There are always shortcuts in life. I am one of those people that likes to do things the easiest way possible. If there is a way to go from 3 steps to 2 steps and it doesn’t change the outcome of the project, I’m all over it. Notice I said, if it doesn’t change the outcome of the project. If I want to maintain success and quality that’s important.

Far to many times, we take shortcuts that fail us. To few nails, not enough glue and suddenly our shortcut means we have to do the work all over again. That’s not productive. Even when it comes to building websites, there are many shortcuts available.

Most entrepreneurs, small businesses and organizations want to save money and one of the ways they feel they can accomplish this is through the use of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) websites. The downside and there’s more than one, is your DIY website could cost you more than you realize. Here’s a short list of potential costs:

1. Your website isn’t the only one out there. In fact, in your given market you will have at least one competitor and you may have hundreds depending on your line of work. Do you know how your DIY site will compare against your competitors website?
2. Picking a DIY site you love because of the amazing photos can be a pitfall. A cafe owner, for example, will need to replace all those awesome food shots with food shots of their own. Insert poor looking photos and it could cost you more than you bargained for.
3. Taking control of your artwork including colour selections is great, if you are an artist, yea verily a designer! A corrupt palate of colour choices is just bad taste.
4. Thinking you can just “put it right there” can be super frustrating when it comes to laying out items on your site. There’s both a rhyme and reason behind design that has to be learned – are you prepared for that?
5. Being different is good. A website that is truly your own is difficult to find in the DIY world. This is why it is often referred to as a “cookie-cutter” approach.
6. Just putting a website online is not the gateway to success. Your DIY website sans marketing, analytics, social media strategy and ongoing testing and updating risks being a virtual ghost-town.
7. “Well, it’s not bad.” Settling for something that’s less than stellar in this day and age of web design is definitely a losing proposition.

The opportunity to engage a web design group like Indyzign is a path towards a reliable, feature rich website platform. You are suddenly one-step closer to a more sexy you (and you thought this was just about a website).

The real question you need to ask yourself is, “Am I prepared to invest in my business and create and develop an online presence that will make me a mover and shaker in my business world?”