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Creating your first website?

Running your own business can be tough with so many different activities to focus on all at once.

Launching your first website can be a massive headache if you’re not sure where to start.

That’s why I’ve decided to create this step-by-step guide to help you launch.

7 steps to successfully launch your first website

1. Have a clear goal before you start

It seems obvious so why am I saying this?

There are many reasons you might decide to create your own website, for example:

  • tell your story, highlight your professional skills and experience
  • share your passion, do you love fashion? photography? extreme sports? food? travel? The list is endless and limited only by your imagination!
  • offer reviews of your favourite products, if you’re creating an e-commerce business it’s always helpful to show off your knowledge and help your customers with their next purchase
  • reach new customers or markets, your website can be a great way to make you stand out and get found online
  • increase customer engagement, maybe you want to create a discussion forum to give your members an opportunity to ask questions and discuss their personal experiences
  • teach a new skill, create an online course to share your knowledge with customers all over the world
  • help customers in your area find your business, put your business on Google Maps and showcase your products and services as a local business
  • manage your appointments and bookings, allow customers to book directly from your website and sync with your personal calendar
  • get more reviews and testimonials, showcase customer feedback on your website and encourage more positive interactions with your business

Having a clear goal for your website will help you decide how much content your website will need (articles, photography, videos and images), what features you’ll want to add, for example, social sharing buttons, discussion forums, mailing lists, or payment gateways.

This makes it easier to review the different options later and narrow down the right tools for building your website.

2. Register your website domain name

This important step shouldn’t be overlooked and is worth considering before you even start your business.

Finding the right domain name for your website can be tedious with many commonly used terms already taken.

You may need to get creative at this step but it’s not worth spending hours trying to find the perfect domain name.

If you are stuck, contact me for some free advice – I am happy to help you find and register your chosen domain name.

3. Choose a hosting plan

Most domain name providers now offer combined hosting packages that can be customised to your exact needs and business growth plans.

You will normally have the option to start on a cheaper package for a shared hosting plan or opt for a managed hosting plan where your provider can take care of all the technical setup and maintenance for you. This may be a better option if you have specific installation requirements or need extra bandwidth for higher traffic.

It’s always best to check that you can scale up your storage as your business grows and that you have the option to migrate to increase storage and bandwidth when your website starts getting more traffic.

4. Choose your website design

This is where you will find you have almost unlimited choise of how to design your website and what tools you want to use.

Every website you see on the web has a basic web design that someone had to create. When the design does a good job, you very rarely think about it but a bad design can turn away potential customers and risk losing sales.

If you wish to design your website using existing templates, there are many free website builders available to use such as wix, strikingly, wordpress, weebly, squarespace.

Some of these builders will require some basic coding skills and can be frustrating if you can’t work out to make your site look just how you want. You also want to make sure the design is responsive so that it can be viewed across phones, tablets and laptops.

This is where hiring a professional can solve many headaches and help you achieve that clean, tailored finish.

5. Craft your content

You’ve nailed your design, now you need to write your content.

Depending on your niche and writing style, you may find it can help to fine-tune your copywriting skills to develop positioning for businesses and figure out the language most likely to drive visitors to action.

There are loads of courses out there on Udemy or website such as Copy Blogger or Copy Hackers that can help you get up to speed.

6. Launch your website and get traffic

You may have thought that building your website was the hard part but if you don’t have a clear strategy for directing visitors to your website, your website will just sit there in hyperspace gathering dust.

For this, you will need to review and understand the best digital marketing strategies for your business.

Consider the types of digital marketing tactics that make the most sense for your website and create a plan to help raise awareness of your website and drive traffic.

No one will buy your products or read your content without being able to find your website first.

7. Track your website performance

After you’ve started using some digital marketing strategies to get traffic to your website, you’ll want to know how effective these strategies are and how profitable these strategies are.

The best tool to give you an insight into how visitors are finding and interacting with your website is to sign up to use Google Analytics.

You will also want to check your website loading times and compatibility across different devices. Tools such as Page Speed Insights and Up Trends are useful tools to understand any technical issues that require attention.

Slow website load times won’t just upset potential visitors to your site, they also negatively impact your Google rankings and prevent your website showing up on the first page of search results.

If you are interested in learning more about how to make your website rank higher in search results, ask for a free performance report to understand what steps are required to improve your website.

Still Have Questions?

If you’re looking for support or advice in designing or launching your first website, contact me today and I’ll be happy to discuss the best options to take the next step in growing your business.

Business

Still Waiting For Your Retirement?

Do you ever look around the office at your peers thinking how did I end up here?

