Last week, our New Business Roadmap series came to an end. In Episodes 101 through 105, we shared what our step-by-step approach to launching a new business or a new offering would be — from the questions we would ask and foundational decisions we would make, to the workflows and the marketing needed to grow and sustain a new business offering. 

This week, we’re discussing a brand new topic — something we have a lot of hands-on, first-hand experience in… and that is creating web designs rooted in purpose, growth, and success. Every web design business is unique, and every web designer’s approach is unique — but at With Grace and Gold we personally feel so passionately about creating web designs rooted in your unique vision and your unique goals.

Today, I want to share exactly that means — to have a web design rooted in purpose, growth, and success, reflective of your unique vision and goals. And I want to share one simple but sometimes challenging decision of yours that can make all the difference in exactly how successfully your website can work on your behalf. 

Episode 106 of The Brand It Build It Podcast: Your Success Depends On This

John Wooden, a renowned basketball coach and player once said, “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” As a coach, he encouraged his players to remain focused only on themselves — on their unique skills, on their unique efforts, and on their unique approach to the game. He said, “Don’t try to be somebody else. You have to be yourself at all times.” And “If you’re true to yourself, you’re going to be true to everyone else.” He often explained how doing your best is all you can do — and how important it is to have peace of mind about what your best effort looks like, and what your best effort feels like. 

Over the past 7 years at With Grace and Gold, we’ve guided more than 500 small business owners through our custom brand and web design experience — an experience through which small business owners come away with a unique, elevated brand and web design to help them begin a new season in business, with more purpose and greater confidence. 

Behind our business, we recognize every small business owner is completely unique — from their business type and the age of their business, to their unique offerings, process, past accomplishments, and future goals. This complete and comprehensive uniqueness empowers us to begin every design process from a completely blank canvas, and ensure every detail we add to a design is added from a place of purpose. 

When we discuss creating a web design rooted in purpose, growth, and success — what we really mean is, we’re using our expertise in business, brand design, and web design to ensure what we design and create effectively communicates about your unique business and expertise, equips you to confidently and more seamlessly connect with prospective clients, empowers you to begin a new chapter in your business, and fulfills the goals you’ve shared with us — such as raising your prices, booking clients more consistently, showcasing your offerings more clearly, knowing your web design is truly working on your behalf, elevating your business overall, and any goal in between.

Having someone beyond your business — not necessarily a friend or family member, but perhaps a business coach or brand and web designer — look at your business from the outside can be a powerful exercise in understanding what truly sets your business apart. It can be truly valuable to learn about your business through the lens of someone who has been hired to help your business grow in a meaningful, lasting way.  We have seen, first-hand, how when a web design is uniquely-reflective of your business and your goals, every detail can point toward achieving those goals. 

You might be thinking, “What if I already know what I want my new brand or new website to look like?” From our perspective, we believe it’s more valuable to think about the feeling you want your visitors to have rather than about the exact details you’d like your brand and website to have. What if your brand and web design could be even better than what you’ve seen before? What if the details of your web design will showcase your unique offerings in an even clearer or more user-friendly way? What if your one-of-a-kind web design stands out among your fellow business owners and it’s equipping your visitors to confidently choose to work with you. 

We believe your brand and web design — your one-of-a-kind online presence — should serve as a visual foundation that equips your visitors to confidently choose your business among others. We kindly ask our clients at With Grace and Gold not to send us any examples of what they like, dislike, or have seen before — because doing so can be a disservice to the unique and powerful ways your business can shine through a one-of-a-kind brand and web design. 

Piecing together your web design based on other web designs you’ve seen can cause your online presence to become a blend of other business’s unique goals and approaches. Using elements from other web designs can truly muddle your message — and may even nudge your visitors to continue their search for a business owner to hire. On the other hand, when we, as designers, are able to begin from a blank slate, we can ensure every detail is designed with purpose, and therefore, designed with your unique definition of success in mind. 

At the start of today’s episode, I quoted John Wooden and shared how helpful it can be to focus on what makes you you, what your definition of your best is, and what your unique approach is. So, one simple — but sometimes challenging — decision of yours that can make all the difference in exactly how successfully your website can work on your behalf is… to focus wholeheartedly on your business, and your business alone, during your custom design process. 

Here are 3 powerful reasons why:

1. When you focus only on your business during your custom design process, you give your business the attention and care it really deserves. Every day, as small business owners, we are bombarded with so much content, and it can be challenging to think deeply and critically about our own businesses and what we really want, what we really value, and what we are really working toward. The brand and web design process can be more successful and even more rewarding, when you remain focused solely on your business. Going through the process can help you confidently know you gave your personal best to your own business, investing in your business from a place of purpose and peace, rather than from a place of fear or comparison. 
2. When you focus only on your business, you can be more honest with yourself about what truly matters to you. As challenging as it may be, having tunnel vision about your business can help you to think more clearly about your business and what really matters to you as a business owner. If you’ve ever found yourself adding a new service, simply because another business owner in your field did… or doing something new you weren’t exactly excited about on social media, simply because you saw another business owner do so, you may soon find your business is a blend of what is working well for other business owners. This isn’t to say we can’t all learn and grow side by side, as a community of small business owners, but if you begin feeling as though your decisions aren’t your own — aren’t from a place of purpose, aren’t rooted in your unique vision and goals for your business — your business can soon feel less like your own. So, when you focus only on your business, you can give yourself a bit more clarity about what really matters to you — and what you really see for yourself and your business in the future. 
3. When you focus only on your business, you can work toward your unique definition of success. Last weekend when Andra and I met for our quarterly meeting, we talked about how social media can cause you to feel like you need to be all the things to all the people — to be present on all the social media platforms, to be the best on each platform, to have the most engagement and the most followers. But isn’t it possible that business owners with millions of followers could have less revenue than business owners with hundreds of followers? Isn’t it possible that Instagram-free business owners could be happier or have more peace of mind than business owners using Instagram all day long? The best and most beautiful part of being a small business owner is that your business can be uniquely-reflective of your expertise, education, approach, passion, and purpose. You can define what success looks like to you — and success can be about service, creativity, revenue, work-life balance, family, friendship, community, or any blend of any value you hold. 

In the end, whether you’re approaching a new brand and web design for your business — or you’re simply approaching your business on a fresh, new day, week, month, or year — focusing on what you value, what your unique goals are, and what is meaningful to you can make all the difference.

If you’re pursuing a new web design with a professional designer now, or you’re planning to, we believe one way to successfully journey through the process is to focus on what you know to be true about your business and your goals. When you do, you’ll likely be presented with a purpose-driven design, uniquely-created to help your specific business succeed in alignment with your unique definition of success. And after all, isn’t that what having a professional design is all about?

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, founders and entrepreneurs. Enjoy weekly, actionable episodes to build a successful, sustainable small business from the inside out.