Why Having Your Cousin Joey Design Your Website Is Bad For Your Coaching Business

If you have a website already, you may have chosen a budget-friendly route, and you’re realizing now that it may not have been all that it was cracked up to be. If you’re thinking it’s time you have a website, I’m sure you’re considering the best way to go about it.

We all want to be budget-conscious when we start our business and finding a cheap solution to build your website can seem like a great idea at the time.

And while I totally get it, the longer I design websites and work with clients on a long-term basis, the more I am convinced that your website is the one area that you don’t want to skimp on.

Everything you do to build your business relies on your website. The days of “I can build a six figure business on social media” are long gone.

Related: Do I need a website if I am using social media?

Here’s a few budget-friendly (i.e. cheap) options that you’re perhaps considering:

1. Decide your cousin Joey (I’m a huge ‘Friends’ fan!!) will do just fine
2. Choose to barter with a friend, family member or colleague
3. Do it yourself

Here’s the real deal about these tempting solutions:

1. Cousin Joey Will Design My Coaching Website

He’s a pretty cool cousin and has your best interests at heart. He has set up a website before and explains he can get you super cheap hosting and he’ll update your plugins for you. Score! Joey’s got it going on!

What cousin Joey can do:

1. Build your website on a super cheap hosting platform and maybe keep your plugins updated without your website crashing

What cousin Joey cannot do:

1. Use best practices of web design
2. Make it professional looking with strategy behind the design
3. Make it representative of you and speak to your soul clients
4. Know that you need specific elements to attract the attention of the best soul clients you desire
5. Ensure your website has the necessary plugins and integrations
6. Make sure that your website is responsive
7. Make it safe and stable – and keep it that way

You have not paid your cousin Joey to do this for you, or if you have, it was very little and this type of agreement typically doesn’t bode well for you, or for your relationship with Joey. He was the super cool cousin and now he’s the guy who screwed up my website and it’s impacting my business. Who wants that?

In time, he’s going to be too busy to keep things going for you, make the changes you want to make and keep your site updated (even though he said he would).

And even if he is updating your site, swapping out an image or adding a service for you, chances are he has no real idea what he’s doing. And why should he… your cousin Joey is a realtor, school teacher, bricklayer, doctor… he’s anything but a professional web designer.

Several of our clients have had this experience before coming to us and my heart hurts for them. When they needed help the most, their “cousin” wasn’t available to help them, leaving them with a mess they had no clue how to fix.

2. The Barter Agreement For Your Coaching Website

A barter has the great potential to be even worse. On rare occasions this can go well, but most often, you are probably the one that keeps up your end of the deal by providing a service of some kind (example: a healing session) and you’re expecting your website to be completed as agreed upon, but find that is not the case.

While your website may be completed, it’s nowhere near acceptable and you have no idea how to remedy the situation. You appreciate their effort, but quickly find out your spiritual coaching website is not doing its job. The design is lacking substance and content is haphazardly placed on the pages. You’re not able to market effectively. You have very little traffic. Your SEO is non-existent.

Your coach website is just not working for you, but what do you do? Well, you either resort to doing it yourself or you hire a professional. Of course, you can opt to not have a website at all, but you know that isn’t going to work.

3. I Can Design My Own Coaching Website

Sure, you can do it yourself. There are a ton of ways to do that. Most are likely to get you into a hot mess eventually, but yes, you can design your spiritual coaching website yourself.

Related: How do I build a WordPress website from scratch?

However, the time you spend doing this keeps you from growing your business and actually doing the client work that you love. It’s why you have a business to begin with, right? It’s not to spend countless hours getting your website done.

Here’s a few things you’re sacrificing when you design your own spiritual coach website

1. You don’t have time or the mental capacity to invest in activities that attract new clients
2. You’re not bringing your “A” game to the clients you do have because you are simply worn out
3. You exert a lot of time and energy to learn the technical stuff and this is essentially time wasted – which is not good for business
4. You’re overwhelmed and frustrated
5. Your coaching website is never exactly how you want it

Your Coaching Website Deserves To Be Taken Seriously

Think about the long term cost of pressing the ‘easy & cheap’ button. If you’re serious about your business, which I am sure you are or you wouldn’t be reading this, your website needs to be your foundation.

FACT: If your foundation is shaky you’re going to run into major issues down the road. Just like a house with an unstable foundation won’t last too long without needing major repairs… the same goes for your spiritual coach website.

Related:
Why should I hire a professional website designer?
How to NOT choose a WordPress hosting company
What is hosting and why is it important?

You want your coaching website to:

1. Reflect you and your business in a way that makes you feel proud
2. Have elements that are necessary to attract visitors and make them want to keep in touch with you
3. Be on a solid piece of land (i.e. your hosting), maintained and set up for long-term success.

Invest in your business and in yourself, and start working with your dream clients sooner rather than later. Check out our web design services and see if we are a right fit for you.