For many new business owners, setting priorities that can effectively manage expectations is often the most important step they’ll take, especially at the beginning of a business’s development.

However, if you’re new to the business world, not familiar with P&L (profit versus loss) statements, how exactly ROI (Return On Investment) works as concerns marketing, how to hire or fire, how to scale for rapid growth, how to deal with leases, loans, and so much more that goes into running and growing a business today; you may be at a disadvantage.

The New Business Owner Problem

Think about it: How do you plan for growth if you don’t know where your next customer is coming from or when they’ll show up?

How do you negotiate a large contract for enterprise-business scale services if you’ve never worked at that level before?

A small business owner completely new to trying to build a business while trying to run its day-to-day operations can easily be overwhelmed. In fact, in most cases, this is exactly what happens. I call it the “DIY Syndrome,” where you’re doing too much by yourself, without delegating; either because you feel you can’t, feel you can’t afford to, don’t know who to trust, or are trusting others and delegating work but it’s just not getting done the right way.

So, if you’re this new small business owner I’m using for the sake of example, and you’re completely lost as relates to digital marketing, SEO, content marketing, modern design, mobile responsiveness, social medial marketing, content repurposing, eCommerce, on and on, is it any wonder so many new businesses see commercials for “free” websites and engage their services – not knowing ultimately the place it puts them in?

They don’t know that they’ll be paying more in the long run for much less than if they’d just worked with an experienced pro out of the gate, or that it can hobble their future in many ways.

Something for Nothing. Really?

For most people the purpose of a business is to first do what you love.

Secondly, it is to generate enough revenue that you can work in that business full-time and make enough money to support a family. So the need for profit, on a regularly recurring basis has got to be a given. We need to make money and keep doing it or we go under.

As business “shark,” Kevin O’Leary has said many times, businesses should focus on generating revenue, building sales, if not for the lifetime of their business than certainly for those initial two to three years when showing revenue growth is paramount. According to Mr. O’Leary, any venture that doesn’t generate sustained revenue over time and show profits is a hobby.

Most new business owners considering digital marketing will see commercials for “free” websites, find the lure irresistable (after all, what could the catch possibly be?) and “jump in.” Whether it’s Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, WordPress dot com, Google Sites, or some other equally hobbling trap, these DIY template generators grab business owners and wantrepreneurs alike, throttling their hopes for future lead generation by the throat. Whether you end up with a site that has no native SEO (how you outrank competitors online), incorrect SEO (being found for the wrong words or topics), or having a site that takes forever to load, or having a site that won’t work on modern smartphones, as the saying goes “pick your poison” as you’ll quickly get exactly what you pay for – nothing.

The First Clue

The first, most obvious mistake we make by engaging in “free” DIY template builder services is that we’re expecting someone to give us something of potentially great long-term value for free.

Why would a company give you a blank website template, that we are expecting will work well for us and help us attract more customers online, for no money? Of course there’s a catch at the very beginning of the ruse. In this case the most immediate catch is that nothing in life is truly free. In this case there are fees attached every step of the process: to get a professional-sounding website name (called the URL or domain name), to have ads removed from your site so it doesn’t look tacky and cheap or promote your competitors, to get “help” form telemarketers, to ask questions.

In the long-run these fees will surely amount to more than you’d pay working with an experienced professional from the outset.

And it’s just the beginning of how the lure of something for nothing catches you in a bottomless pit most small business owners never escape from, and eventually suffocate from.

So innocent startup founders, service providers, new small business owners see ads for “free” websites, rush in where they (should) know better but the mistake is understandable. Do you really expect something for nothing to help you ignite a business?

Side Note: Setting Revenue Growth as a Goal

Hobbies are fine, but it’s important not to get a hobby confused with a business, as glaringly obvious as that may seem to some. Many businesses operate at a loss, go for years without paying off creditors and debt, and you simply can’t build an enterprise of any kind that way.

Also, if you have a business that’s operating “in the red,” you won’t be able to invest in marketing, even if you know doing so will allow you to grow faster and bring in more leads. Many business owners have hobbies masquerading as businesses.

Making the distinction early on, if it’s a hobby meant to be no more than a distraction or driven with passion to support a family while having fun doing so, sets the tone for many people starting a business and makes it clear to them (in doing so) whether they should invest in marketing or not. I’ve never seen a hobby in need of marketing, but I’ve certainly seen many businesses in need of it.

If you’re one of the few business owners generating sustained profits over a prolonged number of years, or reinvesting profits back into infrastructure (as Amazon is famous for having done since it began) or promotional services such as marketing, than consider yourself extremely fortunate and savvy.

