WS - Web Design - 4 Reasons Why You Don't Hire a Web Designer, and Why They're Bogus

A lot of small business owners balk at hiring a professional web designer for a number of reasons that sounds pretty good and reasonable. The problem is that in many cases, the reasons can also be completely bogus and may actually hobble your business. Here are four reasons why you're not hiring professional web design help...and why it's a bad reason.

1. I can do it/figure it out myself- Because you're a small business owner, you're used to doing a lot of things yourself. Usually it's because you want to save money. But one thing that many small business owners forget is often saving time is a lot more important than saving money. Can you figure out how to design your own website? Of course you can. The question is, should you? Is your time best spent in "figuring something out"?

While you can make more money, you can't make more time. You can spend twice or three times as long figuring out something that a professional can do for you quickly. And that's time you could have been doing things that can't be done by anyone other than you, like planning your marketing strategy and developing strategic goals for your business.

2. It costs too much- Cash is a precious resource for a small business owner So to preserve it, many small business owners will nickel and dime a lot of things. Instead of investing the money to get your website done correctly, you'll try to build the site yourself, or you'll pass on getting a merchant account or a decent shopping cart. While you're saving money now, you end up costing yourself in the long run with a poorly designed site that's not built to capture traffic, add to your mailing list, or to increase sales. That's not the true way to save money or time.

3. No one can do like I envision it- A lot of small business owners have a very deep streak of control freak hidden (or not so hidden) inside them. If they didn't, they wouldn't be running their own businesses. But how you want it done is not always the way that it should be done. One mistake that a lot of business owners make with their websites is that they design their sites to please themselves instead of designing a site that will appeal to their customers. If you're doing all of your design work, then it's hard to see beyond the picture you have in your head. A good web designer can bring a new perspective and experience to what will be best way to appeal to your customers and will often come up with something that you may not had imagined.

4. By the time I teach someone to do it, I could have done it myself- This is a common excuse that a lot of small business owners make, not only with getting a website done, but with other things that they could easily delegate. This excuse is based on the notion that time spent on training someone or learning to work with someone is not worth the time. Nothing can be further from the truth. The fact is, the time you spend on learning to work with a good web designer means that you'll eventually create a valuable team member that requires very little supervision once they learn what you like and how you prefer things done. Instead of viewing a web designer just as someone who's there to do one project and leave, think of them as a potential team member that you can easily delegate work to and free up your precious time and effort.

Now of course, all of this depends on finding someone who can be a valuable part of your team instead of someone who drags your business down. Finding a good web designer to become part of your team takes some effort and you have to know how to find them and what to look for.