It is definitely not for everyone
When I was about to announce to the world that I’ve started my entrepreneurship journey, one of my best friends reminded me that a decent-looking website is a must. I fully agreed with him, so I rolled my sleeves, drank some coffees and got to work.
Later on I drank some more coffees, and some more, and more… ☕️
Have you heard the old saying “The shoemaker always wears the worst shoes.”?
I was about to fall into that complacency, knowing perfectly that I will be going down the rabbit’s hole once I started the mini quest into building the website. I thought to myself, “I have plenty of other things to do, the simple website that I created should be enough, I have seen other successful business consultants thrive with much less than that.“
Well, I refused to be one of those shoemakers. “We get what we tolerate.” - and so I raised my bar higher again… and down the rabbit’s hole I went. Carrying a torch, lit-up and burnt with the midnight oil.
Why wouldn’t you pay someone to do it?
Another good friend gave his comment when he found out that I was doing my own website. A fair question. Especially the fact that I have been in contact with some clients who are looking for support from me and my partners to build websites for them. But actually that is one of the reasons why I have decided to take on the challenge myself.
Having a team of full-stack engineers by my side in my previous company certainly made life easier back then. I just have to lead the discussion with our clients to understand their business, keeping the balance between what they want, what they actually need and what is realistic within the ever limited budget.
Not this time, I know that I need to re-acquire the skill of simple web development to better serve my clients - not as a web developer, but as a trusted advisor that knows how to optimise the lead time in designing what we want to achieve through the website, as well as how to empathise with the actual web developers in my extended team of partners.
Another reason I wouldn’t pay someone to do it is because my business is all bootstrapped, so I need to make sure every investment counts - but this is a story for another time.
Obviously if I just look at the opportunity cost of me doing it on my own rather than paying someone, it is not worth it. But since I have re-learnt so much these past couple of weeks and have been enjoying the process despite the time pressure that I set for myself, it has all been worth it.
Food for thoughts
Ask yourself these simple questions before you make your decision:
- How much $$$ is my daily rate, or that of my team?
- How many days are needed to get the result that I want? Do I even know what I want?
- What will I get from the process: knowledge, skill, satisfaction, all of the above, none of the above?
- How much $$$ do freelancers or third party vendors charge for it?
By now you should be having your answer, or at least getting close to it.
Building a website is a team sport
The last time I built a website on my own was back in the year 2000 during my university’s final project. After that experience of building a web-crawler for indexing purpose plus the Yahoo-like website to show the result, I have never had the chance to do any proper web development anymore. The world has moved on since then.
Building a proper website that does your company justice is not so straightforward as it may seem. Yes, life has been easier with the plethora of choice for website builder, providing drag-and-drop interface, giving you the CMS option, e-commerce option, etc. But it just means that everyone else has the same tools too. Thus if you want to make yours stand out, you would need the right team for it.
- Project Lead
- UI Designer
- UX Expert
- Web developer
- Backend developer, if you decide to build your own backend.
If you have the budget to hire the full lean team, good for you! If you don’t, hopefully you and your team will be able to wear multiple hats during the process.
Two schools of thought
Similar to creating a presentation or any other visual art, there are 2 types of people:
- Those who firm up on the content, then looking for the suitable format to represent it.
- Those who intuitively find the right format first and get the inspiration of what to put into that structure.
In both cases, you need to be consistent and persistent in getting it done. Last but not least, be kind to yourself, you will surely face those up-and-down moments throughout the journey.
Conclusion
Whether or not it is worth the while to build website on your own, it depends on your context: the reason why you are doing it, what you can gain from the experience, as well as what you might lose from doing it in the first place, a.k.a. opportunity cost.
I wish you all the best if you decide to give it a try.
As for those who rather delegate it to someone else with the right expertise and experience, please reach out to us. Together with the right partner, we will be happy to help you with your project.
Author - Kiky Shannon