The Difference in Focus

That difference in focus will determine if your digital marketing efforts and company website need  to have direction, professional level security and encryption or not, regular site back-ups or not, a marketing plan that ensures growth, Search Engine Optimization strategies, partnerships, a custom logo, a blogging calendar and approach or not, a brand identity or not. A thought-out marketing plan puts all the seemingly disconnected tools in order so that everything done fulfills a larger purpose and is done for a reason.

If what you do is a hobby, than it really doesn’t matter if the site generates money or not, because there’s no business attached to the effort and no plan for either investing for growth or what to do with new customers, so SEO doesn’t need to be researched, competitor research is irrelevant, logos are not needed, and branding is not needed, and so on down the line. On the flip side of that equation, a hobby is not going to budget in order to achieve tangible goals and is unlikely to be able to do so.

I don’t want to say that It doesn’t matter what you do if you’re practicing a hobby, but if your actions have no need for monetary value and are not associated with a profit-driven business, than it’s a hobby – something you do for fun, but don’t care if it makes money or not.

When I talk with new small business owners, many service providers, and entrepreneurs, almost every single time, they’ve already at that point spent several years tinkering with “free” do-it-yourself website template builder programs trying to get to the top of Google search results – always with very little to no success. I put the word “free” in parenthesis because by that point, unbeknownst to them, they’ve already lost tens of thousands of dollars in lost referrals, lost clients, and lost customers simply by not being visible to those who need their services or products most.

The Hidden Costs of “Free”

When I first started out as a digital marketer, studying programming and SEO (which is how you outrank competitors online) in the early nineties, I was still a college student working toward an English degree and interning at an ad agency part-time. I knew that I enjoyed web design, knew how to rocket a site to the top of Yahoo (which dominated search engines at that time), and knew I’d like to continue studying it. I had worked with several small business clients by that time so was thinking of putting a portfolio up online.

I went to whatever the “free” DIY template generator service was at that time, and spent several weeks creating a professional-looking site. I wrote original blog posts that linked to scholarly journal articles, added images, and felt proud of the work.

After a few weeks, I noticed the site was starting to show ads on different pages for competitors, which seemed odd. Why would you want ads on your website for competitors? I called the hosting company and was told that I would have to pay several hundred dollars to remove those pesky ads. So I decided to let it slide for the time being, however tacky it looked.

When I went to Yahoo, Excite, or Alta Vista (the search engines at that time) my website never showed up in search results no matter what I typed in. I chalked this fact up to the site being “free” and the hosting company just not having quality templates. Again, since I was a college student, I decided to let that slide, too.

The Day Came When I Paid for “Free” in Lost Opportunity

A few months later, I had an interview for a new part-time position at a local agency. I worked hard to get the interview and had spent weeks networking to get my foot in the door. I went in with my laptop, sat at a desk across from the person interviewing me, turned on the laptop, went to my freelance website and – you guessed it – the website was gone.

Of course, I was very embarrassed, apologized to the interviewer, and went home with my tail between my legs.

Once home I immediately emailed the DIY site hosting company. Weeks went by. I found out about two months later that the “free” DIY service host had officially deleted my site and all its contents…which, let’s get real, was already obvious. They never informed me as to the reason why the site was removed, and after I’d looked over the legal disclaimers I’d signed (to join), I realized that legally they did not have to notify users or provide any reason for deleting a site.

If anyone, anywhere in the world, complained about the site for any reason at all, it would be deleted immediately. According to the representative, they didn’t know the reason it was removed, either. It could have been a competitor didn’t like the site, she said. Or it could have been that my content was seen as being too similar to someone else’s, or a logo too similar to another. They didn’t know, she said, and it didn’t really matter to them, either.

It was then and there that I saw the trap for what it was – a lure. The company representative told me that for several hundred dollars they could temporarily restore the site, and for several hundred dollars more I could find out why the site had been deleted, and for several hundred more (I could) get help resolving those issues possibly. And for a few hundred dollars more after that, I could pay to make sure the site would not have ads all over it. For a few hundred more, I could get help with SEO, but they could not guarantee any results. I felt completely humiliated and demoralized. I’d been played but at least I knew it.

Escaping the Snare

I resolved I’d go to the biggest hosting company in the world, Go Daddy, and start over again with them, and do everything the way it should have been done from the beginning.

After a brief phone conversation with someone in customer support, I took out a credit card, called a professional, legitimate hosting company, another company to be clear, invested about $100 in one year of hosting and determined then and there that I would create my own custom site with high-ranking SEO, would take several weeks to make it perfect, put on the most professional face I possibly could, and run my freelance business like I actually cared about it and believed in it.

My first freelance website soon shot to the top of search results in Yahoo and Excite back then, and my freelance career began. Soon I met hundreds of small business owners, church pastors, non profit organizations, all desperately trying to get their “free” websites to start generating leads for them. None ever did. So I started talking with clients about the need to grow, what that meant to them, and if they were willing to invest in order to grow.

