This post was first published in 2017 and has been updated in 2021.
If you run a business, you have many things to worry about. Doing what you are getting paid to do, website, social media, accounting, and so much more. If you try to do everything yourself then you most likely will be burned out. How do you avoid this? By outsourcing as much as you can, so you can focus on what you do best.
By paying someone else to do your website you personally no longer have to worry about the website. There are many reasons why you should outsource, and there are many ways to outsource.
Why you should outsource your website
When you outsource your website, you don’t no longer have to be directly responsible for it. While it still has your company name on it you don’t have to worry about all the constant updates to it, you don’t have to worry about choosing the right hosting company, you don’t worry about the user experience of the website and how to improve it, you don’t have to focus on your website’s SEO, you don’t have to worry about making sure your website loads quickly, you don’t have to look at your website analystics and see what needs improvement.
That is a ton you no longer need to be personally responsible for, but when you want to outsource it there are 2 major ways to do so.
The 2 major ways to outsource your website
Hire someone
You can hire someone (who will manage your website) to be part of your company. This person could be in-person or remote, it is entirely your choice and your industry. This person could be part-time or full-time or even a contractor. There are positives and negatives to doing this.
Positives: You get to support someone who you get to know (if you hire someone locally then you support the local economy). A website is a long-term thing so you need someone who can be there in the long-term. This person will get to know your exact industry and they will figure out or know what is best to be put on your website. You can train this person to have a similar level of detail and care as you (nobody will have same level as detail and standard as you).
Negatives: You will have to pay their full salary (look up the average salary of that job title in your major area on glassdoor, and pay more if someone wants more) and you may offer more like 401k, retirement plan, and more which are also known as employee benefits (but some perks / benefits are perks meant to trick employees into staying at work longer). You have to buy them equipment, tools and other overhead costs like travel costs, place to work, and many more. You will have to hire and train this person (posting the job, doing interviews, hiring them, and getting them fully up to speed).
Pay someone else
You could pay a company, agency, or individual to do your website for you. There are so many different people and companies that offer help with a website that you could spend a lot time just looking through all the different ones. Some offer a one-off project, and some allow you to pay them for an on-going project. There are both positives and negatives to doing this.
Positives: You do not have to pay any of their costs, you just pay them a fee. They can work when you are not working (if you choose to pay someone in another time zone). They provide an outsider’s perspective which is very important to have if it’s just one person running the business. You could have multiple people working on your website for one price (rather than paying the salary of those several people).
Negatives: You will have to give up some of your time to meet with them (so they can totally understand what you want them to do and understand what your company does). You will need to give them all the related logins you have (which may be a reason why you want to hire someone). If someone is in a different time zone, then it will take longer to get work done since each person will be waiting for the other side to respond. It is not as easy to get progress updates (some do progress updates more often than others). They may not have the same level of standard’s as you (and if you are not happy with it you may be required to pay more).
There are many positives and negatives to hiring someone to be part of your company, versus paying someone else to do it. What may work for you, may not work for someone with the same industry. You may want to start off with paying someone else then going to hiring someone. You also do not need to get someone to fully take over your website, you can give them a part of your website to focus on if you still want the complete control or only need a couple of things done at a time.