You maybe feel like there just doesn’t seem to be any end to this daily torture…

Maybe you just don’t really seem to fit in here that much either?

You just don’t quite seem to get this whole corporate thing but you’re too worried about trying to be part of the team so you just keep your head down and get on with your job?

Would it ever occur to you that you could spend your days at home with your family or hiking in the mountains or travelling the world?

You’ve maybe heard some of the hype about having your own online business that allows you to work from anywhere and still get paid on your terms and yet you still show up to work today because well, you’re not quite ready to take the leap and no idea what it really means to work online.

You understand it probably won’t be easy but still you see so many other young people in their 20’s and 30’s doing it so you wonder – why can’t I have a slice of that lifestyle?

Sure, there’s going to be some new skills to learn but if they can do it, why can’t you?!

Here’s 5 reasons most people get stuck in their job and don’t start living until they finally retire in their 60’s:

1) Most likely, you probably never really knew what you wanted to do as a career and always had a few different interests and passions in life. Do you still share those same passions today? Few people really ever dream of becoming an accountant when they’re still in school but hey, if that was you then cool, you probably feel pretty secure in your job right now?

2) You never considered putting any money aside when you started your career. Instead, you put money into a house, a car, maybe you were lucky to afford a couple of weeks off each year and you spent the money on a vacation but I’m sure the rest was spent on nights out and buying stuff you’ve maybe used once or twice and thrown away? Am I wrong? With little to no savings to fall back on, you don’t feel like you have much of a safety net so you’d much rather take the easy option and take whatever salary your boss decides to pay you for your efforts. But really, you know deep down, you’re worth more?

3) From childhood, we’re programmed to be good at maths, logic and reasoning, we’re taught to rely heavily on our left brain and we aren’t encouraged to use our right brain to fuel our creativity. Probably by the time you reached high school, your creative interests in music or art had been consumed with studying facts and figures just so you can pass your exams? Again, am I right? This is how we are taught to follow a process, the ‘factory’ way of working where we follow the rules and don’t question what we could build or create instead.

4) You’re bored and frustrated in your work, you feel like you don’t have any power to change anything in your workplace. You’ve maybe tried to suggest new ideas to your boss or to your colleagues but they don’t seem to listen or aren’t prepared to try anything new. You know you could probably find a better job somewhere else but you know the people here and you don’t really like the idea of starting over. Maybe you’re waiting for the day when your boss finally gets round to listening to what you’re suggesting and things start to change but I can almost guarantee that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

5) Finally, and here’s the hardest pill to swallow, you spent all those years at University, blood, sweat and tears went into your final dissertation and after all those late nights studying for your exams, you finally passed and received your degree certificate. You then spent months interviewing for the best jobs, coming up against many rejections along the way until finally, you earned the prize, you got yourself a graduate job! And what a waste it would be to throw it away, right?

All that promise, all that work and you still find yourself struggling to pay the bills some months. So, you hang in there, hoping for that promotion, going home every night to your apartment, questioning if this is really what you’re life has become, lucky if you get the time to prepare a home-cooked meal, there’s still so much to do to organise for work the next day and before you know it you’re snoozing on the sofa in front of the TV.

So, what happened? You got trapped by the system: study hard, pass your exams, go to University, study hard, take on debt, pass your exams, find a good job to pay off your debt. Failure is not an option in the system! We learn to fear stepping outside of ur comfort zone in case we fail, we don’t like to be ridiculed by our peers and we don’t like to be labelled as a failure.

But here’s the thing, it’s your life. You have a choice! You can either stay strapped in to the daily grind and accept that you may live a long life and have the freedom to enjoy life when you retire or you can find a way to start building your dreams today and finally break free from the system and take control of your own destiny.

For those of you still reading, I know it may seem like there aren’t many options open to you right now. Trust me, I’ve been there, I worked in investment banking as a software developer before one day I finally woke up and decided it was time to take my life on a different path. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t really have anyone to look up to or guide me on what to do. I just knew, enough was enough, my life had to change.

I started remembering back to my youth and how much I’d enjoyed taking part in sport and coaching at summer camps during University. I started to question if there was a way I could return to doing something similar. This was when I started studying part-time to support my interests in fitness towards becoming a Personal Trainer.

Just before I finished my course, I started applying for jobs in the sports arena again and to my surprise was accepted to work on a summer camp, even though, I hadn’t formally worked in sports for 5 years by this time.

As soon as I received the news, I knew I had to seize the opportunity and as hard as it was to let go of my ‘career’, I haven’t looked back, going on to further my studies in more advanced anatomy and physiology while in the last year, developing and releasing a fitness and nutrition app to follow my passion for technology.

