I want a website for my business. Where do I start?
The three decisions that actually matter, in the order they matter, and what to have ready before you talk to anyone.
Start by deciding what the website is for. Everything else — who builds it, what it costs, how long it takes — follows from that one answer, and skipping it is why so many small business websites end up as expensive brochures nobody reads.
Here is the whole process, in the order it actually happens.
Decision one: what is it for?
Not "to have a website". That is a reason to feel busy, not a reason to spend money. Pick the single thing you want a stranger to do after they land on it.
For most small businesses it is one of these:
- Call or message you. Trades, clinics, consultants, anyone who quotes.
- Turn up in person. Cafés, shops, salons — the job is hours, location, menu, and looking open.
- Book something. Anyone selling time.
- Believe you are real. Businesses that win work by referral, where the site exists so the person who was recommended you can check you out and feel reassured.
Write yours down in one sentence. It decides which pages you need, what goes on the homepage, and what to cut. A website with four goals has none.
Decision two: who builds it?
Four honest options.
You, on a website builder. Cheapest in money, most expensive in time. Genuinely fine if your needs are simple and you do not mind the work. Most people who tell us they tried this stopped halfway through.
A freelancer. Often good, often affordable. The risk is not skill, it is availability — one person with other clients and no cover. Ask what happens in six months when you need a change.
An agency. You are buying process: discovery, project management, revision rounds. Worth it when the project has genuine moving parts. For a six-page site for a local business it is mostly overhead.
A defined service. A fixed price for a fixed thing. Cheaper because the open-ended parts have been removed. The trade-off is that you can only ask for the thing being sold.
We are the fourth kind — $499 to build, $49 a month to run — so read that with the appropriate suspicion. It is not right for everyone, and the section above is what we would tell a friend.
Decision three: what do you need ready?
This is the part nobody warns you about, and it is the part that causes almost every delay.
Whoever builds your site cannot start until they have your words and your pictures. Not roughly — actually. A designer waiting on your text is a project that has stopped, and most "the website took four months" stories are really "we took four months to send the photos".
You need:
- What you do, in plain language. A paragraph is enough to start.
- The services or products you offer, with prices if you publish them.
- Photos. Real ones, of your actual work, premises or team. Phone photos in good light beat stock images every time.
- Your contact details, exactly as you want them to appear.
- Opening hours, if people need them.
- Your logo, if you have one. If you do not, say so early.
We wrote a fuller version of this as a checklist you can work through.
What happens next
Once those three decisions are made, the rest is mechanical. A designer takes your material, builds the thing, you look at it, you say what is wrong, they fix it, it goes live. Domain, hosting and the security certificate get sorted out along the way — make sure you know who is handling them and whose name the domain is in. It should be yours.
Then it is live, and the only ongoing job is keeping it true. Hours change. Prices change. A wrong website is worse than a plain one, so whatever arrangement you end up with, make sure changing a line of text is easy and does not require a purchase decision.
The honest summary
Most small businesses need a small, fast, accurate website that answers four questions: what you do, whether you are any good, what it costs, and how to reach you. That is not a difficult thing to build, and it should not cost thousands or take months.
If you know what yours is for and you have your text and photos ready, ours takes three working days and costs $499, then $49 a month to keep it running. Here is exactly what that includes — and, more usefully, what it does not.