Biz Bestie?

I know what you’re thinking. Why should you have a “biz bestie” and why should that person, or one of those people, be your web guy/gal?

For many new entrepreneurs or small businesses, they see their website build as a one and done. They don’t sign up for the maintenance plan, if one has even been offered. Once the website is done, the only time there is any kind of communication between the business owner and the designer is when there are issues.

I have been guilty of this. I have created websites and not reached out to those clients for months. I’ve neglected keeping the plugins up to date because they weren’t part of my maintenance plan. When I first started designing websites, I didn’t even know what a maintenance plan was.

Thankfully, I have Daniel of Indy’s IT Department. He is a friend, fellow Veteran, and our I.T. Guy for S. Barnes Designs. He has been a mentor and teacher for as long as he has been a friend. He showed me the value of managed services. When you know better, you do better, right? So for the last couple of years, I have been offering managed services with Daniel’s help.

But why should your web guy/gal be your biz bestie?

In a symbiotic relationship, your website developer/designer has your best interest at heart. They want your business to succeed. With Google always changing how they rank information, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices changing on a regular basis, privacy laws across the United States and the world changing annually; it is important that your business’ website be up to date and compliant depending on the industry that you serve. This is where a maintenance plan can be seen as the insurance policy that it is. Your website developer is/should be in charge of making sure that your business website is all of those things and more.

A solid relationship can mean the difference between the peace of mind in knowing that your website is one less thing you have to worry about so you can focus on other aspects of your business, OR feeling like the proverbial chicken with their head cut off because you are trying to wear too many hats.

We get it. Developing, building, and maintaining a website in today’s economic times is an investment. And it should be seen for the investment that it is. A solid website will help increase exposure, revenue, and your ability to run your business efficiently. The relationship you have with your web guy/gal should be comforting and not anxiety inducing. So if you haven’t heard from your website person in a while, reach out and build that relationship. Ask them if they have a maintenance plan and what it entails. If they don’t have a maintenance plan, if they don’t give you the warm fuzzies, or if they just plain ole can’t be reached; it’s okay to shop around for someone you can feel comfortable building a long lasting relationship with.

Let’s be real, you’ll probably end up talking to them more than you do your in-laws. A REALLY good web guy/gal that has you on their maintenance plan will send you monthly reports about how your website is doing, make recommendations if they think you should upgrade/downgrade based on those stats, and will keep things running smoothly behind the scenes.

We want to hear from you!

If you think S. Barnes Designs could be your Biz Bestie for your website design or maintenance needs, we’d love to hear from you. You can send us an email at info@sbarnesdesigns.com or head on over to the “Work With Us” tab and fill out our questionnaire.