How Much Does Website Cost For A Small Business + FREE Bonus

How Much Does A Website REALLY Cost For A Small Business

By DAWN-MARIE NESBITT

If you’re reading this post, I gather you are thinking of starting a website, but you want to make sure it is the right decision for you, by determining what your likely investment will be.

No problem.

As a website owner and small business myself, I will break down for you, the realistic cost you are expected to pay at the start and the costs you should expect to pay, to run a website yourself.

I will also share with you, when you are likely to incur this cost, so you can keep this in mind when planning your business goals.

Now most small businesses who are thinking of getting a website, are worried about web design agency fees, website maintenance and the different tools they may need to buy.

I’m not surprised, because after looking into this, some of the quotes I see for building and maintaining a website are extraordinary.

And this is probably hindering most small business owners from moving forward with building their own websites.

You will soon see that you may be unnecessarily worrying and your expectations are likely unfounded.

I will try to be as transparent as I can be with the likely tools you’ll need. But where you do not need those tools as you just start to grow your business, I will let you know.

So let’s get started.

What You Will Learn:

Why you need a website as a small business
Why you should avoid free websites
Expected costs in the first 3 months of building your website
Expected but optional costs after the first 3 months of building your website
Summary of costs to start your small business website

Why you need a website as a small business

In my previous blog post, I shared with you why, in this day and age, you should invest in a website as a small business.

Too many small businesses, feel that they are too small and justify not having a website. When in fact, you’re actually missing out on a lot of business, from consumers who are using the internet to find products and services.

In order to remain relevant and to actually have a chance at growing your business, beyond just your local community, having a website is crucial to drive traffic to your storefront.

Not only that, a website helps you stay open 24/7, since you are able to promote your brand, without much effort.

Also, if you want to be credible and establish yourself as a serious brand, consider having a website. Investors take small business owners more seriously when they have a website and they are able to do research on their online presence before having a meeting with the owner.

Why you should AVOID free websites at ALL costs

So you’ve decided that you’re moving ahead with a website. You Googled website building and you were offered the chance to start a website for free.

Let’s talk mindset first.

As a small business owner, the mindset you should have now is that your website should grow with you.

So it makes no sense to create a free website, when months later, you will have to make the investment anyway.

Plus, how do you expect to make a good first impression on potential customers and clients, when your website screams free?

If you want people to invest in you, don’t you think you should first invest in yourself and your business?

You can either waste your time, trying to build a small business brand on free items or you can start it the right way, so you can reach your goals faster as you work on creating a strong online presence and brand.

Next, starting with free websites only comes with limitations.

When you build a website, you need hosting. So some companies may offer you free hosting, just to get you through the door.

But as you sign up and you start building your website, you begin to realise that the most robust features are actually paid features.

This is just one of the troubles that you will have, if you decide to start with a free website.

Another limitation you’ll likely encounter, is an unprofessional domain. For example, instead of a domain like example.com which is what professional websites have, you may end up with a domain like example.freewebsitecompany.com.

Your potential customers and clients who visit your website to do research on you, will find it quite difficult to take you seriously, if you do not have a professional domain.

Another limitation is that your content may not belong to you. Do you know that some free websites actually control your content, making it impossible to migrate to another website platform, should you decide to move in the future?

Why set up a free website now and load it with all your valuable content, when you may not have any ability to move that content should you decide to switch platforms to make way for growth.

Knowing this, it will take you a lot of time to start over when you could do it right from the start and avoid wasting time.

Another very important and frightening limitation that you have when you start with a free website, is that once you add content to it, that content is no longer yours. In fact some of these free website builders have terms and conditions which state that if they do not like your content, they can terminate your site at any time.

That would be terrible if you have invested so much time into building a website and then to have it all taken away from you without any warning.

As a small business owner, I urge you to make the right decision and make it a priority to make your website one of your most important investments which is your tool to growing your business sustainably and profitably.

Expected costs in the first 3 months of building your website

Here are the costs you are expected to have within the first 3 months of starting your website.

Web-hosting and domain

The very first cost you will have as you get started with building your website as a small business, is web hosting and your domain.

Websites don’t just appear on the internet just like that. They must have a web-host which is the technology that allows their website to be viewed.

In order for their website to be viewed, it must be at a web address. Your web address is your domain.

You can purchase your domain separately from your webhost, but some companies offer you a free domain when you purchase web hosting with them.

We have put our own website into the hands of Bluehost and we trust them so far, to keep our website running.

To set up your web host and domain with Bluehost starts from $3.95/month (at the time of writing) however as you start, you must pay this amount annually, so expect to pay something like $47 + VAT.

