Welcome to another week of the Boss Responses podcast. Our special guest co-host this week is Eagranie Yuh, who is joining us all the way from Tasmania, Australia. Igrani is a white paper specialist and podcast consultant and she's really good at what she does. She's also been running her own business for quite a while, so she has some great insights to offer all of us. Our question for today is one of those that I see discussed pretty frequently in social forums for freelancers. When you're starting a business or when you're setting out on your freelancing journey, is it necessary to have a website right away? There are a lot of different opinions on this topic. Let's go ahead and see what Igrani has to say.

If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Treasa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asked a question I wasn't ready for, and not knowing what to say when a client asked a question I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-hosts embrace their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses. Eagranie, thank you so much for being with us this week. Thanks for having me, teresa. All right, so let's go ahead and jump right in. What is the question we're answering today?

All right. So our reader question for today is do I need a website? I'm just starting my business and I'll be reaching out to my potential clients directly and using social media to promote my business. It seems like it might be an unnecessary expense to me.

Ooh, this is a yes and no question. I wanted a website shortly after I started out. I did not have one when I started out. The short answer is do you have to have one? Absolutely not. I know people who have gone 20 years without one. If you want to attract higher level clients, it definitely helps, because they want to go and see who you are and what you do and how professional your stuff looks. But it can be so basic. It can be like three pages you know who you are, the services you offer, and if you offer a price list, or at least starting prices, then something like that. I know a lot of writers, especially who also have a blog, that talk about topics that are interesting to their target audience, and then that SEO helps bring them in as well. So yes and no. Did you have one when you started?

out. I had just a landing page when I started, probably for the first year or so, and it was literally. It was just my headshot, it was my contact information, it was a headline of what I did.

That was it for the first year I do now have. It's not even really a proper website, but it's. It's a more fully fledged website. And I would just say one thing, just speaking to the unnecessary expense if it is like web hosting and all of that can definitely add up, especially if you're just getting started. I love Carrd c-a-r-r-d and it is $20 a year us wow. And that's hosting. That's the cms. It's super, super basic, but it's a whizzy wig. It's really easy to use. If you want a fancy website, it's not for you. But if you're like me and you get really distracted by stuff, there's only so much you can do in it. And it's $20 a year all included and you get actually 20 websites within it. So if you wanted in the future to do like a landing page for something, or if you wanted to play around with I don't know, you've got a side gig or something like that, but literally it's super cost effective. That's nice, literally it's super cost effective.

That's nice, yeah, and it can be a really nice way to get out of your own way. If a website seems daunting, I think card makes it just a little lower risk in many ways. So that might be something to consider if the cost of hosting or the financial aspect is really the big barrier.

So quick question on that one Do you get to choose your domain name? Can it be your business name, if that's available, yeah, so you need to pay.

There's a free option where you have the. It's a card domain, similar if you went to wordpresscom. But if you pay the $20, I think it's called the pro level and you have your domain, which obviously you would have to pay for separately, but that's affordable. Then you can map your website to the custom domain. So it's a really affordable option for someone who's just starting out.

That's amazing. I had not heard of that one. That is one thing that I would recommend. If you do have a website, make sure it has your business name or some derivative of it that's easy to get to as your domain name and, if possible, get an email that's directly linked to that, because it looks super professional to have an email that is like you know, teresa, at admineditingcom or whatever that is. So make sure that your email is professional, no matter what, and you don't want at gmailcom as your business email because no one's going to take you seriously.

I discovered for the longest time I thought no one really went to my website because it was low viewership, but then clients started mentioning it on our discovery calls. So I went to your website and I saw this Can we talk about that? I didn't even know that was a service you offered. So I started getting more business on my calls because people had checked out my website and I never had a ghostwriting client for a book who did not go and look at my website. So it depends on what you do, what your business is. If your business is visual, if it is design work or photography, you absolutely need a website. That's not even a question. If it's writing, then start off without it and see when you do need it. But it will help in the long run and it will help if you deal with higher dollar clients.

Absolutely, and I think it does differentiate you as well, again, depending on which field you're in. But if I'm looking at a potential freelancer and one has a website and one doesn't, I'm not saying I'm going to choose automatically the one who does, but the one who does looks a lot more legit. They look like they take their business more seriously, but the one who does looks a lot more legit they look like they take their business more seriously whether or not that is true.

Yes, perception matters. Unfortunately, you cannot get by on skill alone. Perception actually does matter and that's why client management is so important, because you set that tone of mutual respect and admiration. And I know what I do, you do what you do, we both do it wonderfully from that very first conversation. And sometimes that very first conversation is them looking at your website. So it does matter. Look at it. If you can do it for $20 a year, that's a no brainer. At least do that. But in the end you may want a bigger website. You may want to branch out and do an agency format, which, yes, you need a website. You might want to branch out and offer a course or a newsletter and with all of those things, a website helps with gathering leads and all of that stuff. So it's a good question Do you have to have one starting out? Absolutely not, should you? Maybe, if you can do it for $20 a year? Yes, yeah, absolutely Awesome. Thank you, and come back tomorrow for our second day with Igrani Yu.