So here’s something for you to think about, if you could go back and connect with your passion again, where might your life take you?

Could that be something you’d like to explore? Would that potentially open the doors to a more fulfilling career?

Not sure? And even if you’re on board with the idea, you’re probably still questioning how you’re ever going to find the time and energy to make this happen?

Well, I’ve certainly been there more times than I care to admit!

Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed about starting or taking the next step in my business, I always remind myself of why I want to do this and recall some important habits and rituals that help to stay focused.

These are the same habits that I used to transform my life over the past 5 years. By following these habits consistently, I was able to create the creativity and space in my life to focus on reconnecting with my passion with the energy and drive to follow through to complete some extra studies and start my business.

Now I’m finally living life on my terms, travelling, hiking, connecting with clients and friends around the world and earning from my laptop.

I would love to invite you to connect with me and I’ll be happy to share more information about any new programs or trainings I am currently offering to support you in building your business.

I can assure that you too can build an income in your spare time to ultimately give you the confidence and creativity to re-ignite your passion and fire your boss.

First, I encourage you to start reading some inspiring work by Gay Hendricks such as The Big Leap or Daniel Priestley’s Entrepreneur Revolution.

But if you’re feeling like it’s time to get started..?

Send me a message now or connect with me on LinkedIn for inspirational quotes and business updates about future courses and workshops.

See you on the other side!

Business

The Road To Entrepreneurship

The road to becoming an entrepreneur can be long and winding with many up’s and down’s along the way. Maybe you can relate to some of these stages in the process…

Which stage are you at on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur?

1. Intimidation

When you first start dreaming about becoming an entrepreneur or quitting your day job, you think, “I can’t do that,” or, “I’m not ready for that yet.” It’s common, and applies to most everybody with even the slightest hint of self-doubt in their subconscious brain.

Overcoming this level of intimidation and fear is difficult even for strong-willed individuals, and for some, the intimidation persists long into actual business ownership.

As you grow more experienced as an entrepreneur, this intimidation will start fading away, holding less and less power over your decisions and direction.

2. Novelty

Novelty possesses some entrepreneurs during the planning phase, and others during the actual loss.

When you haven’t had time to see if the business will be successful or not, and you haven’t run into any major trials or tribulations, you can relish in the fact that you own your own business.

Simply being an entrepreneur in title is enough for you, and you’re thrilled to come to work every day because of it.

Again, for some people, novelty lasts throughout the course of entrepreneurship, but for most of us, the novelty fades after you start running into issues.

3. Overwhelm

Though some enter the world of business ownership knowing full well that it’s not all sitting back and collecting profits, most of us vastly underestimate the demands of entrepreneurship in full.

When you start to have cash flow issues, running into deadlines, losing employees, missing your sales projections and seeing major competitors rise to meet you, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed.

We’ve all felt overwhelmed as entrepreneurs — it’s part of the territory — but as you start overcoming those obstacles and overwhelming moments, it begins to have less power over you.

4. Rhythm

Whether you’re getting the hang of your first startup after a few months on the job or finally settling into your position as an entrepreneur in your third or fourth venture, as long as you stick with it, eventually you’ll fall into a nice groove.

You won’t be thrown by the obstacles and surprises that come your way.

You won’t be intimidated by new ground. You won’t fear failure as much.

Instead, you’ll go about your responsibilities with pride and confidence — though you’ll still be shaken by the occasional crisis.

5. Failure

Yes. Every entrepreneur fails.

Most of the super-successful entrepreneurs of the world got to where they are only after experiencing failure of past ventures.

Even entrepreneurs who got lucky with their first attempt failed in some small way toward the beginning of their careers.

No matter who you are, failure will rattle you — but it’s a stage that anyone can work past with the right attitude and enough commitment.

6. Rejuvenation

A rejuvenation stage comes after you’ve experienced failure and / or disillusionment.

You might have lost an entire business, or just one big client, but after a period of weeks or months, you start realizing that there’s no reason a single failure means you’re at the end of the road.

You start remembering why you got into entrepreneurship in the first place, and your love for business ownership starts to blossom again.

You might even start going through the stages above on a new cycle — from intimidation to rhythm, at least.

7. Temperance

Finally, after years of experience and multiple cycles of failure and rejuvenation, you’ll hit a kind of final stage, where all the little things unique to entrepreneurship start to feel less significant.

You’re not quite as excited as you used to be, but you’re also not as afraid or intimidated.

You take calculated risks, you see problems for what they are, and you experiment in bold new directions without hesitation.

You’re even-keeled and a true leader — exactly what any business needs.

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