What To Expect When You’re Websiting: Part 1- Introduction

I know Trini’s are notoriously lackadaisical but we seem to plan a beach lime very well don’t we? When it comes to our business though, we’re often flying by the seat of our pants. The culture of Trini business, at least in the case of small and medium businesses, is one of hands-on owner involvement. More often than not, the majority of time is spent ‘putting out fires’, i.e. addressing the day’s problems and issues. Imagine going to your business first thing in the morning and an employee rushes in to tell you “Boss, our domain expired and our website is down!” You’ll probably be relieved and say “Whew, I thought my insurance expired and the truck broke down.”

Of course the truck breaking down is a legitimate issue that requires immediate attention and the website would have to take a back seat. That’s okay but was there ever an instance where the website sat in front? That’s an important question and brings me to the reason for this new series (the ‘old’ series being my E-Commerce Series):

YOUR WEBSITE IS ALIVE!

It’s a living thing, like a plant or a baby. But let’s think of it as a baby as you’ve probably killed many plants in your lifetime without any remorse. A baby on the other hand, well, it goes without saying…the point being that you should treat it like a baby…and again we can go terribly off track here if we want to be cheeky but I KNOW you know what I mean.

YOUR WEBSITE HAS STAGES

All living things have a lifecycle. Organic things have a finite lifecycle, i.e. they die (and hopefully go to heaven) and inorganic things, machines and the like, similarly have lifecycles. They perform efficiently and effectively when brand new then gradually diminish over time occasionally getting a fresh but momentary burst via routine maintenance, a new part or complete overhaul. All the while as an owner you’re always aware of its current stage and know what to expect. Your website is no different, and if we use the baby analogy, there is a chronological order of events and milestones that you have to accept and plan for and yes, a website can ‘die’- like via a brute force hacker attack it can’t recover from necessitating a complete do-over.

THIS NEW SERIES

Like my E-Commerce series, I originally planned just a single article but as I began to write it took on a life of its own. This series will be perfect for you if you’ve accepted the reality that your business needs a website but don’t know how to start. Yes you know you need a web designer but you need to know what has to be done from your end before, during and after. Knowing what to expect and preparing for it will go a long way in ensuring your website does what you want it to do- WORK.

NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR A WEBSITE IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

This article The Future Of Websites In Trinidad & Tobago is a MUST READ for all Trini business owners and I strongly recommend you read it and seriously ‘take what I’m telling you’ as it’s the absolute truth from where I stand as a web designer and from the perspective of web design in Trinidad.

Stay tuned for the first of the article series aptly titled CONCEPTION.