Lots of people are in business for the same reason. Heck, if you’re a coach, holistic practitioner or any type of service provider, it’s likely that at least part of the reason you’re in business is because you want to help people.

There was a study done at M.I.T. a few years ago* in which the increase in brain function was measured with a number of different stimuli. Basically, what they were trying to find out is what sorts of things get the brain excited. What they found was that the #3 most brain-exciting stimuli was money…#2 was sex.

But the stimuli that recorded the most brain activity – most excited the brain – was altruistic behavior. In other words genuinely doing stuff of purpose for other people. Like me, you may say, “sure, that makes sense.” But the reason I remember the study is that altruistic behavior got more than twice the response in brain activity as sex did. So doing things of meaning for people creates a massive biological response in our brain in comparison to sex. To me, that says something.

How do you feel about your work?

Just stop and think for a moment – how do you feel when  you do something for someone else? Not something you’re forced to do. Not something you’re even paid to do. Think about when  you go above and beyond what people expect from you to give them something they weren’t expecting. How does that make you feel?

Define it anyway you like, but doing ‘good deeds’ in a genuine, caring manner, makes you feel pretty good. I know it makes me feel good. I can even feel the added bounce in my step and my overall good feelings. Could this be an experience of what our brains are experiencing when we do something for another person?

My guess is yes!

What’s more, I would venture to say that there’s a measurable, hormonal response in our bodies when we do things for others. It’s probably been studied somewhere, I just don’t know about it.

So what’s it all mean for my clients?

What I’m getting to is that every time you interact with a healing or coaching client, you have the opportunity to do something good for them; you have an opportunity to make a difference in their life. And if you’re in business to make a difference in people’s lives, why not be aware of it? Why not try to do it more often? Why not look to help your client in a way that better’s their life – rather than just give them the service they’re paying you for.

This is something I, myself, had to recently be reminded of. Not that I wasn’t doing things to change my client’s lives – I was, I get feedback on that point all the time. What I was forgetting is why I got in business building websites and coaching clients.

It’s easy to get bogged down with business

And that’s what happened to me. I started being a website designer, a business coach, a marketing advisor or a social media consultant (all things that I do) rather than remembering that I was in business to make a difference in people’s lives.

You see, I figured out long ago that I could take things I was good at and use them to help individual business owners (like coaches, healers, etc) better their lives. For instance, when I build a website, I put my client’s business goals at the forefront. This often means that their websites get them more client, which increases their income and makes their life better. And that’s because for us independent business owners, our personal lives are directly tied to our business lives, making it difficult to have a peaceful life when you don’t have a solid, dependable business.

That’s why I’m not a website designer, a business coach or a marketing advisor

I may use those titles and even do the work required of each. But I’m in the business of making people’s lives better. I do it through building websites for my clients and teaching them how to use them effectively to get more clients as well as how to do all sorts of things better in their business. That’s my means.

But my end is that through what I know I can make a difference in my client’s lives.

I’m just glad to be reminded of what my own business is really about. It changes how I see who I am, what I do and how I do it. It brings a deeper sense of satisfaction for my work and a stronger caring for my clients. And, perhaps most important, it reminds me to consciously look for ways I can make a difference in my client’s lives.

How are you making a difference in your client’s lives?

If you’re providing a service of some sort, the impact you have on your clients is making a difference in their lives. Do you see that yourself? Is it something that happens as a result of the work you do? Or is it something you’re consciously aware of as you work with clients?

I’d love to know how you’re making meaning in your client’s lives.

Let’s talk about it.

*note: If you know of this study, please forward me details on how to find it. Thanks

(note: image from HEREFORDCAT on Flickr, some rights reserved)

And one of the most popular ways to get a website is by using one of the do-it-yourself website services – such as GoDaddy’s Website Tonight Service.

Many of these do-it-yourself services sound great. Just think about it, these services let you select your own website design, add your own content, and publish your own website. Sounds pretty easy (though often it’s time consuming) What’s even better is often the price. Usually for under $20 a month you can have a website.

But what’s the trade-off? Is there something you’re missing with these cheap packages? Or is there something potentially detrimental to your coaching or healing practice? Do you even own your own website?

The Story of Lisa, Stay-at-Home Mom & Life Coach

Those are some of the questions Lisa and I talked about last week when she called me asking about getting a website for her new life coaching practice.

Lisa is a stay-at-home mom with two young daughters – one in second grade, the other four years old and not in school. She’s a mom first and a life coach second. For her that means she wants to have a small number of life coaching clients booked each month, but not so many that she can’t care for her daughters’ needs. So she doesn’t need some large, expensive website. She wants to be able to edit her own content without spending a lot of time, as she calls it, ‘being techie.’

After looking around the web her first thought was to use GoDaddy’s Website Tonight system. “It’s great,” she told me. “I can choose a design, add my own content and then publish it. And the costs are very cheap – just $10 per month.”

Coaching Websites on The Cheap, Oh the Limitations

What she was saying is true – she could get a website for just $10 per month. And GoDaddy isn’t the only one who offers services like this. You can get a website from Yahoo! Small Business, SiteBuilder, 1and1 and just about any major hosting company for less than $20/month. Seems like an amazing offer, right?

