Throughout the years of Laurie Cosgrove Design, I’ve worked with so many small businesses, solopreneurs, and creatives just like you who are investing their hearts into their businesses. Unlike large companies with investors and employees, you have to be a bit more careful with your time and money.

I so get it.

So when it comes to creating your dream website or brand, you want to know what’s best for your business and what will really be worth the energy and cost.

Today I’ll be giving it to you straight.

I’ll help you decide whether you should hire a website designer or use a DIY Squarespace template.

Over the last 15+ years, I’ve had a lot of experience as a designer helping clients to know what they need. Plus I know the value of templates and how they can be magical for a DIY website, which is why I’ll be offering them in my shop later this fall.

Let’s break it down with pros and cons, shall we?

Using a Website Designer

The Pros:

One of the most obvious benefits for using a website designer is that you’ll have help, or may even be completely hands-off. A good designer will have some experience with your website platform, and expertise with the rules of layout, fonts, colors, and branding.

You’ll get that fully custom experience because they will attempt to shape the website for your unique business. You’ll probably have some initial communication with your designer on what you want, but they will interpret that the best way they know how for the final result.

The cons:

Being hands-off comes with the challenge of everything being outside your control. Your designer can’t read your mind. So it can be tough for them to create exactly what you hope for without a lot of time-consuming revisions. This can stretch the process from weeks to months.

Custom design websites are also more expensive and you can expect to pay several thousand dollars for many website designers. Paying 3-4 dollar signs can be a pretty significant hit to a small business. And when it comes time to make seasonal updates to your site, you’ll probably have to pay more to maintain it.

Using a Squarespace Template

The Cons:

With this option, your challenges are less about communication and more about perfectionism. When you have the ability to design your own website, it can be hard to stop tweaking. You also won’t have a set deadline so your website could easily get put off until everything is “perfect.”

If you’re new to Squarespace you’ll need to get up to speed on how it works. You can expect to take a few days to learn the ropes, even with tutorials and the fancy drag-and-drop Fluid 7.1 Editor.

The last con is the fact that you may or may not have a design eye. (There’s no shame in that because we all have different gifts!) Having the freedom to edit your own website template means you also have the freedom to make it look…uh…weird.

The Pros :

Squarespace templates are typically very affordable. You really shouldn’t be paying more than a couple hundred dollars for a website template. Most templates run in the range of $150-300 and have most of the design work done before you even open it up.

With Squarespace you are in complete control of your website design and have the ability to make your own updates. So this means you can hop in at any time and promote a new product or service, raise your prices, update your photos with newer versions, etc. You won’t ever feel stuck with the end result in the way you might after working with a designer.

The last benefit of using templates is the quick turnaround time. Depending on how organized you are, you can have your site live in a matter of days, not months. (Even faster if you don’t let perfectionism or indecision slow you down!)

Things to Consider Before You Choose

Before you start pulling out your wallet, you might want to ask yourself some honest questions…

What stage are you in? Are you just getting started and may have a business model that could change?
Are you a quick learner when it comes to technology or do computers and websites stress you out?
Do you have a pretty good design eye or are your visual gifts “questionable”?

Knowing the answers to these questions can help you from impulse decision-making that could cost you time and energy.

Why Templates Usually Win Out

I love templates in general and use them for just about everything! They can truly make life so much easier because of the flexibility you have. When you pair them with Squarespace’s professional, user-friendly platform, it’s even more convenient.

If convenience doesn’t win out, then money usually will. To put it in simple terms, you could buy 10 templates for the cost of most custom website design services.

Website Templates are Coming to the LC Shop!

Last year, all of the featured websites above were available in the New Day Creative shop that I shared with my niece Colsie. However, life can throw you for a loop sometimes! After some hard decisions, we knew that the best thing at the time was to close the shop so that we could focus on some other important areas of life.

BUT I’m excited to take some of those designs and bring them over to the LC Design shop. They will be available for purchase in the next week or so. I’ll also be adding some brand new website in the new year so stay tuned!

Want something a little more customized? If you’ve decided that templates just aren’t for you, consider booking a website package with me here. I’d love to help bring your vision to life.

I’m cheering you on!

-Laurie

Should You Hire A Designer Or Use A Squarespace Template?