Small Business Web Sites: What You Need to Know Before Spending one Dime!

spk_0:   0:01
welcome to this episode of Getting Social with the curious Cal Girl podcast. I'm your host married the curious cowgirl, and I am all about teaching antiques and vintage business owners step by step, how to utilize social media to cultivate new clients and increase sales. Be sure and check out my show notes for more information about my digital courses and how you can enroll today. In today's episode, we're talking about all things website. It's a very big decision for a business owner, particularly a small business owner, to spend the money to have a custom website created. So I'm bringing on a friend and a colleague that I've worked with for years. His name is Mark Lee. He designed my curious Cal girl website, and I have worked with him for almost eight years Now, as he has designed websites for clients that I worked with during my nonprofit consulting days, he has lots of good insights and lots of good tips about things that you should consider and think about prior Teoh making the decision to have a website built and then what your relationship might look like with a really highly qualified website designer. So Let's jump in. Hey! Well, okay. I am really excited about today's podcast episode. I am bringing on a friend and a colleague that I have worked with for Oh my gosh, probably seven or eight years now. His name is Markley, and he is the owner of friendly Martian digital marketing. I'm I met Mark Oh my gosh. Maybe eight years ago, seven years ago and met him through a friend of mine named Tanya Foster, and she recommended his services to me. When I was working as a nonprofit consultant, we needed to build a couple of websites. And so Tanya had worked with Mark in the past and recommended that we interview him. We did, and we ended up hiring him. And he was wonderful toe work with during that time period when I was consulting. So when I started my travel Blawg and had to have a website built from scratch, of course I turned to Mark and he and I have worked closely together for the past three years or so, and I rely on him quite a bit for a number of things that I do on my website changes that I've made and just general guidance about you know how tohave a, um a good website that is attractive to visitors, That does all the things that I needed to do. And Mark has been great toe work with. So I wanted to bring Mark on the podcast today because there's a lot of, um, I think questions in business owners minds about whether or not they need a website. And what does that website look like? Is it just a static page that gives basic information? Is it a website where people can actually shop? There's a lot of nuances and ends and out. So I thought, rather than me trying to answer all those questions for you all, I would bring on the expert on all things websites and let him give guidance. So let's bring Mark on the show. Hey, Markley. Thank you so much for joining me on my podcast. I'm really grateful.

spk_1:   4:04
Hey, how you doing?

spk_0:   4:05
I'm good. So I already shared with all the listeners how you and I know each other and how we've worked together in the past. But I did not give them any. I didn't spill the tea. It all on the life of Markley, and kind of how you got to this point. So we use sure with everybody your background.

spk_1:   4:24
Sure. Um, I would save the last Ah, 10 years. I've been really concentrating on building websites for small businesses, nonprofits, and I have a lot of blogging clients who ah, have, Ah, a few different kinds of bloggers, fashion bloggers, probable obvious food bloggers. Um, before that I was in, I was a journalist. For decades, I worked at the Dallas Morning News. Um, I was a freelance writer and editor and I did a lot of ah film festivals, so I have a lot of kind of film background, both with the Dallas festivals and festivals in l. A and, ah, sobriety and editing on that front too. But right now my company is called Friendly Martian. That's friendly martian dot com, and we really concentrate on building websites for small businesses and nonprofits and not the corporate kind of stuff, because what we like to do is, you know, give sort of personal intention to people, and I like to be able to talk with business owners or bloggers and really get into what they want and how they want to design. So it's not just, ah, kind of, ah, cold, impersonal experience. I really like to understand what people want and how I can make it easy for them to get that.

spk_0:   5:47
Yeah. What? They're one of the reasons I love working with you, Marcus. Here, an adult. We're both adults, you know. And I, you know, you bring an unbelievable amount of experience with you. Visual written, you know, like you said journalism background under you, you do some photography to, and you know, all of that I think contributes to kind of an adult vision of how website can be created and said that that's one of the things. One of the many things I love about you, Mark. So Okay, so before we before we jumped on and started recording, we sort of talked through some of the major points that we want to hit today. And I think the first thing that we want to talk about is if somebody is considering having a website built, I think you've come up with some tips, maybe five or six kind of major things that people need to think about before they take the plunge to Do. You wanna share this with us?