Bluehost has several packages that allow you to sign up for web hosting over 12, 24 and 36 months.

I recommend that when you start, that you go with the 36-month price plan since the price is cheaper, plus it allows you to make a commitment to building and growing your business for 3 years.

Expected cost $150+ (add VAT or sales tax)

Website Theme

This is an optional cost. That is because there are free themes that do a great job and provide you with all the necessities you need as a small business.

Depending on your desires, you may want to invest in a paid theme and that’s ok too.

Our website does not use a paid theme. We started and probably will remain on a free theme. As you can see our website is beautiful and functional and currently does what we want it to do.

If however you have no problem in splurging on a paid theme, expect to pay for a theme licence from as low as $49.

There may be more inexpensive themes, but this is the average price that we have seen across several themes.

Email Marketing

One of the most important things you can do as a small business, is use email marketing. Email marketing is the ability to keep in touch with your subscribers and promote your products and services for sale by email.

Most small businesses do not use email marketing.

In fact, I was one of those small businesses who was told to use email marketing in my business for several years and I never paid attention. It was only when I started using email marketing and I saw the impact that I had on my email subscribers, did I realise how important this piece of function was.

So even if you do not know what email marketing is right now, I suggest you keep it in the back of your mind as a tool you should have in your online business toolkit.

The email marketing software we started with was MailChimp.

Whilst you can get started with this software for free for your first 2000 contacts, there are limitations to having a good email marketing campaign set up.

For example, with MailChimp you cannot set up automation, so that your emails are automatically sent to your subscribers. You are also limited to how many email lists you can create.

There are other limitations and I did not feel it was worth remaining on the free trial and therefore upgraded my plan to the standard level which was $14.99/month.

Whilst you can remain on the free level and make it work for you, I wanted a bit more automation in my business and found the cost worth it.

Expected cost $0 – $14.99/month

Total estimated cost to start your small business website

First month $150

Next 2-3 months $14.99

Optional cost $47+/month

Expected but optional costs after the first 3+ months of building your website

Since we have started this website, we have not had any additional costs directly associated with our website.

However this can be different for other business owners and the speed at which they grow.

As you start growing your business online, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

For example, with your email marketing, the price of your software will increase as you grow, since the provider typically charges based on the number of subscribers you have on your email list.

Also you may want to start using funnel builders to help you convert your website visitors into leads and then into sales.

You may want to start using messenger marketing or chat bots which may come with it’s own pricing features.

These are all optional tools that you can add to your website to help you sell your products and services.

Other decisions you’ll have to make as a website owner is whether you’d like to outsource certain tasks to upkeep your website.

Most websites thrive because of their content. Do you intend on writing and publishing your own content?

If yes, then you have nothing to worry about but if it is a task that you are not prepared to do, you may want to consider outsourcing your content creation to freelancers.

You can find writing freelancers from marketplaces such as Textbroker, Upwork or People Per Hour and depending on where in the world those freelancers are based, you could end up paying from $25 per piece of content written for you.

You will also have to promote your website so that people can find you to consider your products and services.

These costs may include advertising costs such as Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Ads, etc.

If you want to use organic traffic to promote your website, then SEO is an option. Here you may want to hire an SEO professional to help you optimise your website so that it can be found in the search engines.

You may need images for the design of different web pages on your website. Whilst there are many free platforms like Unsplash and Pexels where you can source high resolution, free from copyright images, as a small business owner you may need very select images which are not available here.

In that case purchasing those images are an option. This will be an additional cost.

Finally, if you are a DIY-type of person like I am, you may want to invest in paid courses to help you on your journey as a small business website owner.

Investing in paid courses mean that you will be able to learn how to hit your website goals quicker.

For example, if you want to know how to generate leads to your website you can learn how to do that through a paid course.

If you want to learn how to use Facebook Ads to grow your business, there are courses that you can use to help you master this skill.

Total estimated cost to maintain your small business website

After 3 months $14.99+/month

Optional cost $25 – $1000+

Summary of costs to start a small business website

First 1-3 months

Domain and web hosting from Bluehost $150 upfront
Email marketing from MailChimp $14.99

Expected costs after 3 months

Email marketing $14.99+
Optional costs $25+

As you can see, the cost of running a website, especially if you decide to do it yourself, is an inexpensive option and if you are looking to keep costs to a minimum as a small business owner, it’s probably the best option available to you, instead of hiring a website developer or designer.

Ready to build your own website? We have a DIY course that will help you do that (<– click that link) or you can download our abbreviated version – Build Your Own Website Toolkit which shows you how to build your website in 8 easy steps.

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