Website design. I’ve used a personal blog to attract consulting clients for years. Hire a website designer for $10,000 Spend a few hours looking for a new theme for $60 To get a good website design that’s worth the extra hassle and time, $10,000 is a pretty conservative estimate. In order to buy a theme, you need to build your site with a tool that allows themes to be installed. You’ll get a great-looking site for a fraction of the cost it would take to hire a website designer. But when I’ve started websites and businesses, the last thing I want to spend money on is a logo. I’ve done a bunch of these over the years and have always ended up with a great logo. Clients would ask me if I could design a website, I’d say yes, then I’d go buy a WordPress theme that was 90% of what they needed. Reason #7: Website Designs Age Fast If you find a great designer who charges you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for your website, you’ll be thrilled with the design. I Only Hire a Website Designer When I Can Afford One Full Time Here’s my rule: I only start doing custom website designs once I have the budget to hire a full-time designer.
And the hacks to get all your design needs met for a fraction of the cost
I’ve had a dream for a while to quit my job and build my own business.
Recently, I did just that. One of my businesses pays the bills while I build another one up.
I gotta say, it’s as amazing as I dreamt about it all those years. I wake up relaxed, calmly walk down the street and grab coffee, work on stuff that I want to work on all day, then hit the gym for a few hours. No rushing, no stress, no dead-end projects from my manager. Every day is a great and enjoyable day.
I didn’t make this happen on the first try. I have a closet full of failed sites and businesses that never went anywhere.
Looking back, a few things finally made it all come together. But hiring a web designer for my site wasn’t one of the critical pieces. Horrible site designs didn’t hold me back, nor did it finally give me the freedom to quit my job and build my business.
I’m going to be blunt.
By the end of this post, I’m hoping to convince you that a hiring a website designer is a waste of your time and money. Not only are there cheaper ways to get a great-looking site (I’ll show you them below), there are also much more important things to focus on before getting a fancy website design.
Reason #1: A Website Design Won’t Help
After countless business and site failures, I’ve learned a few things about what to prioritize.
Here’s what I obsess about when I’m starting a new business:
- Do I have an extremely compelling offer that a specific market really wants?
- Can I define that market precisely?
- Have I proven a repeatable process for acquiring customers from that market?
- Is it an attractive business model with healthy cash flow?
- Do the challenges in this industry align naturally with my personal instincts?
- How can I de-risk the opportunity as much as possible?
Guess what’s not on that list?
Website design.
Don’t get me wrong, website design can have a tangible impact on a business. But that opportunity happens at a much later stage.
If you don’t have enough revenue coming in to cover your rent or mortgage, hiring a website designer won’t change that fact. You’ll still be struggling to pay the bills. The only difference is that your savings with have gotten smaller by several thousand dollars.
I’ve used a personal blog to attract consulting clients for years. It also helped me get a few jobs that accelerated my career quite a bit. Have I ever paid a designer to give it a great design? Nope.
First I bought a $30 theme from Themeforest. Then I paid for Thesis (a WordPress framework) for about $100 and used the sample theme for years. Recently I bought Genesis (another WordPress framework) for $60 and currently use its sample theme.
After almost a decade, I put less than $200 into my website design. That didn’t stop me from landing speaking gigs, getting amazing jobs, closing clients, doing paid workshops, and having enough income to support myself while I quit my job to start another business.
Before getting a custom site design, I make absolutely sure I have a great offer that customers are paying for, a specific target market, and I know how to get in front of that market consistently. Any money spent on website design before hitting these milestones is a waste.
These days, there are plenty of low-cost ways to get great design assets anyway.
Reason #2: Buy a Theme for $60 Instead
What would you rather do at this stage of your business?
- Hire a website designer for $10,000
- Spend a few hours looking for a new theme for $60
To get a good website design that’s worth the extra hassle and time, $10,000 is a pretty conservative estimate.
For me, this decision depends entirely on the stage of the business. For a larger site that’s making real money, the $10,000 option makes perfect sense. The site has enough unique requirements that a theme really isn’t an option any more.
But when I’m just starting a new site, I’ll gladly use the $60 theme until the site is large enough to warrant a bigger design budget.
There is a catch to all this.
In order to buy a theme, you need to build your site with a tool that allows themes to be installed.
For blogs and basic sites, WordPress is perfect and has an enormous theme ecosystem. There’s an endless list of professional themes for $30–60. Our favorite web hosts all have one-click installs for WordPress which makes this option super easy. After you’ve installed WordPress, head over to Themeforest and pick the theme you want.
For an ecommerce site, Shopify gives you a ton of ecommerce features you’ll need while also having world-class themes. Many of them are free, some are…
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