It's New Year's Eve. You're thinking about goals for 2026. Maybe hit the gym more. Maybe finally get organized. Maybe learn to cook something besides scrambled eggs.
Here's my suggestion: make this the year you stop fighting with your website.
Not because websites aren't important—they are. But because the hours you spend wrestling with updates, troubleshooting that thing that broke, or trying to figure out why your site looks weird on phones? That time belongs to your business. And to you.
Most Resolutions Fail. This One Won't.
Let's be honest about how resolutions usually go. Only 9% of Americans actually keep their resolutions throughout the year. And 23% quit by the end of the first week. The "new year, new me" enthusiasm fades fast.
Why? Usually because resolutions ask you to do more. More exercise. More discipline. More willpower.
But what if your resolution was to do less? What if, instead of adding another task to your already-too-long list, you took something off it?
Your website maintenance. The updates you keep meaning to make. The blog you feel guilty about not writing. The mobile version that's been broken for six months.
What if you just... stopped?
You're Already Working Too Hard
Here's something that probably sounds familiar: 33% of small business owners work more than 50 hours per week. And 70% work at least one weekend regularly.
When you're putting in that kind of time, every hour matters. And yet, most business owners spend 68% of their time on day-to-day fires—not actually growing their business. Website headaches are exactly the kind of fire that eats your time without moving the needle.
62% of business owners say the stress of ownership is worse than they imagined. Part of that stress comes from all the hats you have to wear. Marketing. Sales. Customer service. Bookkeeper. IT department.
You didn't start your business to become a web developer. But somehow, here you are—Googling "why won't my images upload" at 10pm on a Wednesday.
The Hidden Cost of "Doing It Yourself"
DIY website builders love to tell you how easy they are. And sure, getting started is pretty simple. But keeping a site running, updated, and actually helping your business? That's a different story.
There's the initial build—often 20-40 hours if you want something decent. Then there's the ongoing maintenance: updating plugins, fixing things that break after updates, checking that everything still works on mobile, refreshing content so Google doesn't think you abandoned ship.
And every time something goes wrong—which it will—you're back to searching forums and watching YouTube tutorials instead of running your business. As we cover in our guide to DIY website problems, the real costs often show up months later when sites slow down, break, or become inaccessible.
43% of business owners say "always being on the job" is their biggest challenge. When your website is one more thing you're "on" for, it compounds that problem.
The honest question: Is your time worth more than the cost of having someone else handle this? For most business owners, the answer is an obvious yes.
Burnout Is Real. Your Website Shouldn't Add to It.
52% of entrepreneurs experience burnout at least once a year. Nearly 88% struggle with at least one mental health issue related to running a business—anxiety, stress, financial worries.
61% of small business owners take just five days off per year. Five days. When you're that stretched, the last thing you need is another system to maintain, another dashboard to learn, another problem to troubleshoot on your "day off."
Burnout doesn't come from one big thing. It comes from a hundred small things piling up. The never-ending website maintenance checklist—updates, broken plugins, security patches, content refreshes—is exactly the kind of background stress that adds up. Your website doesn't have to be one of them.
What "Not Fighting" Actually Looks Like
Imagine this: Your website just works. When you need something changed—new hours, new photos, a new page for a new service—you send an email. It's done by tomorrow.
No logging in. No trying to remember your password. No clicking around a dashboard wondering where the "edit" button went. No Googling error messages. No staying up late because something broke after an update.
When Google changes something (and they always do), you don't have to figure out what it means. When hackers find a new vulnerability (and they always do), you don't have to worry about whether your site is protected.
You just run your business. Someone else handles the website.
That's not laziness. That's smart delegation. And delegation, by the way, is one of the best protections against burnout.
The Resolution That Sticks
Here's why this resolution works when others fail:
- It doesn't require willpower. Once you hand off your website, there's nothing to remember, no habit to build.
- It saves time immediately. No waiting for results like a diet or gym routine.
- It removes stress instead of adding it. Most resolutions ask you to do hard things. This one asks you to stop doing a hard thing.
- There's no "falling off the wagon." Unlike a diet or gym membership, this isn't something you have to keep doing—it's something you stop doing, permanently. (And if you're wondering what happens if you need to cancel, it's month-to-month with 30 days notice.)
This January, while 23% of people are already abandoning their gym memberships and 9 out of 10 are watching their resolutions fade, you'll have actually accomplished something: getting your website off your plate for good.
What YouGrow Does Differently
At YouGrow, we built our entire service around this exact problem. Business owners who are good at what they do—but who didn't sign up to become webmasters.
For $79/month, you get:
- A professional, fast-loading website—live in days, not months
- Unlimited reasonable updates, forever (just email or call)
- Hosting, security, backups—all handled
- No dashboard to learn, no login to remember
- A complimentary design refresh every 3 years so you never look outdated
- Local support from right here in Arroyo Grande
Month-to-month, no contract. If it's not working for you, cancel anytime. No hard feelings.
As a founding member, you get $0 setup fee and lock in that $79/month rate for life.
This New Year, make one resolution you'll actually keep. Get your website off your to-do list and focus on what you actually want to do in 2026.
Questions? Call me directly at 805-439-6288. I'm local, I answer my phone, and I'd love to help you start the year without website stress.