spk_1:   6:47
Sure. Yeah, I thought about basically, uh, you know, what are the major things you should be thinking about when you want to have a website? I know a lot of times people come to me and they they're thinking, Well, I want a site, but I don't exactly know like what I should focus on, because there's a lot of things to consider and maybe a lot of things you don't know. Consider. So the first thing really I think you should do is just try to sort of dialing what your website is about. If you're a blogger, are you a fashion blogger? You travel blogger or you a lifestyle blogger. And what is your your main focus? You can always kind of tack on phase later. But if you start a website with ah, a really good idea of what it is you want to dio, that makes it a lot easier in the long run. So usually you're gonna think about are your blog's are your store. Are you really just a business side on and then you can go from there and that kind of leads you into your second step, which is you want. Oh, look at a lot of sites that do what you do or do what you want to do. But don't just look at him. Of course, you look at him in terms of design and the way they look and how they make you feel. But you really want to go in there and use them because this is this is how you're going to learn what's gonna be good for your website. So if you have a store that you like or blogged that you like, go in there and, like, really intensely use it for a week because then you will learn a lot about how easy it is to use how intuitive it is If it's frustrating to you. You know, it's gonna be frustrating to the people who come to your site, and you don't want that so you can really, uh, narrow down. What do you want, Teoh? Watch what you want to do with your site because, uh, you don't want your users to be frustrated. And then usually, I mean the first thing people usually start out, but I have it as number three is what your link. What is your u R l like Mary? You have the curious cowgirl. I have friendly Martian. Some people have just their name. It really should be something that says what the businesses or says what you want people to feel or says something that people will stick in their brain. Right? So you might not always want you know your name dot com or shoe store dot com, but you might want to give it a catchy name. And if this takes a lot of thought, so it's something you should really try to think about for a few weeks to just really get it right. And then you'll also find out that when you go online that a lot of names air taken. So the way to find out what names you can have our to just enter in the website name into your Google search bar or your browser search far and see if it's available. Or you could go to a site like hover dot com. That's H O V E. R. Like a hovercraft or or go daddy or anywhere any one place that Selves ah, website domains and just start typing domains into it and see if those sites are available. Some of them might not be, and some of them might be for sale. But then you're going into a negotiation process, and that's probably if you want that kind of name. You'll probably want to pair up with Web designer to see what's the best way to go about getting it. I think I'm on number four.

spk_0:   10:27
Yeah, number four.

spk_1:   10:29
So that would be hosting. Um, some people don't know what website hosting is, but that is like where your website lives. Eso That's, uh, basically it sits on a server that's, uh, owned by a hosting company like Go Daddy or Side Ground or Ah, Blue Host. There's a 1,000,000 of them out there. Um, so you want to find out a za beginning blogger beginning Business Person is doing more research on hosting sites and really just do a Google search for best Web hosting for blobs, best Web hosting for business, best Web hosting for shopping or something like that, something that relates to what your website is, and at least a scan through a few articles to see, to learn just what the terms are what the reputations are about various hosting sites out there and how they relate to whatever business you have. I don't advise people toe by hosting before or domain name before they contact the Web designer, because the Web designer is going to be able to tell you, um, what they think about the hosting sites that you like, and you can kind of have a conversation with them and kind of make the best decision at that point. If you buy something too soon, you might end up having wasted your money because you really want to be somewhere else. And then finally, the last thing which is designed, What do you want your site to look like? There's a couple of things to consider. One is, of course, your personal taste, and then you also want to consider your customers or your users because really a website is for them when you think about it. What you are trying to do is entice people to visit your website, so you want it to look. It's like something that they respond to. So if your brand is minimalist, that's probably good for fashion. But maybe you are selling Ah, antiques or you're having your vintage place. So maybe you want sort of different kind of colors that if your mid mind, maybe you have, like, fifties kind of colorful things. But if you're like Older and Tiki, maybe it's more sepia toned or something like that. But make sure that your colors and your type, style and your fonts are in tune with what your customers want. And ah, good Web designer will definitely help you dial that in. So I think those air my five biggest points that you should think about before coming. Teoh, talk to somebody about building your site.