By price, it may be. But for the average life coach, business coach or holistic practitioner, is it the right option for your business needs?

Well, as Lisa and I began talking about what she wanted to do with her website – both now and in the next year – some things about this $10/mo website became clear.

• First, Lisa would have to choose between GoDaddy’s handful of designs – all of which looked dated, flat and, as she put it, ‘unprofessional and unfinished.’
• Second, Lisa would be limited to the colors that were already provided by each of the GoDaddy designs. So she couldn’t really make the site feel, in any way like her.
• Third, she was limited to a number of pages based on her plan. Need more pages than your package – the monthly fee goes up.
• Fourth, because of the colors and layout, her logo wouldn’t fit on the designs.
• Fifth, she couldn’t add the features – like a newsletter signup form – to her GoDaddy website, as far as she could see (though if you pay more monthly, there is a widget system available that will let you add outside web code like forms)

Ask the Most Important Question

Those five she got on her own as we started talking. But was the fifth point – and the most important point of all – didn’t come out until she asked me this question:

“Dawud, if I want to stop using GoDaddy, what do I need to do to move my website?”

The Biggest Problem with Do-it-Yourself Website Services

That’s when I had to tell her that the biggest problem with these services is that you can’t move your website – because your website is not yours! That’s right, that coaching or healing website you’ve put so much of your time and effort into isn’t yours – you don’t own it. GoDaddy does.

She said, “What do you mean it’s not my website, I’m paying for it?”

It’s true, she is paying for it. She’s paying for the hosting on GoDaddy’s servers and for the privilege to use their templates for her design. But she doesn’t own any part of the design itself. So once Lisa stops using GoDaddy for hosting, she loses her website all together. The only thing she can retain is her content. But only if she gets it off “her” website before closing the account.

Most people who use these do-it-yourself services don’t realize that if you decide to host elsewhere, be it for development, service, pricing, etc, you loose your site. So in essence, you’re either stuck with the service they initially chose or they have to start all over when they want to move.

This isn’t a bad situation for a personal or club website. Even for some small, brochure-style business sites it’s fine.

But for any business owner – a coach, a healing practitioner, etc – who wants their website to be a hub for growing their business it’s certainly less than ideal. Not only do you not own your website, it often difficult or impossible to alter the designs you can choose from to accommodate the needs of your growing business. What’s more is that you’re forever held captive by the service you’re paying monthly – stop paying equals no website.

If You’re a Coach, Healer or Other Type of Service Provider, You Must Own Your Website

The bottom line, really, is that as a business owner:

• you want to own your website.
• you want to be able to customize, update, alter and change your website without limitation.
• you want to be able to customize your look and feel of your website to match you so that your audience can get a solid feeling of who you are.
• you want to be able to move your website around without penalty if you have poor service from your host (does happen).
• you want to be able to easily add new content, pages and make edits any time you want – without limitations.

And as I said earlier, you can get a business-ready, fully-functional, easy-to-edit website without spending thousands and thousands of dollars. Want to talk about how, just contact me.

As a Good Coach, I Want to Be Fair

To be fair, there is one advantage to using do-it-yourself services…start up costs. You can often get a website off the ground for a very small investment – usually under $50. This may work well for you if you have little cash flow as you’re starting your business.

If you choose that path, my advice is the same to you as to my dear friend Lisa…Get a professionally designed website as soon as you have enough cash flow to do so. The investment will pay dividends even in the smallest coaching practice. Especially if your designer has the skills to help you develop and execute a web-based strategy for growing your business.

My advice: own your website right from the start. Go through the development process with a designer that can really help you craft your site into a marketing hub for your business. You really can’t measure the gains from working with a professional.

And, you can contact me anytime to discuss your website needs and how they can get met on for your specific situation and budget. And trust me, the best solution isn’t always working with me. The best solution is the one that’s best for you. I can help you with that – even if we don’t work together.

So, have you used a do-it-yourself website service yourself? What was your experience? How did you find it limiting?

Let’s talk about it.

note: image from Alexandra Moreau Photography on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Your business website should effectively represent your brand while providing ways for your leads to easily engage you. All roads in your business should lead back to your website, making it the pivot point for all your marketing. And you want to treat your website that way.

Furthermore, having a website opens the possibility to not just market to your leads, but to create a powerful touch point for engaging your audience in conversation and building relationships with your prospects and clients.

So if you want a successful business, and I believe you do, it only make sense to create a website that fuels the growth of your business.

Yet, as a small business owner, it can be easy – or tempting – to get in the way of your own marketing. You may take shortcuts with your business website. These shortcuts can become mistakes that undermine your business goals and turn your website from golden egg to fried omelet.

The sad thing is that you may not know your making these mistakes and undermining your business website.

So let’s look at 8 common, and often critical, mistakes I see everyday with small business websites:

Mistake #1: No Clear Objectives for Your Business Website

The very first thing you should do when you plan your business website is define its purpose. What objectives do you want your website to achieve? In other words, what do you want our visitors to see, to read and to do. To do is the most important set of objectives so you want your website objectives to be action oriented. Do you want them to sign up on your list, get your RSS feed, buy a product or take a survey? Any of these can be objectives. Just make sure your objectives are clearly defined.

