I’m happy to announce the website I’ve been meaning to buff the last few years has finally gone live. Take a look at the new platform for my career transition program, Now What – 90 Days To A New Life Direction, at Steve Borek Career Coaching.
If you know someone who is struggling with their job, hates their professional life, or is simply looking to make a transition, I’d encourage you to have them check it.
I’m very happy with the results of the new site although the road to get here took lots of twists and turns. What do they say? Success doesn’t happen in a perfectly straight line.
This website journey had lots of stops and starts, all self inflicted BTW.
Some days the project was barreling down the highway, other days backing up in reverse, and then there were times when I simply sat in park wondering what to do next.
I’ve learned a lot in the last 11 years in regards to online presence.
Here are four lessons learned from creating my two websites: Steve Borek Career Coaching and End Game Business.
Hire Quality People
This was the subject of my post titled Success Leaves Clues. I won’t rehash what I already wrote on this bullet point only to say, if you want to get to where you want to go quicker with the least amount of pain and stress, hire people who clearly know what they’re doing.
Be Patient, This Will Take Longer Than You Think
I spent almost 25 years in the high tech arena. Many of those years I sold Enterprise Resource Planning, aka ERP solutions. These are big, deep, powerful, complex, and expensive software applications. I’m talking in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.
I’d always remind clients to mentally prepare for delays in getting the application up and running. “Think in dog time. Multiply everything times seven” I’d say with a smile.
Same goes for your website. Mentally prepare that your project will take longer than you think. In fact, work it into the schedule. By forecasting the unexpected, you won’t get yourself all tied up in knots when the go live date gets pushed out a bit.
Don’t Wait Until It’s Perfect
I remember dreading to put up my first coaching web site, End Game Business. I kicked the can down the road as long as I could.
The thought of having a website completely focused on me was a foreign concept. Forget about the idea of putting up a photo of myself. Thank you Kelvin Ringold for making me look so good!
My coach at the time realized I was delaying the inevitable of having a domain featuring me on center stage. I shared with him that there was so much content I’d have to write to complete the project.
So he issued me a small challenge. “What if this week you work on getting the first page up?” That was the little push I needed.
Once your site goes live, I guarantee you’re going to want to make changes in the first few weeks, months, or even years. You’ll always be looking for ways to tweak this or that to make the site that much better.
Knowing that you’re going to monkey with it? Begin the process and launch as quickly as you can.
Spend A Little Bank On Great Photos
Please, please, please spend money on great looking photos.
Nothing makes a web site look fuglier than posting pics that look like they were taken by an amateur with zero talent.
If you decide to use less than professional photos on your site, you’re telling the world how you view yourself and your brand. Not very highly.
For Steve Borek Career Coaching I purchased pics from Dreamstime and iStockphoto and boy I’m glad I did. They look absolutely marvy!
These are the four biggest lessons I learned in creating my coaching websites. I hope you find them useful.
Great lessons, Steve. The one that hit home for me was “Don’t wait until it’s perfect.” I’m guilty of over-researching, over-thinking and over-revising projects I’m working on.
While you never want to produce shoddy work, “good enough” is, in fact, good enough if it keeps you moving forward and making progress.
I’ve learned you can’t plan for every eventuality, every what if. So make the best decisions you can with the information you have now. Later, as you learn more, you can modify as needed. Just keep moving forward.
Thanks Susan!
There’s a saying that goes something like “An ugly baby is better than no baby at all.”
That’s a little extreme, I know. Though waiting for perfection is also extreme. There’s always a middle ground.
Thanks again Susan!
I’m so excited for you. This looks AWESOME!
Thanks Karin!