spk_0:   13:10
Oh my gosh, I just That was a thank you. That was a very close tonight as you were talking. I was kind of taking like, a walk down memory lane thinking about, you know, when we got started with my site, you know, all those things I was thinking. Yeah, that's important, yet that's important. That was a very good list. Okay, let me and I hope I'm not singing. Kind of some of that we're planning. I'm talking about later, but just before my sad brain forgets right one of the things that you mentioned Waas? Um, kind of what is the intent of your site? And so because I think a lot of the people that are going to be listening to this episode are antique and vintage business owners who maybe do not have a website. And you mentioned kind of the difference between having a store that I guess is like like an interactive site where people can really buy things or a site that is more of a business site. Can you talk a little bit more about the difference between those two things?

spk_1:   14:10
Sure. I think I think of a store is sort of a, uh, an adjunct to a business site. They're both kind of two websites business side. I think if you have a story, you definitely also need to have a business site of some sort. And the basic, you know, side is, uh, your local, your brain. The most important things that have on there are your address and your hours and phone number and some sort of contact information. I mean, I think if you think of a basic ah website for anything, whether it's a store and antique shop or ah restaurant those air. The kind of things that you absolutely need tohave in there. A business card for your site. Basically. So once you have that and you have that basic set up, then you start thinking about a store. Ah, and if you're an antique dealer or a vintage person fraud, you have probably a couple of options. When is sort of ah, a static store. If you have, like, standing items that you always have, say you always have What is an item that an antique dealer would always have?

spk_0:   15:20
Well, you know, I mean, I guess you know they I guess it depends on the dealer. But I'm just thinking that a lot of times antique dealers invented dealers. You know, what they have is one of a kind, you know, today. So you know. So I guess what I'm hearing you say, is you could have a site that has a representative images of the kinds of things you typically have crew, right, like paintings or furniture. Or, you know, lamps are under whatever it ISS. But then an add on to that I'm hearing you say, is a set a shop site where those things can be switched out all the time as inventory changes,

spk_1:   16:01
right, so one would be a static. Say I have some for some reason, just thought about antique dealers having like or vintage people having die cast cars. So if that's what you have, then you can say, You know, this kind of die cast car is like $10 it's just very simple. This kinds 20 of this kinds 40. Or you can set up a store that's a little bit more involved, but you can actually ah, cell from and set up a store that, actually, uh, just representative Lee displays your inventory and that takes, you know, somebody toe add and delete inventory. But you can also, you know, use credit card processing and sell things, live online and do shipping and all that kind of stuff so that that kind of store in itself is almost like a separate website. But for antique and vintage owners, especially in times like these ah, it will give you access to customers who are able to buy things from your store on your website.

spk_0:   17:01
Yeah, I think that that is not the truth. I mean, more people are shopping online than ever, and and I guess the other thing and then I know will move on. But just, I guess, another thing to think about us. You know, um, have being able Teoh, switch out images or whatever that looks like doesn't have to be a store function. It can just be a function of showing what you have available. And then you invite the person who comes to your website to call or email if they want more information. So it doesn't have to be everything you post, you know, put on your website is available for purchase. It can be just a starting point for conversation.

spk_1:   17:38
Correct? You don't You can actually create a store that doesn't have any sort of, uh, uh, e commerce part to it, but it shows your products.

spk_0:   17:49
Okay, good. That's super helpful. And I'm glad that you threw, you know, thinking about what you would want your girl named to be, or the www dot whatever the name of your side is dot com. And, um, and you counseled me to do the same thing. Do your research. Go look at a bunch of sites, kind of get a feel for what you like before you talk to a Web designer. So then I think that probably kind of naturally leads us to the next thing we wanted to talk about, which is the pros and cons of hiring somebody to construct a website for you.

spk_1:   18:23
Right. Um so I'm basically making that decision. Comes down to knowledge and time. If you have. If you have some basic background and building a site, maybe you built a little site before or you've done a basic blood before. You can probably do it. And, you know, you know, sort of basically, what? How much investment it's gonna take on your part. I think most people who tried to build their website on their own with something you see all sorts of ads on YouTube on TV about how you can build your own website and come to our site. It's really easy. But once you get into it, uh, people realized that it does take quite a bit of time to even build a basic site on those, um, on those sites on those build your own website things. So to me, the advantage mostly of going to a Web designer and Of course, I want everybody to go toe friendly martian dot com.

