Web development is a fundamental part of building a website that helps your business scale and grow. Learn all about web development and what it involves.
Can you imagine scrapping all of your hard work building a website within the first six months of going live?
Sometimes, it's necessary. It could even set you up for even more success.
Discover why this entrepreneur decided to scrap their first website after investing lots of time and money, and started again from scratch.
In order to best describe this story, I need to explain how I started my business.
Long story short - I realised that when you start a business you need to engage with about ten different types of professionals: a web designer, a web developer, a social media person, a printer, etc.
It gave me the idea that thought surely I could create an agency that gives a full-circle approach to the smaller guys, and surely they will understand the value in having a skill set of ten instead of paying an admin person, an overseas graphic designer or a fresh uni graduate to do their marketing.
Surely they would understand how being integrated will help cash flow. I had no idea how many business owners are set in their ways and how challenging it would be to educate them about the importance of getting marketing right in their business - but this post is for another day. Challenge accepted.
So, after a long list of cool and not-so-cool names I read an article on the Harvard Business Review explaining what bees can teach you about business - leadership, innovation and efficiency. Bang! Marketing Bee was born.
After a few weeks I came up with the slogan 'We bring the buzz to your business' and a friend of mine who works for a branch of Saatchi and Saatchi was kind enough to spend hours working on our logo and nailing my vision. A few weeks later, I quit my corporate job and started working on the website and everything else.
At first due to the whole bee analogy - I wanted a black website. I worked relentlessly on the idea and proceeded to give the idea to the agency producing it for us. Four weeks later our black website was live.
Why Did I Scrap a Brand New Website Within Six Months of Being in Business?
The initial investment was close to $1500 if I am not mistaken which is a fair bit when you have just quit your job and have a pile of invoices from the set up process collecting dust on your desk.
Why did I still do it?
1. Because money isn't everything. I wanted a website that reflected how we had evolved into a clean, fresh and slick brand. I didn't particularly care if I had to spend again and restart from scratch.
2. With the bee theme, we have been able to create something quite rare in the B2B space - we have created a brand with which our target market interacts. They send us honey jars, honeycomb, honey - related objects, bee cards and all sorts of things. For me having a website reflecting these attributes was more important than how I felt. I didn't want to make it about me.
3. I was focused on creating remarkable branding - I wanted to walk the talk. Every tiny bit of branding in this business has to wow our clients or people in contact with it. If it's not remarkable today, I will do everything to make it remarkable tomorrow.
4. I like black.. in fact, I love black but the business isn't about what I like or I don't like - it's about having our clients in mind first.
5. I realised that unless you are Blackberry - black decreases the time one spends on a site and doesn't help with conversion. Who said that? My Google analytics account did.
If it's expired - throw it out.
Website Design and Development Lessons to Learn
From my experience of scrapping my website and starting again from scratch, here are some lessons you can learn:
' We can't afford it' is no longer a good enough excuse if you want to be competitive
Your business isn't about you
A business should be data-driven
Be goal-focused
Don't be scared to throw things away
1. ' We can't afford it' is no longer a good enough excuse if you want to be competitive
I never understood the 'bottom line' mentality, a business solely driven by costs (which are ultimately tax-deductible) will not survive in today's market.
2. Your business isn't about you
Sorry to hurt your feelings but your business isn't about you and whether you really like pink or red. If you don't realise this early enough and you don't develop the capacity to be emotionally detached from certain things - you will drive customers away.
3. A business should be data-driven
A business should be largely driven by data. Data should determine what you do and how you do it - how well you get your customers and how well you interact with them.
Before you pick a name - do some research, before you get a logo - understand your brand proposition, before you get a website set out the goals you have and the customer path you want to create.
Don't go cheap - there is so much rubbish out there due to an under-regulated industry: people who code in word, create logos in paint, set up your cards on Vista and more.
4. Be goal-focused
Focus on your business goals and if you are going in a direction that doesn't reflect what you set out to do - adjust your sails and be resilient.
5. Don't be scared to throw things away
Throw something out if it has killed its expiry date two years ago. A couple of scenarios:
You started in business a few years ago when Facebook didn't exist and everybody competed on price - do you really believe that the branding and website you got at the time still cut it?
You just started in business and you get a static website, generic branding and cheap printing - essentially you have no reputation, no clients and no capacity to send out personalised messages but you want to survive your first 6 months in business? I think that we need to stop and think about what we are doing a bit more.
Final Note
Unfortunately when you first start out what we are taught is to get the right accountant, save and save some more, cut corners and "get the structure right". This education process is flawed and inverted - the accounting part and the legal part are both crucial parts of running the business - they aren't the business itself.
It's not what your customers see, as a customer I don't care if you are a proprietary limited or whatever. Does it make sense to have a business that doesn't deliver what the customer wants?
I hail from Mauritius, an idyllic island off the coast of Africa and moved Down Under as an international student. Being in a corporate job wasn't for me so I took my own path with $450 in the bank. I've always been passionate about SMEs and after seeing so many struggle digitally, I founded Marketing Bee. We are Australia's first cloud-based marketing department, providing digital production, social media strategy, web development and everything in between for our clients here and overseas.
