Honesty means sometimes you turn away potential customers.

One of my favourite parts of being a small business owner is getting to talk to other small business owners. It’s remarkable, but no matter how different our businesses may be, we all face the same fundamental challenges, and I genuinely enjoy connecting with people and sharing my own experiences as a small business owner, and in the process, hopefully I can help them with theirs.

A lot of the time of course, I’m talking to potential clients about websites, what they entail, how much they cost, so on and so on. Of course, it’s never a simple answer, how long is a piece of string and all that, but there’s definitely times when you know straight up that the client you’re talking to shouldn’t be talking to you, they should be saving their money and building something much cheaper.

I’m a developer at heart, so I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to telling customers what they CAN have, because I know how horribly wrong things can go. But also, when a customer comes to me with incredibly simple requirements, and they’re a part timer trying to start a side hustle business, the last thing they need is to give me thousands of dollars just to get a website up and running.

Wix and Squarespace are perfectly suitable platforms for micro-businesses who just need to get a website up and running. And for the price, you can’t beat it. Yes, you will outgrow it, but if your website isn’t a part of your marketing strategy, but you still know you need one, then it’s not worth wasting time and money on. Pick a template, stick your logo on it, slap up a few paragraphs and your phone number. Job done.

So while it might be “costing me money”, I will never hesitate to recommend a potential client go check out the cheap alternatives. I understand the value I bring, and I understand the role I can play with a growing business, and I’d rather help you get started by pointing you in the right direction, so that when you’re making some money, you’ll come back, knowing that you can trust what I’m telling you. Trust is hard earned and easily lost, and as a small business owner, that’s probably the best piece of advice you can get.