As a luxury entrepreneur, your website is a critical component of your brand.
When people want to learn more about what you offer, they will naturally take the next steps and visit your website.
However, how do you know if you should DIY your luxury website design or hire a professional to help you articulate your value to your market?
After all, first impressions matter, and you want to make a lasting impression.
In this post, I’ll explain which approach makes the most sense for your stage of business and experience.
What Stage of Business Are You In?
Depending on your stage of business, you may or may not already have a website.
If you are in the early stages of your business, you most likely are trying to figure out how to bridge “all” things together, depending on your business model.
When you are just getting started, you need more than a website. You need at least a strategy that includes your monetization plan and a brand identity.
Once you have those things in place you can then use both of those business assets to help create your website.
So you may be thinking can I create my own website?
Keep reading.
If you are an experienced entrepreneur, you most likely already have a website, and now you want to elevate and refine your online presence.
As an entrepreneur with an existing website, you may wonder if you should DIY your website design because you have experience with updates and changes.
Let’s go over the pros and cons of DIYing your luxury website design to help determine what should be your next steps.
Pros of DIYing Your Luxury Website Design
There are definitely some pros if you choose to go with the DIY route for your luxury website design. The first pro is related to monetary savings.
Cost-effective
DIYing your website can save you money because you will leverage your time.
Instead of hiring a luxury website designer, you’ll strategize, design, and build your own website.
This could save you money if you spend your time wisely, and it doesn’t take your focus away from doing other business activities.
Creative Control
Another pro of DIYing your luxury website is that you’ll have creative control over every element of its appearance.
If you understand design principles and how people naturally navigate websites, you can create a website of your own creative style.
Learning Opportunity
Designing and building your website will help you understand what it takes to create an online presence. You’ll surely walk away from the experience knowing more about the creative process and the journey to bring an idea to life.
Confidently Make Changes
If you build your own website, you’ll know how to make changes, which could save you time, especially if you need to make updates frequently.
Cons of DIYing Your Luxury Website Design
Let’s go over the cons of DIYing your luxury website design. First is your time investment.
Time Investment
Strategizing, designing, and creating a website can take a lot of time, especially if it’s outside your area of expertise.
As designers, we can make the process seem easy, but what we often don’t share with people is the amount of time, knowledge, and practice it took us to get to that level.
Consider how much time you have to create a truly remarkable website that highlights your brand.
Learning Curve
Unless you already have familiarity with designing and building a website. You’ll have to get through the learning curve of learning design principles, site hierarchy, customer journeys, and more.
Plus, you’ll also need to understand how to design and build on the website platform that you want to use, whether that is Shopify, WordPress, Webflow, or something else.
Stress & Overwhelm
Do you find yourself having multiple responsibilities? Stepping away to plan, design, and build your luxury website may add to your overwhelm.
If you are limited on time, energy, or even interest in designing and building your website.
Honestly, look at your current and upcoming demands and check to see if its feasible for you to DIY your luxury website design.
Now, let’s explore when you should or shouldn’t DIY your website design.
When You Shouldn’t DIY Your Luxury Website Design
There are a few instances where you shouldn’t be DIYing your website design.
You Are Launching a New Product
Bringing a new product to market takes a lot of work and capital. For example, if you are going to leverage PR firms to expose your products to new markets, then you’ll want your brand and website to reflect the quality of your product accurately.
Having an unprofessional website will lower the perceived value of your product and can cause the risk of turning off potential customers.
Your Website Has Intricate Needs
Another indicator that you shouldn’t DIY your luxury website design is that you have more intricate business needs. Maybe you’ve been in business for some time, and now you need your website to work harder to support your business.
Usually, at this stage, you are overseeing the business and won’t have time to design and build your website, as it will take you away from leading your brand.
Your Business is Growing
A growth spurt can happen at any time in your business, and quickly, you can find yourself in a situation where your website needs to be redesigned to meet your business’s demands.
Finding yourself in this situation can be exciting and overwhelming. Instead of tackling designing your website yourself, you can lean on a creative partner to help you navigate your redesign.
When to DIY Your Luxury Website Design
There are times when DIYing is the ideal route to take when it comes to your website design. Let’s go over a few indicators.
You Haven’t Validated Your Products or Offers
If you have a new offer or product, it’s important to validate it with your target audience. Don’t rely on just friends and family, as they will want to support your business.
What you want to do instead is get product proof of concept.
Product proof of concept, whether you are selling products or services, means that you have gotten your ideal customer to purchase your offer. Ideally, you’ll want multiple people in your target audience to purchase your product.
During this process, it may be best for you to DIY your luxury website first to make some sales and validate that your offer is what people want.
Going the DIY route will be perfectly fine for you because it’ll give you the opportunity to learn about your business and figure out your customers. Plus, it will help you to learn how to position your products and offers for the market so that you can generate sales.
You Aren’t Clear About Your Monetization Strategy
Having a clear understanding of how your products or offers will make money is important.
If you haven’t figured out how you will monetize your brand or you aren’t sure about your pricing.
DIYing your website could be a good option for you because it will allow you the time to test your monetization strategy, figure out your audience, and test your offers in the market.
You’re Launching a Side Project or Hustle
DIYing your luxury website design is also a great option for launching a side project or hustle.
While side hustles do offer value, if it’s not going to be your main focus or a large part of your overall goal, then building your own website would be a good option to consider.
So, how do you decide what is best for your business?
Making the Decision for Your Luxury Business
Evaluate your current situation and ask yourself some of these questions.
- How important is my website to my current business?
- Do I have the time and knowledge to design and build my own website?
- Do I have the financial resources to hire a website designer?
Once you’ve answered those questions then consider your next steps.
If you decide to DIY, figure out what resources you’ll need in order to save time and create a website that is compelling to your audience.
If you decide it’s better to hire a website designer for your luxury business, then reach out and connect with me. I’d love to help you navigate the creative process and launch a website experience that you and your customers love.
Resources If You Choose to DIY Your Luxury Website Design
Ready to tackle designing your own website?
The first place to start is with your strategy and then deciding on your luxury brand identity.
After you’ve figured those out, I recommend you start building your website with a template.
Website templates are great because they are structured with an ideal audience in mind. This will help you save time so that all you have to do is add your brand colors and website copy.
If you have a product-based business I highly recommend you start with Shopify and use one of the paid templates. A paid template will give you more flexibility to design your website for your brand.
Here are some Shopify themes to check out.
Planning on primarily selling services? Decide on your website platform and then look for template shops that support that platform.
Overall, consider your goals, time, and budget when making decisions and if you need additional support before making a large investment. I offer luxury strategy sessions that are perfect for discussing your decisions in a relaxed conversation.
