A few days ago I received an email from
someone else running a small business. In all likelihood it was
generated by an algorithm rather than the person, but regardless...
They run a website design company and
wanted to offer me a discount on doing my website. Giving it the
benefit of the doubt I answered.
“Best of luck with
your business and I hope you do well. I'm afraid I have my own gurus
and cannot afford to have an outsider do my site (which is in the
process of being re-vamped). I'm afraid all the artists I know are in
the same boat, but I will keep it in mind if I hear of anyone. Thanks
for reaching out. “
It got
me to thinking...While I think there are lots of great people out
there who do web design, and there are lots of businesses that
benefit from their services...and let's face it, who, in running a
small business has the time and expertise to design and maintain
their own site?
And
yet,
There
are so many of us who do. Why is that?
Well,
for myself it is at least in part a very definite sense of identity.
I have gone through friends who became web designers and who offered
me a great deal, and I worked with them for short periods. But in
the end they were somehow unable how to communicate who I was.
Some
of the designs were likely very good commercially. They were slick.
But they were not me. I know lots of people who have gone into web
design and done great things for others. I love the sites they have
created for them, but I don't think they could come up with something
that is for me.
Why is
it that my website has been a pared down showcase that does very
little to attract people to my business, or give them much
information for so many years? Because it has suited me, and the
business. Not smart, but true. My business has been part-time most
of the time, and I have not been able to decide about certain facets
of it – Where exactly do I want it to go? What exactly do I want
to highlight....
For a
very long time I thought I had to settle down and just focus on
making one or two kinds of things. I have since realized that that
is not me, and it is highly unlikely that I will be doing that.
There
are aspects of my business that are not on the website at all, or
only mentioned in passing. I certainly don't put any of my wig work
or facial hair into the showcase. It is not appropriate for what I
am trying to promote, and it is a part of what I do but not what I
want to push. I have other avenues to get that work, and I get
enough of it in an average year to keep me happy. I love it, but I
don't want to do just that.
So
keeping control of my website and its (lack of) progress is important
to me. I have friends (gurus) who help me immensely – and in fact
do most (currently pretty much all) of the technical work (Thank you
Travis!) I am working on changing that and learning what it is I
really need to know to do that work myself. But it is just another
hat to wear that keeps me from making stuff, so I have been
reluctant. And that is a huge reason why people hire out. And a
great reason to do it if you can.
For
many of us it is a raw cost factor. Many of the people I know who
run a small business are emphasis on the word small. Generally it is
a one person show, and the profit margins are nearly non-existent as
it is. Investing in someone else's time and expertise is just not
financially feasible.
Some
people would love to turn over their sites and free up their time,
but they just can't afford it. And if the site has been up and
running a long time and offers a lot of information, the cost
skyrockets pretty quickly.
Now,
it is true that a lot of this has been made much simpler and cheaper
– all the DIY website companies that offer templates and widgets
and interfaces have made a lot of this a moot point. But when you
are running a small business and you essentially are your
brand it comes down to choices. Maybe the choices I'm making are
technically wrong. This is probably a spot where my choices are
asinine and are holding me back. There is certainly a cost not only
in time, but in exposure, in reach, in promotability. Regardless,
they are my choices.
I am
in the process of going through and reviewing choices, and learning
new skills, and doing the work to find a balance for my business and
my site. I have just given the okay to my guru to mess with my blog,
experimentally, to see if he can give it a further reach. I find the
process terrifying, but I know that I need to step out of my comfort
zone if I want this to work, and want to be able to create enough of
a following to allow me to work.
I was
talking about all this to a friend recently, about all the time I'm
spending learning to photograph my work so that it presents
reasonably well, getting Etsy up and running, writing for the site
etc. He asked me whether I thought it was worth the time I was
spending – the time I was missing in making things – to do all of
this rather than hiring out. I'm still not sure the balance is the
right one, but for now it is the option I consider the most feasible.
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