This is the fifth in a 5-part Series on Things to Consider Before Hiring a Web Designer. You can catch the whole series in episodes 106 – 110.
For those of you that don’t know, in addition to this podcast, I not only teach WordPress through my 5 Day Website Challenge, but I also do one-on-one client work, and what pains me the most is when someone comes to me desperate because they’ve had a bad experience with another web designer.
So this series is designed to empower you to find the right designer and know what to expect along the way.
Today, we’re going to be talking about your MVP, and I’ll explain what I mean in just a second, but first I want to recap what we talked about in this series – which if you haven’t listened yet you can go back and catch up on those!
In epsiode 106 I shared with you how building a website is like building a house – a huge project – and it’s so important that SOMEONE is managing that project – so maybe you know exactly what you need and what to do, you just need someone to DO IT FOR YOU, you can get away with hiring a designer or developer to take direction from you and you’ll probably save a little money that way. But if you’re not sure of the process or what you need to do, then it’s important to work with a designer who’s experience in managing web design projects and can guide you and help you make descisions throughout the process. It’s when those expectations are mismatched between the client and the designer that things can start to go awry!
In episode 107 we talked about preparation and how I booked a project with a vendor that I had neither made space in my life for nor made time in my schedule for, how the project dragged on and finally I had to kill it and I lost money – because I signed a contract and I didn’t abide by the terms of that contract. And so I shared with you how it’s important to temper your excitement about taking on this project with a reality check on the time and resources you have to dedicate to it, and really think about WHEN you can take on a project of that size!
In episode 108, I shared with you the content you’ll be responsible for pulling together for your design project, just to give you an idea of what to expect when you engage a project with a designer. You’ll do a chunk of work up front to get them what they need to keep the project on track, and then your designer will take it and do the heavy lifting from there!
And in episode 109, I told you not to even hire a web designer if you’re brand new to your side hustle!! Because your business will change and I want you to be empowered to be nimble without being held hostage to a web designer. Only hire one when you know that your business model is stable and you’re website design will be solid for a couple of years at least.
And today, I want to talk to you about your MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT.
It is SO TEMPTING when embarking on a web design project to throw in everything and the kitchen sink, right?
Especially if you’re an entrepreneur. Because we have SO MANY IDEAS. And they are all so exciting and we want to do them all right now!!
Oh wait, maybe that’s just me… Anyway.
You want to get the most bang for your buck right?!! If you’re doing this thing, let’s do it all NOW!!
Let’s make the website, and the online course, and the e-commerce store and the podcast and the services and the webinar and the landing page and the sales page and the…
Please, don’t do that to yourself. It’s too much!!!!
That is a TON of work for you – unless you plan to take a few months off to dedicate to all the things that YOU’LL have to do to make it happen – because that’s YOU creating a LOT of content – or you’ve got top dollar to pay someone to learn your business from the ground up, develop your your ideas and have total autonomy build it for you and run the end product by you (hello, call me if you do LOL – that would be AWESOME)!!
But seriously, it’s too much! You will burn yourself out. I’ve done it to myself, I’ve seen it happen to my clients because I caught their enthusiasm too!!! I get excited by their excitement and I’m just as confident in them being able to pull it off as I would be in myself to be able to pull it off – but not planning for you know, LIFE!!!
Or the other thing that happens is that once it’s all ready, you’re totally overwhelmed about what to do with it, because you’re not a marketer, your a coach or a blogger or a creative entrepreneur!!
So, look, if your end goal is a sophisticated marketing funnel, let’s get there in stages.
Let’s build your website with your email optin and freebie giveway and email sequence to sell your one thing. Let’s launch that, tweak it, refine it. Go build your audience. Find out what they want from you next.
Then let’s schedule phase 2 where we build the thing they want next – maybe its your membership site. Awesome. Go market it. Build some buzz, get some customers. You really think you can reach a new market with a podcast? You’ve done your research and you’re cool with what goes into it? Awesome, let’s do a phase 3 where we get your podcast set up. And you can drive traffic to your website to your email list to your membership program. Great!
It’s SO IMPORTANT to iterate this stuff in your business!!! To test things, to try them before you commit thousands and thousands of dollars to build a sequence whose parts have not been validated separately!!
So think about it – what is the minimum viable product that you can create that will let you take action? That will let you validate your idea. Then go build that. And restrain yourself. Have patience, because the rest will come when it’s the right time!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