spk_0:   19:24
So I declare firmly martian dot com, and I missed that.

spk_1:   19:29
But, um, it's because the Web designer, whoever you choose, has all the background knowledge that you probably don't have. And there are a lot of things that most people don't realize that they need to know in terms of where u buy ur l where you should host what you need to do on your server. How to install WordPress have what look plug ins you need. There's just list after list of of things that most people, uh, aren't aware of. And, uh, don't really have time to do a lot of people that I work with, especially in the business. I just don't have time to build their own website. I'm that they're busy managing their business and managing their customers and doing everything a small business owner has to do. So the best entrepreneurs know how to delegate things, and eso that's that's where I get a lot of my business.

spk_0:   20:23
Yeah, you know, it's funny when you said that cause I you you didn't call me out and I appreciate that, but I will admit it fully That I did. I tried to do it myself in the beginning, and I did it. River that and I did it so wrong. You know, I thought that I'm like, I'm a smart person. I can figure this out. And I I spent money. I didn't need to spend it. I certainly spent time. I didn't need to spend and realize that I was in way over my head and, you know, and so you had to kind of help me go back and, you know, tease out those tangles when we got going. So I think that's a super Vela point. Hey, Mark, let me ask you this because I I see this a lot as I am researching and finding antique dealers and vintage dealers, you know, on the Internet, I see a lot of really old websites, and I and I had and I don't know what those hosting platforms would be. But can you kind of speak to people who, maybe 10 years ago they had some kind of site build? I hear people mentioned square space and, you know, I don't know what what? The site with the the constructs are behind those. But I see a lot of very old outdated sites. So kind of how can you are you are a web designer, General. Help people, I don't know, salvage what they already have. Or is it a start from scratch, Mr the Time. Start over again.

spk_1:   21:47
Yeah, I am most of the time on those kind of websites. It is a start over again just because they're so old and they're sitting on servers that are outdated. So if your servers out data and your websites is outdated, you have so much heavy lifting to do you mind, so I'll start over. It's actually cheaper to start over. Um, I think a lot of times people do that because, you know, they have the website, it's up. And, um, you know, people go to it and it's working. But maybe if your site was built six years ago, you don't have access to the latest sort of social media integrations or social media. All I've seen some sites that are, you know, six or eight years old, and they don't even have ah, a Facebook or Twitter page on him. And we know that most people are pretty social media savvy at this point. But the biggest thing about old websites is that they don't work on mobile and everybody I, the mount of Web traffic that is on mobile now far outpaces desktop or tablet. So most your customers are gonna be coming to you by looking at their phone. And if if a website doesn't work on mobile, which untold website most definitely is gonna have issues? Uh, do you just losing out on customers and you're losing out on new business?

spk_0:   23:08
Wow, I had even thought about that. Yeah, that it that everybody's on their phone. It's got to be. It's got to be fit and look right on a mobile phone or people won't go to any more. Very good point. Oh, my gosh, is a great point. Let me ask you one other question, and then we'll move on. Mark, if, um, another thing that I see when I when I'm out there, you know, kind of in Internet. Leon, Looking at people's websites is, um, old graphics. You know, somebody pay be had a logo designed and you know it is there, but maybe it's not. It looks weird. It looks wonky or its sizing correctly. I mean, would you counsel people toe? Have logo's redone before they approach a Web designer? Or can most Web designers help create a new logo from scratch?

spk_1:   23:58
I think a Web designer at First of all, I don't think you should start. I think you should go to a Web designer first before going to a graphic artist, because the Web designer is gonna be able to give some, uh, uh um specifications to a graphic artist that they will need in order to, uh, put the put the logo on the website basically in terms of size and file type and things like that. Um, and then I kind of forgot

spk_0:   24:27
that answered it that answer totally that kind of the order of things as do your research kind of get your list of what you wanted to be, what you wanted to look like, what you wanted to do and then reach out to the Web designer and let them give you guidance from there.

spk_1:   24:43
And, yeah, and most Weathers honors do have, like graphic designers, they can point you towards, so they're good resource, like I have a few graphic designers that I like to work with, and I know they're good, and I know they'll be fast and reasonably reasonably priced and have good work. So I like to push business to them, of course, but I also know that my clients will like it, too.

