Thinking of kicking off your small business or side hustle before the end of the year? DO IT!
If you’ve been putting off your goal of opening a custom jewelry shop, photography biz, or home bakery all year, now’s your chance to kick things off before the new year rolls in. And, let me tell you: with all the DIY tools now available right at your fingertips, you have PLENTY of time left in the year to make a small business website happen.
Here are a few platform ideas, based on what you’re hoping to accomplish online.
If you want to sell online…
If you’re looking to start an ecommerce shop, I’d recommend a couple of options (or maybe even both!). The easiest choice to get something up and running and selling FAST would be Etsy. You can quickly set up an account, and then you’d just pay a listing fee per product you sell (plus a transaction fee). Etsy has advertising tools built right into their platform, and you’ll have an audience for your product right at your fingertips. This isn’t *quite* the same as having your own website, but Etsy does have a platform called Pattern you could use to transform your listings into a simple site.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for something a bit more sophisticated that can grow with your business, Shopify would be my other recommendation. With Shopify, you can choose from a variety of beautifully designed premium or free templates, so you’ll have a lovely site out of the box in addition to the ability to have a robust storefront.
If you want a simple, yet elegant marketing site…
If you’re looking for a basic marketing site that looks STUNNING right out of the box, I’d point you in the direction of Squarespace. Squarespace makes it super simple to get a lovely site up and running quickly. As long as you’re comfortable going through a few tutorials (or playing around with things until you figure it out!), you can certainly have a simple marketing site set up in a weekend.
If you’re someone who likes to learn and tinker…
If you’re a little more adventurous and have some extra time on your hands to tinker with things, you might consider learning WordPress. This popular platform can be a bit of a challenge for newcomers (you’ll need to learn a little about hosting, choosing a free or premium theme, how to customize your particular theme choice, etc.), but it’s worth it if you have the time and interest. With WordPress, you’ll find the customization options endless: you can add ecommerce functionality, event calendars and registration, robust contact forms, and so much more.
What next?
If you’re still stumped on where to begin, leave a comment below or shoot me a message here. I’ll try my best to point you in the right DIY direction. Alternatively, if DIY is not really your style, I’d love to chat through how we could work together!