Any business owner can tell you how valuable having a great employee on your team can be. Someone that you can trust to lead others, manage parts of your business, and maintain your brand’s mission and vision, so that you can focus on the bigger picture. They’ll also tell you how hard it can be to find and keep those employees around, ensuring they’re happy and excited to come in to work.
When you think about your team, it’s easy to forget about one of the hardest-working members: your website.
Your website is the jack-of-all-trades team member. When designed properly, it acts as your online receptionist, salesperson, and brand ambassador. It can save you time by answering repetitive questions about your services or offerings. It can generate more bookings and sales by strategically laying out your content to funnel users into taking action. And most importantly, a thoughtfully designed website ties in your business's values and goal to share why you do what you do with those you do it for.
There’s only one employee who doesn’t take sick days, vacations, or holidays and works 24/7, 365. With a reliable hosting plan, your website runs all day, every day. There's no need to consider labour laws when making your website work around the clock. For small businesses and sole proprietors, it’s fair to say your website might be the only thing working harder than you to help generate leads and connect with new customers.
First impressions are invaluable. A curated design guarantees you have full control over how that first interaction with your website plays out. Opting for a template or pre-made web service would be similar to hiring your 15-year-old nephew and having them as your primary point of contact. Unless you’re running a profit-sharing business or are paying well above industry standards, most employees want to just get paid and go home to relax. A well-crafted website will always be your closest thing to having your dream employee.
Analogies aside, there’s no doubt that your actual employees are more valuable than any website could ever be. But it’s time to stop neglecting the importance of having a thoughtfully made website and the fact that it’s working hard to help you and your business. If you’re in no position to hire help, a strategically designed website can offload tasks, inform potential leads about who you are and what you do, and serves as one of your most important brand touchpoints.
