A Digital Home All Your Own

I’ve been endlessly fascinated with the systemic shift in America’s workforce. Side hustles have become full time jobs, companies that once declared working from home impossible have transitioned to all-remote or hybrid workplaces, employees and job candidates have been rethinking their relationship to work and re-evaluating their priorities altogether, and more people than ever are asking themselves, “what do I truly want?” The Great Resignation is real. A record-high number of American workers ‒ approximately 38 million ‒ left their jobs in 2021.
 
As professionals rethink, retool and reinvent, I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of questions since launching this site. In the past year, I’ve advised more businesses than I can count about content growth, media leverage, PR and digital marketing, and I’ve had long discussions with individuals looking to create a website that showcases their professional experience so that they have a digital presence beyond their resume to attract new opportunities. If you’re looking for some insight on the latter, I recently shared this advice:
 
1. Decide if you want to DIY your website or outsource. I thought long and hard about building my own website, and even took a deep dive when exploring platforms including Squarespace, Wix and Weebly. Ultimately, I decided it was too important to leave it to trial and error on my part, so I found a creative whose portfolio best aligned with my vision.
 
2. Have a solid understanding of your needs. Ex.: Shopify and Squarespace have all the e-commerce bells and whistles and point-of-sale features you need to start, run, and grow your business. Conversely, if you don’t need e-commerce, you can look for a simpler platform and hosting package. It’s like jeans: just because one brand might be amazing for somebody else doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for you.
 
3. Do the work. Even if you’re outsourcing, your designer will be looking for you to provide content. Think of it like this: you’re providing the chef with all the amazing ingredients so they can work their magic. Collect your images. If you don’t have existing photography, a branding shoot is well worth the investment. It doesn’t have to be extensive — short and sweet will get the job done and you can repurpose images for social, marketing collateral and more. Also, look for relevant stock images on sites like Unsplash or Pexels.
 
4. Decide on the pages you need by keeping your audience top of mind. Don’t be afraid to keep it simple — you can always add more pages. Once you’ve established your pages, you can better organize the copy. If you’re not confident in your writing, that’s fine (that’s what people like me are for!). Make a list of key points you want to convey and work from there.
 
The more you have teed up in advance for your web designer, the smoother and quicker the process will be for you both.
 
Got questions? ➡Reach out here. 

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