Running a small business in Florida comes with unique dynamics that make having a strong online is essential. From the influx of seasonal visitors to the challenges of hurricane season, being able to quickly update and maintain a professional website is crucial. Yet most Florida small business owners and entrepreneurs fall into the trap of making the same mistakes that keep their businesses stuck without a website or with a poorly designed and outdated one.
Here's how to avoid the most common mistakes of creating your website as a Florida small business owner, so that you can stay relevant, trustworthy and desirable in your customer's eyes.
Problems Facing Florida Small Business Owners
The Sunshine State's dynamic environment presents specific challenges for small businesses in Florida, challenges that require flexibility and resilience. Your website should be a live reflection of that--one that can keep in step with the changes that your business goes through.
After running a web design agency in Florida and creating online website-building tools for over 20 years, we've seen some common patterns in poorly performing businesses and websites and the contrast of how impactful an effective website design can be. A reliable website creation tool becomes an indispensable way of ensuring your business thrives no matter what Florida throws your way and ensures that you don't have to rely on anyone else to create or maintain one for you.
Florida Seasonality and Customer Variability
Florida’s seasonal population changes, with "snowbirds" flocking in during winter, significantly boost local businesses. These temporary residents bring a surge in demand, making it essential for businesses to quickly adapt their offerings. A responsive website is crucial to keep up with these shifts, allowing you to update your products, services, and promotions easily.
Florida Environmental Challenges
Florida is notorious for its hurricane season, which can disrupt operations and create uncertainty. Maintaining a reliable online presence ensures that your customers can stay informed about your business, even during severe weather. A user-friendly website builder allows you to swiftly update your site with critical information, helping to maintain customer trust and engagement during these challenging times.
Florida Economic and Societal Factors
Florida boasts a diverse economy with strong sectors in tourism, real estate, agriculture, and tech. Competition in these areas is fierce, and a standout website is essential to differentiate your business. It allows you to showcase your unique value propositions, attract more customers, and remain competitive.
Florida Industry-Specific Competitiveness
Industries such as hospitality, healthcare, and retail are highly competitive in Florida. To thrive, your business needs a professional, easy-to-navigate website that highlights your services, provides easy access to information, and engages potential customers effectively.
In this dynamic and competitive landscape, Florida business owners need a website that is affordable, versatile, and easy to use. It should empower them to respond quickly to market changes, communicate effectively with their customers, and maintain a strong online presence regardless of external factors.
Mistakes Florida Small Business Owners Make with Their Website
We've built hundreds of websites for small business Floridians and there are a few common mistakes that we see often.
1. You don't have one
You might think that you don't need a website, or that it's enough to just have a Yelp listing or a Google page. But even Yelp talks about the importance of having a website and website presence on the internet and encourages you to link your website to your Yelp Page and since Google shut down Google Business Websites, many small business owners are in limbo looking for an alternative website builder. If you are serious about your business and you want others to take you seriously too, it's important to create something that lets people find you online.
"If nothing else, a website is about trust in the visitors' eyes. When we see a company or brand that doesn't have a website, we automatically question their legitimacy and quality" - Ryan Abbott, Boynton Beach Business Coach
2. You paid too much for one
Many web agencies charge a lot for creating a website from scratch. It's not because it's not worth it, but more often than not it's because they are selling you things that you don't really need. Especially if you're just starting your business or testing the waters with a new idea. You don't really need your website designed and coded from scratch, you most likely don't need a blog when you're starting out or very busy because blogs won't help your business unless you plan to spend a lot of time writing them and posting new content. You don't need a multi-page website as most customers have a very short attention span and are looking to be able to easily scroll down a single page on their phones rather than click around a lot. All of these things can increase the price of your website building costs and overcomplicate the maintenance of your site. All you really need is a great one-page site that is responsive (meaning it's designed to look great, no matter what device or screen size your customer is viewing it on). It also needs to load fast, represent your brand well and be accessible.
3. You tried to do it yourself and failed
In an effort to save money, many Florida small business owners might attempt to take on the task of creating their website on their own. Oftentimes, they come to find that there is a huge learning curve that weren't prepared for and just don't have to to overcome while trying to run their business. DIY solutions can easily turn into a massive project with roadblocks at every turn. Even with the best of intentions, it can easily become a task that you never actually finish.
4. You created something you aren't very proud of
Perhaps you managed to put something together yourself or have someone you know create a website for you. It may be a website in name, but it might not do a good job of accurately representing the quality of your brand or service. You might have an incredible product, offering, or establishment, but if people who find you online can't get a sense of that through your website, you may lose them at the first impression. If you are going to create something yourself, it's important that you are using a tool that makes it hard to mess up.
"I love Siimple because I'm not a designer, I know what I like but I'm not sure exactly how to put it all together to make it look like it should, I'm really proud of my business and customers love us but it just wasn't coming through on our website, after using one of the Siimple themes if just look amazing without me even trying! Now I'm as proud of my website as I am my business" - Sarah S. Delray Beach Dietician and Health Consultant
5. You are not keeping your site up to date
The only thing worse than not having a website is having one that is outdated, out of trend or never updated with the correct, current and relevant information. Most of the time, business owners are too busy running their business to keep their websites updated. They might consider hiring a webmaster or web developer to do this for them, but it's difficult to justify the hourly cost or retainer when you just have a quick, simple change to make. On the flip side, if you have a very complex website setup, it might not be something you can easily do yourself without technical help.
What you can do to make your small business website a success
After working with many small businesses for the last two decades, we understand what they need most and the challenges they face and that's what inspired us to create a website builder that not only makes it possible for small business owners to create an amazing website themselves, but to have one that is easy for them to maintain, is extremely affordable and represents their brand or service well.
Siimple is a website builder that is beloved by Florida small business owners because it's of it's unique features.
The Tech Is Included
It can be a real headache to set up all the technical things involved with creating your small business website. You have to purchase hosting from one company and a domain name from another and build your site on something else. With Siimple, we have everything built-in so it's a one-stop shop. Even things like contact forms are included so your visitors can reach out to you directly from your website
Never Start From Scratch
Hiring a designer or choosing a website creation tool often means starting from scratch or having to spend days or weeks clicking through hundreds of options in order to customize your website. But with Siimple all you have to do is choose a website template theme and add in your content! On average it takes about one hour to finish customizing your website!
The Designs Are Exceptional and Speak to Your Florida Audience
Florida customers want to be able to get a sense of your business's vibe, personality and style. The best way to show that is through colors, images and typography. But you don't have to be a designer or even need to know anything about design to do this with Siimple!
You can just choose a pre-made website theme and choose one accent color and Siimple will generate the rest of the color palette for you that perfectly matches. So you never have clashing colors or lack of legibility.
Show your visitors what matters
We've cut out the fluff and have loaded our website builder with all of the page sections that are proven to convert and work to capture the attention of Florida small business customers. We've chosen and styled these sections based on patterns we've seen for the most tried and true websites of success Florida small businesses.
So if you're one of the many Florida-based small business owners or entrepreneurs who are looking to create a website that shows off your incredible offerings for an affordable price then consider Siimple.