spk_0:   25:04
Okay, all right, that's that's that's good guidance, because I think e I mean, I did this and, you know, maybe I'm unique, but I think it's really easy to get the cart before the horse a little bit. So before you spend money doing anything having new logo's designed or any of that, talk to a Web designer and let them give you your list of things you need to dio or things you need to spend your money on. Yeah. Okay, good. All right. That's super helpful. Okay, um, any is there? Is there a downside? I mean, I mean, I can't think of a downside to hiring someone to help with your website, other than you're certainly going to spend money. But you're also going to spend money having it done correctly. I mean, can you maybe. Let's answer it this way. Can you give my listener some guidance about warning signs that maybe a Web designer is not, You know what are as professional as they might hope. Let's put it that

spk_1:   25:58
way. Yeah, and it is sometimes hard to tell because, especially if you don't know much about websites, how would you know if Web designers any good? I think the best thing you can do is find the sites that you like that seem to be well built and then look at the bottom of the site. And there's always going to be a link to the Web designer, right? Or if they're smart with Lake down there. So when you click on the website, you can definitely look at their portfolio. And don't transfer portfolio necessarily called the business that used them for their website, right? Or if there's just a website that blogged that you like, I get a lot of referrals from people who finds, like your blog's or are Chinese blogger are you know, some other blogged that a bill and then they will contact me, and then they will also contact the block governors and say, Does this guy really good, or is he just blowing smoke so that that's I think that is the best way to find a good Web website designer. And, you know, just referrals is the number one thing.

spk_0:   27:05
Yeah, like anything alive. Ask ask around, Look at look at the bottom of websites like you said. But ask around people who've had a site belt just like building a home. Would you recommend your contractor? Why? Why not websites the same thing? Yeah, because it is an ongoing relationship. I mean, you know, you and I, sometimes we interface a lot, and sometimes there's periods of time where we don't but it you have an ongoing relationship with your website designer and you It's not like a house. Like once you're done in your in your done a website is not the same thing.

spk_1:   27:38
Yeah, because there's always things you need to do after the websites bill.

spk_0:   27:42
So OK, so then that kind of thing leads us to the next. You know, our next talking point is yes. Eso somebody has decided to hire a web designer. They've built a beautiful website and they're off to the races. How else can a web designer help you, you know, kind of as time goes on like what are some of the services that you offer apart from just building a website.

spk_1:   28:06
Yeah, after after websites built, um, you will always There's always like using it, and but it's it's nothing that sits there and is static. The website is is almost like a living creature, especially if it the block where you're updating things all the time. So, um uh, with most of my clients, there's there's an area of content updates that they do themselves like bloggers and some of the e commerce stuff like stores. But then there's other things that they need me to do, like create new sections on the side of your new pages. O r. Maybe tweak of design thing here and there. So there's always some interaction between me and my clients on their bloods. The biggest thing is maintenance. It's the thing that nobody wants to think about. Uh, website requires, Ah, software updates, security updates, plugging updates. It needs to be backed up. Ah, and these database optimization and those air a lot of things that people don't like to do or don't even though they're supposed to do. But if you don't do those things Ah, you website will become infected with malware or be hacked at worse. Ah, it can get very slow. It can affect search engine optimization and things like that s o. Usually you would want to sign up for some sort of maintenance package. I have made its packages that I offer to my clients. My customers or I just go in every week and do all the work that's necessary. I do it every every week for them and that it's a pretty small monthly charge and that makes your website fast and functional. And you don't have to worry about your customers getting malware and stuff like that when they visit your site and then on the other side there's things you have to pay attention to to that, you know, I'm not an expert in these things, but once you have a site growing, you needs to pay attention, a lot of attention of things like search engine optimization and Google metrics. Just so you know how to manage traffic to your site. And there's some basic things that somebody like me can help you with and then when you grow to a certain point, there are also other people that are complete experts and things like search engine optimization that can really take your side and help. You kind of pointed specifically to your your market.

