I’ve always been very loud about wanting to support women, especially women in business. I think the business world can be a very lonely, isolating place for women. It’s very male dominated and instead of supporting each other, women are taught from a very young age to be competitive with each other, like there’s not enough place for all of us. But I think not only there is, but we can make it bigger and bigger by helping each other. And that’s what I want to do with this Women in Business series of posts!
The first topic I wanted to address is the importance of having your own website for your business. Nowadays, it’s really easy to create a website and it can be a great tool to reach new audiences, keep your customers informed about the latest news and even directly sell some of your products. When I had to close the cafe part of LELE’S, my business didn’t stop. I started pushing the website, using it to sell our Cake Mixes and producing content to keep people interested in my business.
But where to start? Here’s a list of my tips and tricks that will hopefully help you along the way:
1 Keep It Easy
Unless you’re a web designer or are proficient in using HTML and other tools, I would say the trick is to keep the process simple. Don’t overthink it, you don’t have to make your website trendy or super slick. You’ll also find that you’ll edit the website several times through the course of the months and hopefully years as your business grows and changes. You want the website to be simple and easy to edit.
My favourite websites to use to create your own are:
WIX- this is the one I use for my website
SquareSpace- lots of influencers and bloggers have discount codes you can use if you want to go premium
WordPress- the most used and probably the most customisable
2 Make Sure to Answer These Questions
Your website is a medium to inform your customers. It needs to give precise information and be updated regularly. The most important questions your website should answer are: who are you? What are you selling? How can I buy it? What makes it special? Make sure your website gives the answers and they are easy to find.
3 Think of Your Audience
Before being colourful, eye-catching and interesting, your website needs to be easy to navigate and customised to the person you’re trying to reach. Who is more likely to see your website? How? Are they going to browse it during their lunch break on their laptop, or are they going to scroll it on their phone coming back from work? All of the website-building sites have the option of giving you a preview of how the page is going to look on different devices — use it.
4 Make It Clear
Remember what you’re selling when making the website. You can have fun building it, but always keep in mind its purpose. Don’t confuse the customer: if you’re selling personalised cakes for baby showers, make it all about that!
Let me know if you have any questions! I am here to help you.
Much love,
Vx