One more thing on objectives: if you have more than one objective for your website, you want to put them in order of importance. Then, make sure you primary objective is the most visible and easy to find on your site. Your secondary objective should take its appropriate place behind the primary…and so on.

Mistake #2: No Strategies For Reaching Your Business Objectives

Once you know the objectives of your website you want to create strategies around how you’re going to accomplish these objectives. Strategy gets into how you’re going to do what you’re setting out to do with our business website. The more thought out and researched your strategies, the more likely your marketing and your website, overall, will be successful. From a strategy comes our plan of action, which gets us into tactics.

Mistake #3: No Tactics to Achieve Your Business Objectives

If you’re like most people, you’re pretty good at thinking about what you want to do with your business website. Often, where the trouble begins is when you have go from thought to action. That’s where tactics come in.

Tactics are the actionable steps you’ll be taking to achieve your business objectives. Your tactics are, flat out, a task list of what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it. Think of your tactics as being the implementation of your strategy. It’s how you’re going to do what you think.

Mistake #4: No Targeted Metrics to Measure Your Progress

One great thing about the internet is that if it happens on your business website, you can measure it. Which means, you can find out amazing detail about how your visitors as seeing, reading and using your website. So the only question is are you recording that information?

What’s sad is that I see so many small business owners who aren’t even looking at their most basic website statistics. Yet, it’s so much easier to know how effectively your building your list, for instance, if you know how much traffic you’re getting. And from knowing that, you can make a plan for increasing you list signups.

There’s no way else to put it, it’s a mistake if you’re not recording your website statistics and looking at them with some regularity (not daily). And it’s a further mistake if you don’t take the time to learn how to interpret your website statistics because they will tell you what’s working and what’s not working on your website.

Yet, it’s important to go one step beyond just your basic traffic stats. You want to also consider how you’re going to measure the effectiveness of your strategy and tactics so you can see how well you’re achieving your objectives. In other words, you want a solid system of metrics – even a simple one – so you can evaluate your marketing and make it work better.

Mistake #5: No Integrated Marketing Plan

So often I see small business owners thinking of their website as one part of their marketing and their offline marketing as being another part. Don’t make this mistake. Integrate the two. Communicate your offline promotions online. And even more effective, use your offline marketing to drive people to your business website. This works great when you can make an offer on your website that your offline audience wants. As I said above, your business website should be the hub of you marketing – not just online, but all your marketing.

Mistake #6: No Focus on the Value of Your Offer

I’m asked to evaluate a lot of websites for whether they’re business ready. One of the most common mistakes I see is small business owners not focusing on or effectively communicating the value of their service. Too often, the focus is on either the cost of service or the ‘unique approach we use that makes us different than everyone else.’ Yet, this just confuses the prospect because either they don’t care about the approach or they have to consider what they’re getting for the cost. In other words, they have to figure out the value themselves.

Don’t make your prospects figure out for themselves the value of the services you provide. Tell them about it. Show them what they get, what they can expect and how you will help them solve their problems. And offer testimonials of people who you’ve helped so that they can see the social proof in your offer.

Mistake #7: No Action Plan for Your Visitors

We said earlier that your website should have clearly defined objectives. Once you’ve identified what your objectives are, it’s likely they require an action by your visitors for you to achieve. So tell them to take the action. Make it exceptionally clear that if they’ve gotten this far in your website, that ‘this is the action step you want to take next.’ Could be a list signup, a free report, a set of articles – doesn’t matter (as long as it’s toward your business objectives). Just be sure you’re hyper-clear about what action steps you want your visitors to take.

Mistake #8: No Balance Between Design & Marketing Message

Having been a website designer for well over a decade, I’ve dealt with this one a lot. Often, business owners become too concerned over the visual look of their website and it gets out of balance with the purpose of their site – which is a marketing tool to promote and sell their products and services.

That’s not to say that a website shouldn’t be visually appealing – it should. For instance, I’ve had dozens of people contact me just to let me know how much they like the design of my site. Yet your website design shouldn’t get in the way of your marketing message and business objectives. It should provide a professional, attractive frame for your all-important content.

Ideally, your design will be something people see initially and get a good impression of you from. Then, as they begin to read your copy, it should fade into the background. So think of your website design not as a paramount piece of the marketing puzzle but as a frame for your marketing message. And remember, that you want to consider your business objectives in any website design.

So these are the 8 most critical mistake I see everyday in working with clients on growing their business and on developing their web presence. There are more, of course. But I’ve found these to be the biggest and most important 8 to correct.

Does your website make any of these mistakes? If so, which ones? And what will you do about it?

Let’s talk about it.

If you’re uncertain where to turn for help or if you’d like to discuss any of these in more detail as to how they relate to your business website, signup for a free 20-minute advisory session with me. Let me solve your problems for you.

(note: image from iampeas on Flickr, some rights reserved)