If your goal is to build a profitable business, than you can’t afford to risk suffering the many pitfalls that come with seemingly-free DIY site creation.

Did You Know?

 

• In most cases your website can be deleted at any moment, for any reason without notice. Why? Because you are getting free space on a hosting company’s servers and rather than risk potentially going to court over something on your site, it’s much easier and faster a solution to simply delete it. Furthermore, if a competitor doesn’t like your site or a reader somewhere is offended by a comment or the focus of your site s/he can simply report the site, possibly causing it to be deleted immediately rather than force the hosting company to face legal action.
• If your website generates any traffic at all, it’s very likely to have advertisements placed all over it from local or national competitors. To remove those ads, you will have to pay a fee. That fee can be the same (or more) than what you would pay for professional-level hosting, or, for that matter, in many cases what you would pay to consult a professional digital marketer.
• You will have to pay if you want a professional-sounding domain name, such as mybusiness.com. Otherwise, your site will read like mysite.hostingcompany.com. Often, that extra fee can cost the same or more than what you would pay by simply paying for your own private hosting with a company such as Go Daddy or Blue Host (two of the biggest hosting companies in the world).
• You will pay more, much more, if you need help of any kind. Those fees can vary wildly depending on your “free” hosting company provider. The prices can vary anywhere from a few hundred dollars for one phone call to regular monthly fees just for the privilege of being able to ask questions from a customer services representative who may or may not know what the real problem is, or what you really want to accomplish.
• Most likely, your site will look and “feel” very generic since you will be using a layout and design (called a “theme”) many other people are also using. Since it’s unlikely your website will look unique in any way, it’s very possible potential customers will view it as a hobby site, a phishing scam, spam site, or just go to a larger competitor site.
• The “free” hosting company that gave you this empty template for you to fill in technically owns everything you post (unless you pay more and have it in writing and reviewed by an attorney, who aren’t cheap by the way), all designs, all images, logos, videos, you name it. If you want to truly own your own content, you’d need to either hire a lawyer, negotiate with this “free” provider or work with an experienced professional who can create a custom project for you.
• Your site isn’t being backed up regularly if it’s free, so if your site is deleted for any reason, it’s gone possibly forever. Paid (or “self”) hosting gives you the freedom to run daily back-ups so if a site is hacked or deleted for any reason, you can restore it. Paying for back-ups through “free” hosting companies can cost several hundred dollars per month or several thousand per year. Most professional digital marketing professionals and web developers provide regular daily site back-ups as a matter of courtesy and include it in every project they work on.
• If you want to change over to private hosting where the site cannot be deleted, you are free to take payments for services and have greater autonomy and freedom to get professional-level help, you’ll likely have to start all over again from scratch as it’s often very time-consuming and can technically be very difficult to transition a pre-existing “free” DIY site over to a paid hosting provider. So you could easily end up losing all written content in the process and spend months, and thousands more, just repeating the process in order to have greater independence.
• If you want to take payments for services, add a booking / scheduling calendar, offer free downloads, sell items you’ve made, take reservations, you will pay. And again, it is very likely to be much more over the span of a year or two than it would ever be if you ‘d just worked with a pro out of the gate.
• Professionalism is also a big issue as most people know if a site has ads all over it for competitors, a long domain name/website address, or looks off, it probably doesn’t belong to a legitimate business and could possibly be dangerous.

Idea to Reality?

Typically, the number one problem business owners face (other than trying to do everything themselves, whether they know how to do it or not) is needing more customers, whatever form that may take.

Obviously, “getting more customers” can mean different things to different types of business owners, entrepreneurs, and service providers – so a serious digital marketer is going to want to know as much as possible about “niching” down into the specifics of what you think you want to solve problems, and then will want time to study the problems more specifically, and then diagnose matters for themselves before coming up with the best solution for whatever you want to achieve.

A bare-bones, basic template with poorly-written text, inappropriately chosen images, a generic logo or no logo at all, incorrect or no SEO…or a “free” DIY website…can cost you thousands in lost revenue every day such a site is up and turn away customers you might otherwise attract, most of whom are not going to come back for a second visit when they have so many competitors to turn to. It’s almost like seeing someone given lucrative “dream” contracts only to crumple them up and throw them back in the face of the person giving them out. Why would you do that? And yet that’s what most new business owners do willingly, every day, by the millions, when they try to do everything themselves, for free, and then wonder why their “idea” never becomes a business somehow.

We hear the expression “first impressions matter” all the time, and that applies just as much to digital marketing as it does to how we dress and conduct ourselves in meetings.

Your website is that fist impression.