Should You Outsource Your Website Design And Updates?

Written by Doreen Dilger, The Home Based Business Coach

Creating websites that get results if you’re not a web designer can be done with the technology available today. You can use website builders such as Weebly, and even self-hosted WordPress do it yourself. However, if you really want to leverage other people’s time so that you can create a balanced and viable business for yourself, you should consider outsourcing your website design and updates to professionals.

Evaluate Your Skills:  More than likely if you’re thinking of outsourcing website design and updates, you realize that you’re lacking in the skills needed to do it right. It may take you months to do what someone else can do in just a few hours. Be honest about your abilities, and find someone to fill the holes in what you know versus what you don’t know.

Develop a Budget:  Before you look at any company or individual to create your website, it’s important to know what your budget is. If you have a small budget, maybe you can do part of what you want now, and part later. Don’t let a small budget stop you.

Leverage Your Efficiencies:  There is a small chance you can do it yourself but it is probably still worth outsourcing it. You may be really good at website design, but it’s not your main bread and butter. Doing your own design is going to take away from your ability to do what it is that makes the money. Let other people do what they are efficient in and you do what you’re efficient in.

Know What Type of CMS You Need:  You might not know what it’s called, but you do know what you want it to do. Be able to describe how you want your content management system to function so that you can describe it to the person or company you’re outsourcing to. If you don’t know what you want, it will be hard for your contractor to deliver.

Know What Technology You Need:  You should know if you need a shopping cart, an email list, or other technology. Even if you don’t know the names, show your contractor examples of functions you want on your own website. For instance, if you have a food blog, you may want your visitors to be able to print off recipes in a particular format – tell your designer.

Choose the Right Professionals:  Interview several contractors, ask to see samples, talk to them to figure out if you like the way they work. Do you need someone who just follows instructions or do you want someone who takes charge because you’re not sure what you want? Choosing the right professional to help you get what you want and need for your website design.

The Lowest Price Isn’t Always Better:  Don’t assume that you can get by with cheap design and have it work. Sometimes you will get lucky and find someone that you consider inexpensive who delivers excellent results, but more than likely if you go for the cheapest price you’ll get the cheapest results.

Remember You Need Ongoing Help:  It’s not supposed to be one-and-done deal when it comes to a website. The truth is a website needs ongoing backups, security updates, content updates, and so forth. They’ll also need a redesign at some point. These things might not be done by the original person or even the same person.

Outsourcing your website design is a really important way to get a terrific website up and running in no time. You can avoid the stress that trying to do it yourself can create and avoid the problems associated with lack of skill. And even if you have the skill, you can leverage other people’s skill to focus on what your business is really about.