, designed and ready to launch in 3-7 days, then I’m probably not for you.

You business website is a critical piece of your online presence, as well as, an asset.

It can take me one to three months (30 to 90 days) to fully complete a website. The brief process outline should give you an idea of why it takes longer to design your website.

Step 1: Discovery

Discovery is focused on understanding your goals and the results you want to see from your website. This step is all about getting to know you and learning about your story, your why, your purpose, and your big vision.

I’ll identify your ideal client, what they struggle with, what they need, how you can help, and what they will do on your website. You’ll receive a detailed questionnaire then participate in a website strategy and planning interview.

Step 2: Website [re]design

In this step we focus on the information architecture of the website — the creation of a website plan, and sitemap. This work focuses on how visitors will move through your site, interact with your content, and ultimately, take action. We will use these elements to guide the design and the website content.

Step 3: Select a Professional Theme

Next, you’ll choose a professional theme (what I call a starter site) which will be the core of the look and feel of your newly designed website.

Step 4: Development

With your professional theme chosen, I will begin to transform your site to match your brand colors based off of your logo, set font types and modify layouts where needed.

Your site will be optimized for performance, users, security, SEO, and be mobile responsive on devices of all types and sizes.

Step 5: Content & Review

This is where I will schedule a content interview, where I will record you speaking about you, your businesses, your likes and dis-likes, and much more. This interview will be between 60-90 minutes long.

With this audio recording, I will write the content for your important pages then add and format the final content and images — this is where your site will really come to life.

I’ll share a link to a working demo of the site so you can review the site in detail. At this time you will have one round of small, content-related revisions available to catch and fix any small content issues, or swap out an image or two that may not be just right yet.

Step 6: Launch and Training

With final site approval, your website will be scheduled for launch. The go-live process is very technical, but includes moving the site to the live server and taking care of last minute details that must be configured on the final URL.

I will also provide a Website Owner’s Manual (WOM) that has all your website login credentials in one central location.

Step 7: Marketing and Upkeep

At this point, your website may be done, but you’re just getting started! The key to a successful website that generates leads, attracts clients, creates opportunities, and makes money is caring for and using the site. It needs to be updated frequently with new, valuable, relevant content and it needs to be marketed and promoted.

You don’t want to get involved

To have a website that draws traffic, converts leads and brings in more sales, I will need some help from YOU!

It’s going to be nearly impossible to build you a website if you expect that I will do 100% of the work. You have knowledge, experience and know nuances about your business and industry that I don’t.

Before I build you a website there will be a project kick-off call. We’ll go over important details to ensure we’re both on the same page, you know exactly what’s happening next and what I need from you, and that you have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

Next, I’ll have you fill out a discovery questionnaire. This will help me get to know more about you, your business, your brand, your vision, and your ideal clients. And, dig into specific website features and details, including what actions you want visitors to take and what results you want to see from your site.

These actions take time, but they are well worth it.

You’re looking for a “Yes, Man!”

Do you know exactly what you want your website to look like? Do you have a design already in your head? You just need a website designer to build it for you.

Great!

Then I’m not the freelance website designer for you. Why, you may ask?

I have built and designed high performing websites that look great, get found on the search engines (Big “G” being the 800 lb. gorilla), and convert visitors. Why wouldn’t you want to work with me to design your website?

It’s not a problem that you may have a general idea of what you want your website to look like or function. But, I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing. That is why you are hiring me, after all.

I consider myself as a partner and invest myself into your business to bring about success. That could mean that I give suggested changes, and give new ideas to move things along further.

If I believed something wouldn’t work, then I’ll be sure to let you know.

You want to meet face-to-face

I enjoy meeting business owners face-to-face and getting to know them. This takes gas, scheduling, time and reduces the amount of time from doing what I do best.

One of my strongest skill sets is communicating with you every step of the way during the design process. Working from my home office gives me the freedom to give personable service and get your project done the right way.

A win-win for both of us if I do say so myself. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

You want the next Google

This would be a huge undertaking to accomplish, along with, a team of designers, developers, and project managers available at all times of the day and night.

I don’t have anywhere near the capacity to make this happen, nor would I want to. The stress alone can be unbearable.

If you have a grand plan to create the next new social or giant business website, I’m not your guy.

There are the reasons you should not hire or work with me.

I certainly don’t want any business owner to hire me for the wrong reasons.

So, if you are still here and haven’t clicked on the back arrow, then great!

Featured Image by dgim-studio on Freepik