Choosing which website designer to work with for your business can feel like a job in itself. It’s a competitive industry and there are so many variations. No two designers will follow exactly the same processes or deliver exactly the same results. 

You already have a job so creating time for talking to web designers and narrowing it down and making the right choice can feel like the straw that breaks the camel’s back. You put it off for as long as possible and before you know it, your website is hideously out of date, you’re embarrassed to give the address to people and it really is time to get moving on finding someone to work with.

Sound familiar? I get it, your time is precious. Mine is too. So I’ve compiled this list to help you work out whether we would be a good fit working together. 

Here are 7 reasons you shouldn’t work with me. 

Websites are so much more than a shopfront and if you create it well, you can have it working for you long after the shops are closed and it will even make you money when you’re asleep.

How does it do this? A combination of things – a slick design and layout, coupled with bespoke branding and professionally written copy will tick the SEO criteria to ensure Google includes your website in their search results.

Homemade websites don’t make sales. Yes ‘anyone’ can build a website in pretty much the same way ‘anyone’ can build a house, or a car. However, if I tried my hand at building a car I’d put money on you not wanting to give it a test drive. Same with websites. They’re complicated, there are a lot of behind the scenes processes to make the user experience a good one and if you build it yourself with little to no experience, the user experience on the site is unlikely to be good.

Setting up on my own and not working for an agency was a conscious choice. I’ve done my time as an employee and for the last 6 years have been my own boss. I have worked hard on my career development, funded my own training and invested in my business so I can serve you to the best of my ability.  During our work together I am your website designer, not the person to finish writing your copy, edit your photographs or create Social Media posts. I’m not under obligation to answer calls or attend meetings outside working hours and I work to the timescales set out in our initial agreement.

Websites are all about the small details – the amount of space between elements, the sizing of the text to ensure it’s accessible for everybody. How it responds on a mobile device, the amount of code used for each element. Every part of a website build is carefully thought out and crafted to ensure the best experience for you and your visitor. 

You see, the small details aren’t just about what looks good, it’s about the experience the server that hosts the website is also having – use a slow server and Google’s going to say no to displaying your site in search results. You’re also likely to get time out errors when trying to load the website and don’t get me started about adapting websites to be mobile responsive. 

I work on these small details behind the scenes and am always happy to explain different elements of the build to you. However if you’re looking to ‘just chuck something up’ regardless of the impact it will have on the rest of the website, then we’re not going to be a good working match. 

Websites take time to get right, they go through different design stages from the first brief, through initial concepts to the first draft stage where you’ll get to view the finished site and make any minor tweaks and changes. 

When working with me you’ll get weekly update videos to show progress and invite a conversation to make sure we’re all happy with the website build. This ensures the website experience is bespoke and a good one. Because of this, there’s usually a 3 – 6 month lead time on when you first speak to me and when I can build your custom website. The website will then take up to 3 months to complete. 

If you’ve left your website a little late and are now looking to make up time, to leapfrog existing projects I already have, or want to pressure me to complete your project in less than the agreed amount of time, this won’t work. 

The success of a website build is largely due to the content provided – this means professionally written copy, professionally created branding and high-quality images. Understandably this can take a while to gather together. 

Once I have all these elements I can lay them out and work on the design and then we can plan your build and timescales. I cannot do this if there are missing elements as waiting for copy can cause time delays which have a knock on effect for my next projects. They can also change the look and style of the build if they’re very different to the initial copy provided. 

If you’re planning on working on your website page by page then I’m not the right designer for you. 

Websites take a huge amount of time and skill to get right. Behind most of my custom built websites will be over 100 hours of work. If you looked at that in monetary terms it would mean a minimum of £950. After nearly a decade of website design I have honed my skills and believe I’m worth more than the minimum wage. So if you’re looking for a website where you pay the designer around £5 per hour for their work, you won’t find it at This Demanding Life. 

When we work together one of the initial conversations we will have is: send me the links to 3 websites you really like and tell me what you do/don’t like about them. This isn’t because I’m going to go off and copy the design, it’s to see what elements you like for example: 

🤩 Are you wow’d by videos on websites? 

🤩 Do you like animated elements where text and images move on the site? 

🤩 Do you like strong colour contrast or soft transitions? 

When I know this I can plan how I’m going to display the content on your website. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to copy someone else’s design. 

Copying design is disrespectful to the person who has spent years crafting and honing their skills to deliver the website, it’s disrespectful to the person who has spent the money commissioning the site and it’s disrespectful to me when I’ve spent years perfecting my design techniques to release my own website designs and ideas into the world. 

So if you’re looking for a carbon copy of a website, I’m not the designer for you. 

If you agree with the reasons above and would like to talk about working together on your website book a call with me using the button below.