I had been self-employed for over 10 months when my personal website went finally live last week.
The one thing that I’ve learnt from NOT building my website for so long is this:
You don’t need a website to book first customers.
It was more luck than a strategy, but I booked my first customers at the back of a conversation and a pretty(-ish) one-pager. This was truly eye-opening because building a website seemed like a wise first step on my path to entrepreneurship, and one that I wanted to take but didn’t know how.
Getting clients before having a website showed me that my network and courage to act and to fail, could potentially play a bigger role in my success than my website or anything else, for that matter.
💡 What I’m taking away from this is to look for shortcuts.
Next time I think I really need to do something before I can have something else, I’ll remember to flip the script and see if there’s a quicker way to get where I want to be.
Why a website now then, you ask? 🙂
In short – I feel ready.
I have clarity about what I bring to the table, I have client testimonials that I’m proud of, and my services don’t fit on a one-pager anymore 🙂 None of that was true when I was starting out, so building a website felt like walking in circles.
But now – I WANT a digital home for all of it and much more in the future.
That doesn’t mean that making it was easy 😅
Here’s what I’ve learned:
1. Hiring out pays off.
As someone who is:
A) very frugal with money, and
B) has the confidence (arrogance?) that I can google the heck out of any problem, it’s been difficult for me to invest in my business.
Is that you too?
I’m so glad that I got over myself two years ago and hired Mariola as my personal assistant to launch my online program “My Gratitude Challenge”. We’ve been working together since, and the longer we collaborate, the smoother it gets.
💡 Once I knew what I wanted to have on my website, Mariola made it a reality in no time. I’ve saved countless hours and many grey hairs, and I feel more empowered than ever to make those necessary investments to grow quicker. I wish I tried that ages ago!
If you ever need a website or help with your graphics, let me know. Mariola is a wizard, and I’m sure she can do some magic for you too ✨
2. Don't sweat the small stuff.
The hardest part of website design? Choosing colors, and I wish I were joking!
Looking back, I know that I was just procrastinating, but we went through five different color palettes before I was happy.
I ended up with almost the same colors as for “My Gratitude Challenge”, so I could have saved myself a lot of heartache by just going with it from the beginning…
My two primary colors are blue and pink, in the shades of the clothes for newborn baby boys and girls… Not very business-like at all.
Why?
These are the two colors that I wear a lot.
There’s no other ‘strategy’ behind it, and I’m sharing it because I personally love hearing the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of how others got to where they are.
I’m sure some branding experts are shaking their heads in disbelief, but on the grand scale of things, choosing colors was that one tiny detail that was holding me back from launching my website or not, and I needed to make a decision at last.
💡 The whole experience was a great reminder of what I already knew – that moving forward imperfectly is better than not moving at all.
3. Being visible is being vulnerable (but it's worth it).
I was nervous to press the “publish” button on my LinkedIn post about the website launch. You suddenly open yourself up to a lot of judgement.
Will people like the overall impression? Is it too colorful? Is there too much of my personality inside, and would going with something ‘safer’, more traditional, make me look more professional? How many typos have I missed?
Is my offer strong enough?
Am I good enough???
Pfff…! Headache!
I know I can’t be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’, but living it is much harder than knowing it in theory.
💡 At the end, I’m so glad, that I pressed that “publish” button – I had the first inquiry about my services within 24h!
Keep your fingers crossed, will you? 🙂
What about you ?
What’s your big dream that you’re working on right now and what are you learning along the way? Take a minute to reflect and see how far you’ve come.
Do you have a friend who is an inspiring entrepreneur? Forward them this blog post and share my pink&blue website with them.
➡️ Does your company need a workshop, a team day experience, or a panel guest? You know where to find me 🙂
Never miss an update!
If you’ve enjoyed reading this, join my inner circle and never miss an update.
I’ll share with you in real-time what I’m learning about making the world more inclusive, the books I’m loving, my latest insights on happiness and mental health that I’m discussing with my friends, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and all the wonderful things that make me think, laugh, and grow.
Sign up for my weekly updates and let’s become pen pals!
