It’s a simple question with no easy answer, because it’s a question that can only be answered with a question.
The classic answer:
“There are many variables in that formula; let’s schedule a consultation to walk you through the options, identify your wants/needs, and plot out a roadmap that maximizes your budget & timeline.”
I know, I know, oof.. What a buzzkill of an answer, one that reeks of that ‘Timeshare Pitch Incoming’ energy. You’re exhausted before you’ve started.
My typical response:
“How much does it cost to build a house?”
Answer: Well, that depends on the location, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, garage vs street parking, etc. Is it a starter home or multi-generational with grandparents and kids? Close to work or bigger yard with a long commute?
You get the point, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and anyone selling you a flat rate solution without asking all the questions is selling websites not solving problems.
Websites are tools. A website can be digital brochure, your top salesman or administrative assistant, or the central integration hub through which every bit of your company’s data is processed and automated.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Abraham Lincoln
My favorite answer:
“That depends on how many times you want to build it.”
This answer isn’t very helpful, but it is cathartic, and true; which is why it’s my favorite. You have to understand, this is a question that we-in-the-business get asked all the time and there is no canned response that satisfies the asker because the only way to land on a number is to go through ‘The Process’.
You want a ballpark figure? Sure, somewhere between free and $50,000. Yes, they can very easily cost that much. No, not just for huge companies. Seem like a lot? Well consider the timeframe, which can be anywhere from 1 month to 5/10 years.
Yeah, you can totally build one yourself.
Let’s play that out:
First you get a proposal from someone for, let’s say $5,000. Ouch, right? So you think “I’ve seen the commercials, I can just build my own, right? Can’t be that hard”. And you’re right, you can, and after some Googling you find a few options and give it a shot. You sign up, watch some tutorials, and dive in with a drag and drop builder pre-loaded with a template. So Easy, and it doesn’t look that bad!
It’s not actually free, of course. you have to buy the domain name. No big deal, only $15 bucks a year. Then after some poking around you discover that a bunch of the cool options you want to use have minor upgrade costs too. They’re not that expensive, $20-50 per month, go for it.
Then as your business picks up, you suddenly need to add functionality to your website and you’re too busy to keep poking around the confusing settings trying to figure out what the features are called and how to get them to work. So you track down a friend of a friend who built their churches website, or your cousin who is ‘pretty good with this kinda stuff’ to upgrade your site, add some bells and whistles; $500. Okay, not crazy, still saving money, right?…..r-right?..
Then they take forever to get it done, it doesn’t quite work the way you want it to, and you’re not ranking on the search engines so business starts to fizzle. Then something breaks, you don’t know how the last guy did it so you don’t know what is actually broken, and they’re giving you the run around.
After spending hours and hours scrolling through forums and fast forwarding through YouTube videos, you throw your hands up and find someone online willing to build you a whole new website that doesn’t have the same issues as before, only $1,500 this time.. Which you paid, months ago, and now you’re not sure if you even have the login information or what platform your site is built on.
Want to know how many of my clients went down this path first? Almost all of them.
And you can too! All for the low low cost of 2 years of your life and thousands of dollars learning how not to build a website. Much like buying a used car, you can expect to pay the difference between used and new on repairs, all just to end up owning an older, problematic, time consuming project. How much is your time worth, and couldn’t you be improving your product/service with that time instead?
The real answer:
“How much do you have?”
Real professionals answer questions by asking questions, because there is only one right answer, and it’s unique to your company, situation, timeline, budget, and goals.
My first job is Business Consultant. Once I understand the finer points of a business, like it’s unique value proposition, margins, bottlenecks, pain points, strengths/weaknesses, and how much it can allocate before critical expenditures are impacted; only then can I say whether a website is even the proper vehicle for accomplishing your goals, and if so, what path gives you the most sustainable growth.
Mapping the path to success is key, and starting with the right foundation to grow from avoids redundancy and waste.
Website are living, breathing things. They are never done, they just evolve and grow in response to the ever-changing needs of your business. Plotting your trajectory and aligning the development of your web presence with your financial goals allows you to expand and contract at predictable thresholds.
Building the site you need right now with what you can comfortably afford, then scale it into the integration & automation engine that your business deserves in stages, when appropriate.
The difference between building 5 websites to accomplish 1 goal and upgrading 1 website 5 times to accomplish all of your goals is just a matter of forethought.
