Many people starting out in their business journey experience a conundrum with their website decisions.  

I totally get it. In the beginning, there are a lot of new decisions to make. They add up so quickly, it can get really overwhelming.

In reality, there are only two options you have when it comes to your website. Either you hire a professional designer or do it yourself. That’s it.

However, if you choose to do it yourself, there are a couple more options within that umbrella. When you go for the DIY route, you can either learn everything there is to know about website building yourself or you can take an online course to guide you step by step.

If you’re not very tech-savvy and hate the idea of wasting tons of time, the whole DYI option may not be the best one for you. It really does take a lot of time and effort to learn all the details, tricks, and best practices to make sure your site is well done. Make sure to pack in a lot of patience if this is what you decide to do.

Otherwise, if you’d rather save loads of time and hassle, you’re looking at either hiring a web designer or taking a course that teaches you how to do it yourself.

For some, it can still be a tough choice. So I’m going to break down the difference between the two, so you can be better informed and hopefully make the decision easier.

HIRING A WEB DESIGNER

Hiring a professional web designer to completely create your website for you from scratch would be a great choice for you if:

• You desire a fully custom website tailored to your needs

• You want it all done for you because you lack design skills

• You’d rather focus on other things in your business and hand off the web design to an expert

• Time is incredibly valuable to you and you don’t want to waste any of it

• You enjoy the 1 on 1 attention you get from working with a designer

• You are willing to make an investment in your business

Pros: The pros of working with a designer are that you can sit back and relax while your site is getting created for you. You don’t need to put in the time and effort of learning new skills. And you can work 1 on 1 with someone to make sure your site is tailored specifically to your vision.

Cons: The only cons of hiring a designer could be the larger investment required, and potentially needing to hire them again if you need to make updates to your site. However, if you’re working with Squarespace, it’s honestly very easy to learn how to make quick changes and updates.

TAKING A COURSE

So the next option you have to consider is taking an online course that teaches you how to build a website from start to finish. This would be a great choice for you if:

•  You lack the know-how but still want to learn (quickly) how to create your own custom site

• You prefer to have full control but need guidance on how to get started

• You enjoy step-by-step instructions and tutorials

• You want to save the time of having to figure it all out for yourself

• You don’t have the budget to hire a designer

• You’d rather know how to make changes and updates to your site yourself from the beginning

Pros: By taking a website course you’ll be in full control of creating your site from start to finish. If you have a tough time explaining to a designer what you want your site to look like, this might be a better option for you. Plus, you’ll learn very quickly how to design a professional website without wasting time.

Cons: The only con I can think of is that you’ll still need to put a little effort into creating a good design. And if you lack design skills, you could end up taking the whole course and still feel like you need to hire a designer. This really depends on your level of comfort with creating designs from scratch.

And that’s a wrap. You now have more knowledge to make a well-informed decision for yourself.