If there's anything I've learned throughout my time as a coach is that ignorance is not bliss. What you don't know can harm you and almost always does.
And one of the biggest unidentified worlds for coaches is the technology that accompanies running a service-- specifically, your website.
When it pertains to getting your website developed and out into the world, you are practically (pardon the pun) at the grace of your web master. You might not even recognize that some of their "bonus offer services" such as purchasing and hosting your domain for you, could seriously jeopardize your service in the future.
To help make sure that you have overall control of your brand, here are a couple of things you ought to hammer out with your website designer before hiring them.
1. You should always register your domain name.
Your domain is your company's online address and a substantial piece of your brand name, and it should be on an account you own. If your website designer owns your domain and they go out of business, or you have a disagreement (which may appear unlikely, but it happens!), you might run the risk of losing your domain.
I wasn't so smart when I started one of my very first companies. A design company called me and provided to establish my website for no in advance fee, and then if I liked it, I would pay a low monthly subscription for continuous upkeep. It sounded like a wonderful offer; they even registered the domain for me as a benefit. I believed to myself, "Oh, how good of them!"
When I chose I didn't desire to utilize the website they constructed (it was beyond horrible, so far beyond), they said I couldn't move my domain to a new host unless I paid them $2000. Yeah!
Looking back, it's funny how naive I was, however at the time, I was ravaged and needed to come up with something entirely new.
2. Ensure you own your logo and graphics.
It might seem apparent that you own your logo and graphics. You paid for the designer to create them! That's not constantly the case.
In your arrangement with your designer, make certain that when payment is complete and the design is authorized, it is yours to keep, and they can't utilize the very same design in other places. (and this goes both methods; if you have not finished the payment, you can't use the design components or take your mockup design to someone else to duplicate.).
As part of this, you might also wish to ask for the graphic source files. This is generally in the form of an Adobe Photoshop file that contains your site's design. The source files will have layers that make up your design components that can be separated and changed as needed.
In this manner, if you need to have modifications made by your assistant later, or perhaps another designer, they have the initial files to deal with. I also discover these files practical when making other branding components like your social media profile images so that they match your website without starting from scratch.
3. Get your logo design in high resolution.
Suppose you can get it as a vector file that's even much better (a vector file can be resized without compromising the image quality). Sometimes this costs a little additional, however it's worth it! A logo created just for your website will look fuzzy when you utilize it on your business cards or other printed products unless it's been constructed for high resolution.
4. Self-hosting is usually a good concept.
With all of the trustworthy and easy-to-use hosting business, hosting your website is extremely simple (and cheap!). Some web designers use hosting, keeping the site as much as date, and a few hours of upkeep every month. And the majority of the time, this is an okay plan. It simply always makes me worried not to have total control of my account if they go out of business or we have a conflict (similar to above). Obviously, they might close down your website whenever they pick, though it is unlikely.
At the minimum, make sure that, if needed, you get FTP access to your website if you need another person to work on the site or you wish to maintain the website yourself. If you utilize WordPress, for example, and something breaks, in some cases FTP access is the only way to bring it back, and if your designer is out of town for the weekend, you will run out luck.
5. Premium plugins on your website.
If you're paying your web designer to buy premium plugins for your site, you may ask to purchase them yourself, so you have the login details. That way, you own the plugin and can get support yourself if needed.
Typically designers will have a special license to use the premium plugin on several websites, so this might not be necessary, especially if they will be your continuous support for the website. It does not harmed to ask, though.
These components are important to maintaining your brand online and do not always "come basic" with your website design, so it's worth inquiring about them. The more control you have over your brand, the much better!
