Many small businesses that are just starting out know that they need a website. They need a way for their clients to find out basic information about their hours and services, and provide a way to contact them to set up appointments or ask questions.
It might be tempting to hire someone who will take care of the entire setup and maintenance for you.
But owning your own site and domain should be your top priority when setting up your website.
What does ownership mean?
Owning your own site means:
- You purchased your own domain name and registered it yourself. You are listed as the owner and you pay an annual fee through your own credit card to claim and reserve that domain name.
- You purchased your own web hosting account on a host of your choosing. You are listed as the owner and you pay an annual fee through your own credit card for hosting of your website.
- You own any paid plugins on your website and renew them annually yourself.
Many web developers will purchase all these things on your behalf, and set up them up for you. It seems worry-free – at first.
But you can quickly run into trouble if you do not own your domain and hosting for your website.
What’s the concern if I don’t own my own website?
Not everyone wants to become a website expert. It’s tempting to hire someone to build you a site and just “take care of it” – you’d have a little input on the content and colours, of course, but otherwise you’ll pay a monthly fee and just forget it.
This becomes a huge problem if you ever want to change website teams.
You might be happy with your services now, but imagine:
- Your website developer – especially if they are a smaller operation – closes up shop or just ghosts you.
- You become tired having to ask your developer – and pay a fee – every time you want to make a small change to your website, and would like more personal access and control.
- You feel like your website is cruising along well, and no longer want to pay a large agency a huge monthly fee to do nothing more than monitor the site for uptime.
- You hire a cool new employee who is website-savvy who is willing to take on the site for no extra cost.
- You want to add some cool new features to your site, and your hosting isn’t up to the challenge – so you’d like to move the site.
Could you envision a future where any of these options happen?
If so, then you need to own your own assets.
Your new developer or cool website-savvy employee won’t be able to save your domain, or extract your current content, without the help of your old developer.
Some developers are awesome at communicating and helping out. Others refuse access or have just disappeared.
Don’t risk losing the branding and name recognition you’ve been building up for your business.
Think of it this way: would you hire an accountant for your business, and then let them open accounts for you in their name, then take all your deposits on your behalf, and dole out money to you only when you asked? Sounds easy – but also dangerous, right?
Make sure you own your domain and your hosting from day one.
What we do here
At Sweet Smart Design, we are all about ownership!
I want you to feel like:
- You and I are partners in your website
- You always have full access to everything
- You are free to work with whoever you want going forward
- You own your own business – it’s yours, not mine!
So I will always set you up with your own ownership of your domain, hosting, and website. I’ll always work happily with anyone else you have on your team. I’ll always make sure you know how to access everything and that you have full control over your own brand.
Sound good? Contact me today for a free quote!
