S1E7: How A Website Gives You More Rest, And Less Stress

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Mom Boss Like a Boss Podcast, a podcast where we talk about mom life, entrepreneurship, and everything in between. I'm your host, Taylor B., a mom of four precious boys and an entrepreneur at heart. If you've been looking for a village of like-minded people, then I think you've found the right place. I look forward to talking with you, and I can't wait to see you inside. This episode is titled How a Website Gives You More Rest and Less Stress. So let's get into it. You've probably heard and will tell you the same that you don't need a website to start or when you're first starting. And that is true. I will never sit here and tell you, oh, before you start your business, you absolutely have to have a website, or you oh, you absolutely have to have a logo or anything like that. Keep in mind, I am a brand and web designer, but I am not gonna tell you that because it's not true. You can absolutely start your business without a logo, without a website, all that. However, I will tell you because you're probably a mom like me, that a website is more than just a nice to have. I'm gonna tell you a few ways that a website is going to give you less headaches and make your business run smoother for you. So, the first thing, you don't have to write down every customer's name by hand or every order by hand. So if you're starting out on your own, whether you have invoices or if you're literally writing everything by hand, because I remember when I was doing my clothing brand, I had to, I would get the order from my partner who people were people were ordering. So he had people ordering from him, and then I was the one creating the apparel with his branding on it and fulfilling those orders. So I he would send me the orders, I would have to confirm them through messages, and I would write it down so that way I could keep up with it. This is all manually, still digital digitally, but still manually, and it was really hard for me to keep track of everything, especially if I randomly got a message of oh hey, add a medium hoodie to that order, and then now I've got to add another medium hoodie, and I'm trying to keep everything everything on track in my brain, and with my undiagnosed ADHD, that does not work very well. So it's so much easier if you have a website where people can order from or contact you from, whether it's booking a call or an appointment, or whether it's buying your product. It is so much easier to have all the records kept through your website automatically, whether you're awake and receiving the orders or whether you're asleep, whatever it is, your website will keep track of it for you, and you don't have to keep it written down by hand and risk losing something or forgetting something, or the paper being taken by your child and used for origami or just being ripped up in general because that's what my child likes to do for whatever reason. So it helps you keep track of all your orders without the headache of having to remember everything. Number two, you don't have to sell at 2 a.m. when you're already exhausted, but people have questions. So, for example, like I said, when my partner was messaging me and requesting orders that he was getting. Now, thankfully, as a business owner, he understood and he also knew I had kids. He was understanding that you know, I'm not always gonna be up to see your message at 2 a.m. But you, when you're in the trenches of just starting, you might experience some people who are not understanding like that. You might experience people who are messaging you directly on Instagram, Facebook, threads, whatever the platform is, and then they're like, Oh, you must not want this sale because you're not responding directly to me. And it's 2 a.m. I'm asleep, I haven't seen your message. Why aren't you responding? Because it's 2 a.m. and I'm asleep and I haven't seen your message. I'm pretty sure at some point you've either known someone with that problem or you've experienced it yourself. I know I have. So, your website is a great place for you to showcase your products, your services, and answer all the questions that your audience might have. So that way you don't have to do that hands-on all the time. And that's gonna save you time, it's gonna save you headaches, you can use that energy and that time elsewhere, fulfilling orders or taking calls, whatever it is you do. Number three, it's like multiple employees in one spot for one monthly cost. Now, this is not me saying that you should not hire people. This is not me saying, like, oh, your website can do that, you don't have to hire anybody. I am a strong advocate for human decency and hiring people and providing jobs, all these things. However, when it's just you and you're first starting out, of course, you probably don't have the capital to hire people right out the gate. So, I remember a friend of mine talked about eventually trying to help me with some things, and she's like, Oh, I can, you know, book appointments for you. I was like, I have a scheduler for that. She's like, Okay, well, I don't know what else to do. So certain things that, you know, used to be manual and had to be done by hand by people can be done on your website. You can have an inquiry form, you can have a calendar where people can schedule their appointment. Boom, done. You didn't have to book that. All you had to do was send them your website or your booking link, your products. If someone is wondering, oh, how much is this thing? Go to the website. It's on the website. How do I pay? On the website. So all your orders are kept kept on track. Remember that. You can see how much you're making, you can see what orders are what products are popular, what services are popular, all these things without you having to sell either in the DMs or if you go to markets or anything like that. It works for you when you're not working. So it is your salesperson, it is your cashier, it is your partially a bookkeeper, it keeps track of your inventory if you've got that in there, which it really should, which really should. Make sure you've got your inventory being kept in well, make sure your inventory is being tracked by your website because that's just gonna make things easier for you. And it's gonna keep everything organized for you. Number four, I'm pretty sure you've heard the word automate and delegate. Yes, if you can set up automations for things to automatically happen when customers do certain things on your website. For example, if they fill out a if they if they sign up for your email list and they give you your email address, their email address, then you can have an automation that is set up to send them an email with a discount code. Now they're gonna come back and shop with you, and you have their email, and that's all done automatically instead of it being done manually and you having to take time out to do that. The biggest thing that the website is gonna save you and give you is time in your hands to do other things. And delegate again, if someone fills out your inquiry form, you can set up an automation to automatically send them a booking link so that way they can book their call if that's how you want to do things for your business. I know that's how I want to do things, so that way things are moving, even if I'm not able to sit down and take care of it. So that's another way to delegate when you're in the beginning stages and you're not able to hire people to handle certain steps. And this has nothing to do with AI, also, it's just simple automation and it can really make your life a lot easier. Number six, it makes it easier for your audience to find you no matter what. And also, if you have an email list, you get personal access to your audience. You get to directly talk to them and message them in their email. Whereas, as we know, the algorithm on social media, all that, it can change at any time. People who are fans of you, all of a sudden they're not seeing your content for three or four days after you've posted it. Maybe they're seeing it a week later and they're wondering, why am I not seeing my favorite content creators content or my favorite business was having this sale last week and I didn't see the post until today, and the sale's already over? That is where, especially if if you remember when Instagram and Facebook they were down for a while, I believe earlier this year, if I recall correctly, that's another example. If they can't find you on social media and you only have social media, but you don't have a website, how are they gonna find you? How are they gonna place their orders if they don't if they don't have somewhere to come and find you? If you have multiple offers, if you offer classes and courses, you offer products, you offer services, you can have everything in one place. Your website is your business's home, your online home. It's kind of like your storefront where people can find everything, but it's just online, it's your online home and it houses everything that your brand is doing, and it's the easiest way to show your audience hey, this is what I do, this is what we offer, this is what we have going on right now, and this is how you can get it. With all that said, I would love to give a friendly reminder that I am a brand and web designer. I can build you a website if you're in need of it, or if you have one and you're looking to switch platforms or redesign it in a way that makes more sense for where you are now in your business, you should definitely head on over to my website, fill out an inquiry form, and then we'll schedule a coffee chat. But in the meantime, between time, I really hope that this episode helped you think about a few things. If you don't have a website, if you don't have certain things on your website that you wanted to incorporate, but you weren't sure if you wanted to put on there yet. Make sure that your website is working for you and not you're just paying for an online space. Your website should be working for you and making you money when you're sleeping, when you're doing other things, whatever it is. I appreciate you so much for tuning into this episode, and I can't wait to catch you in the next one. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Mom Boss Like a Boss podcast. If you have any thoughts on the episode, please feel free to reach out to me on Threads or Instagram. You can find me at the Creative Altruist, all one word, no spaces, underscores, or periods. It'll also be right there in the description. Until next time.