spk_0:   30:34
Yeah, that's true, but I think it is a living, breathing organism is a great comparison, you know. And my certainly my side has changed over the years, and it's get rid of change again. And, um, and that's just a reflection of you know, how a business can grow and change over time and again. That's why I think it's important to have a good relationship, a Web designer that you trust because you may need for it to evolve and change and, um and you you want. You want to be able to have those conversations And then, like you said, I do not want to spend my time figuring out on the back and all the stuff that needs to be updated. I need to be doing the business part of my business, and so that's a super helpful service that you offer is making sure all the all the bells and whistles are you ding dong ing and blood wing, whatever that means. You know, on the on the back and definitely mark I have. Ah, here's a question we've kind of talked about, you know, websites that are just like a business, almost like a storefront. Kind of a static business page and then interactive sites where people could literally have a shop going on. But what about on folks who want to have something that's a little bit closer to a blawg? Maybe not just a website, but I guess this is where my mind is going. A lot of antique dealers in vintage dealers, too, are absolutely very significant experts in their field. They've been around a long time. They know everything there is to know about the thing that they're selling. And they may wanna have an opportunity to do some writing. Um, articles? We know what today. We call them blawg Post, but essentially writing articles that they put upon their site to educate people. So can you kind of talk about about that and how that might play into having a site built?

spk_1:   32:34
Yeah, absolutely. I think that I think that that is a great application for a blogging for a business side. So I mean, even if you build just a very simple business site. You can add a block to it. Uh, is just a very simple thing where you type and whatever your expertise says and offer people tips. Or, you know, just thoughts about some product that you had or something that's rare that you found for your shop on. But it's it's pretty easy to do. And it's really beneficial for you in terms of S CEO and social media, because you can then take those hosts and post them on your Facebook platform or your Twitter platform or whatever. And then Google also begins to recognise you as on expert in a certain area. So you will start to rank higher and higher for that for that area. Um, and it's a really simple thing to add to ah ah, business website that can really help you out and give you I, uh, a, uh, like a different dimension or ah, good way to, ah, help market and promote your business.

spk_0:   33:48
Yeah, one of the things that I that I try to teach my students that take my digital course is, um, sharing articles or links posting links, especially on Facebook. If there's been something written about them or, you know, whatever. And so kind of what you're saying is when you have a blawg, you're essentially writing your own articles about your own business. You're not waiting for the, you know, the chamber of Commerce or, you know, the you know, the antiques industry to come write an article about you, you're running your own articles. And so when you put us, those is a block post exactly what you're saying, Mark. That then becomes a share a ble on link that you can share on social media. And all that does is elevate your authority, demonstrate your knowledge. And, um, you're almost like you're creating your own little newspaper about yourself, which is really smart. Self marketing.

spk_1:   34:48
Absolutely. And those links last forever online. So I met. You might get some hits on, um, initially, and then you'll find out later as long longer their online. You keep getting hits and people keep finding that stuff that's out there, and a block post that you made a year ago or two year ago can blow up suddenly if somebody posted in the right place and you have a lot of traffic to your business, and it also gives your customers a chance to see they. You know, you know what you're talking about. It gives you a chance to talk to your customers like I have ah, Garden Centre Client. And they post monthly garden tips on their blog's, Um but, you know, it's, um there's only so many tips you can do for every month. So they just kind of repurpose the tips for December every December, and it it works out perfectly and gives them something The post again. It's in December. So anything you could do in the blogging area is a really good benefit to your business.

spk_0:   35:48
Yeah, I agree. Okay, I have one final question and this may be mark in the category of like, how long is the string? So you maybe can't answer this, but But I do think this is, you know, something that a lot of people would wonder. So if if somebody decided they wanted to have a site built. And I know this varies from website designer toe website designer, but is building a website, something that can happen in 24 hours or three days or does it take longer? Can you kind of give people an idea of reasonably what? They should expect it when they make the decision to do this.

