In 2020, Forty Weeks Well came to GreenMellen for help with a new brand and corresponding marketing materials. The company offers doula services to new parents, especially focusing on nutritional education and health.
After new branding, the logical next step is a new company website. Forty Weeks Well was interested, but they were hesitant to stick with GreenMellen because of the price point. It’s no doubt that a fully-custom business website can be a serious investment. However, it’s one that can ultimately save your company time and money in the long run.
The team at Forty Weeks Well learned this firsthand from their website experience. They reached out to us specifically to share this story and offered permission to showcase it here.
International Developers Don’t Always Save You Money
Outsourcing your website development internationally is a common practice for companies, especially those looking to get a website up quickly and cheaply. While this may be the right decision in some cases, it can often lead to cheap results that cost more to fix.
“I originally tried to save money by working with a contract company out of India,” said Jenny Stevens, the owner of Forty Weeks Well. “The site got done quickly and inexpensively but was impossible to navigate the backend.”
Some developers rely on shortcuts and duplicated work to promise quick and cheap results. However, you may end up getting what you pay for. There’s a reason why it takes more time and budget to do quality websites the right way.
Template Websites Don’t Always Save You Time
Working with a pre-made template is another popular choice for cutting costs, and can be a perfectly fine decision for many businesses. However, choosing the wrong template can seriously limit the functionality of your website and lock you in.
“We then switched the site over to a web management company and they did several $1000s in corrective re-vamping,” said Stevens. “But they also ended up hitting a brick wall because of the WordPress template I chose at the beginning of the whole process.”
Using a website template often forces business owners into one of two options: working within a quickly-outdated and cumbersome system, or needing to completely start over—requiring a further investment of resources.
“Our only resolution was to scrap everything on the website and start from scratch,” Stevens continued. “I opted to stop where we were at and let the process work itself out for the year.”
Cheap and Custom End Up Costing The Same
Forty Weeks Well’s website is in a better place now, but it took far more time and money than expected to get to that point. Plenty of that was wasted on trying to take shortcuts.
“Hindsight being 20/20, I should have just had GreenMellen build my website,” said Stevens. “The amount GreenMellen quoted and the amount I ended up spending jumping through hoops has been about the same.”
It’s frustrating for a business owner to spend more time than needed on a broken website. Your company website should be an asset to your team, not a constant distraction. By going a drastically cheaper route, you run the risk of creating a money pit that you’re continually pouring resources into just to keep afloat.
Ready For Your Quality New Website?
GreenMellen is by no means the only option you have for developing your business website. We’re not the cheapest nor the most expensive option. Our goal is to work with you to find the right plan for your situation, timeline, and budget. We might not always be the right fit, but considering a custom-built website is in every company’s best interest.
If your business website is causing you headaches, GreenMellen can help. We can completely rebuild it from scratch (and do it right this time), or offer maintenance packages that can include gradual improvements over time.