spk_1:   36:25
Um, well, once you get to the website hiring, Ah, website designer. I can speak to that. You definitely be doing it like we talked about before. Ah, lot of research and, you know, terms of your you are l in your position in your market before that. But once you get to the the hiring of a web designer part, you should be able to get a bill. Uh, we're talking about a small business site, or blawg, and within a month, it usually takes me about a month toe like, fully build out of sight on that. The processes that we have the discussion, I find out what you need. We kind of nailed down. Oh, everything we've talked about here in this podcast. And then I start building your site. And then about a week and 1/2 or two weeks, I give you a link that showed you where we're at. Ah, And then from that point, we go, Oh, this isn't working. And maybe we should do this. And we have ah chance to tweak. Ah, lot of things. So I will start making the tweaks after that meeting on. And then about a week later, I will give you another look at it so you can make some further revisions. And during that time, I will be setting up things like Google Analytics and doing your S C O kind of adjustments and things like that. And then the next week it's usually it's a launch. So 3.5 4 weeks is usually what I'm looking at. If somebody tells you they're gonna build you a website in a week or a day, uh, they're not gonna be giving you anything that's customized for sure. And it's probably a website that they've built a lot of other businesses or used for a lot of other businesses, like a template they've used. So your website's gonna look like a whole bunch of other websites out there, so you will end up having a website. But it's not gonna look very much different from anything else that that Web designer is done.

spk_0:   38:21
That's a really good point. And if you're and if you're getting a recommendation from, you know, a friend, he's in the same industry, then your website is probably look a lot like there's and that's probably not

spk_1:   38:35
what you look just like each other.

spk_0:   38:39
Yeah, yeah, there's I think most people prefer customization, and every business is totally unique. And you said this is the very beginning. You know, the colors that you like, the fonts that you like, the way you want it to be set up. That's that's gonna vary widely from business to business and person to person. And so it takes time to build something like that. And so, you know, 30 days ish is good for my listeners to know. You can't be unrealistic to expect something to be built very quickly. If you had a reason to need to have one built overnight that may not. You may not get really what you wanted the end. So plan ahead, I guess, is that, you know, parting comment, their plan ahead.

spk_1:   39:22
Yeah, absolutely. Ways to do it like in an emergency. I need a site in a week. Um, it that could be done. But just like you said, it's not going to be something that's, you know, hugely original or maybe reflect everything that you need?

spk_0:   39:35
Yeah. Yeah, Very, very appoint. Okay. Is there anything else that you wanted to share that you didn't get a chance to set? E? I tried not to interrupt you.

spk_1:   39:45
I feel like I've talked a lot. Um, no, I think that, um the best thing I can tell you to do is do your research and then also talked to I'm at least three website designers just to get a feel for who you like. Because everybody is different in this space. They're people who have Ah, I don't want to say large corporations or large businesses, but there are marketing agencies that have hundreds of people, and they will be, you know, very adept in terms of things like development and customization. But they're costly. I do. You have, Ah, medium sized sort of, maybe 15 people. And then you have people like me who are just like a guy, and I occasionally hire some graphic designers and stuff. Uh, Teoh it so I would find released, You know, one of each of those. And just see what is comfortable for you and who conduce do, uh, who could do what you want for what you want to pay basically on. And then you can discover whether or not you'll have a good relationship for with the person or that person can give you everything that you want. I mean, it's just like, uh, like you said, a contractor just finding the person who you feel comfortable working with,

spk_0:   41:00
you know, very, very good points. Mark, I cannot thank you enough. You have. You have given my listeners a ton of information. Very good things to think about. You've definitely given him some good homework. I might. My first professional is teaching, so I love to get homework assignment. So you do your research asked for references. And, you know, I you can go look at my side the careers cowgirl dot com that was designed by Mark and I will in the show notes of this blood of this podcast episode. I'll give you all some links to a couple other sites. That mark is built. See, you can take a look at his sight, but generally speaking, Mark, you've given everybody very good food for thought and good guidance. I think we're living in a day and age where businesses really need to have a website. Um, and so, you know, now is the time to start thinking about that. So thank you for your time. In your wisdom, I appreciate you very much

spk_1:   41:56
awesome. Thank you a lot for having me on. It was really fun.

spk_0:   41:58
Absolutely. Take care. That was such good information. I'm really grateful, Teoh Mark for coming on and really, you know, thoughtfully detail ing out all the things that need to be considered if year business needs a brand new website. Or, um, you know, if you have one that is a little bit old and maybe a little clunky and is not optimized for mobile like Mark was talking about, it may be time to look it having a new site built. So I hope you all found this episode very helpful again. There will be several links posted in the show notes so that several of the, um, resource is that Mark mentioned during this episode you can check out and I will look forward to visiting with you all again soon. In another episode of getting social with the curious cowgirl take here back