Full Transcript
[0:00]
Welcome to the 805 Web Minute. And today we're talking about the single best New Year's resolution for your business. And it's probably not what you think. It's not about doing more work. Not at all. It's about finally taking your website maintenance completely off your to-do list for good. So every January, we get into this mindset of more. We do more hustle more. You know, grind harder. Right. More discipline, more effort. But when you look at the actual data on resolutions, that approach is, well, it's almost designed to fail. It really is. The numbers are pretty staggering. Something like 23% of people quit the resolution in the first week. The very first week. Wow. Yeah. And if you look at the whole year, it gets even worse. Only about what, 9% of people actually stick with it all year long. And the reason for that, I think, is an allack of willpower, especially for a small business owner who's already running on fumes. No, you've used up all your willpower just getting through a Tuesday. The problem is that these resolutions demand more from a schedule that's already maxed out. So the idea we're digging into today is a resolution to actually do less. Exactly. Not less of the important work, but less of the frustrating time-sucking work that doesn't actually grow the business. Like wrestling with website updates on a Saturday night. Yes. The resolution is to delegate. You make one decision, and that's it. You're not trying to build a new habit. You're just removing a recurring problem. That time is yours again. Let's talk about how much time that actually is, because the overworked small business owner isn't just a cliche, right? It's a statistical fact. It absolutely is. I mean, the data shows that a 33% of small business owners are working over 50 hours a week. 50 hours, and I'm guessing that bleeds into the weekend. Oh, yeah. 70% work at least one day over the weekend. For most owners here in the 805, that's just the norm. It's a six or seven day work week. If you're putting in that kind of time, every hour has to count. It has to be spent on strategy, customers, sales.
[2:01]
But it's not. That's the craziest part. The research shows that most owners spend almost 70%, 68% of their time on just day-to-day emergencies. So you're just fighting fires all day? Constantly. And the website is one of those slow-burning fires that never really goes out. You know, I talked to a business owner in Pizmo, and she said she didn't sign up to be an IT manager. She signed up to run a bakery. And that's the core of the stress, isn't it? 62% of owners say this stress is way worse than they imagined. And it comes from wearing all those hats. You're the marketer, the bookkeeper, and suddenly you're the tech support department. Right. And that webmaster hat is heavy. It comes with this low-level anxiety that's always running in the background. Is the site secure? Is the contact form broken? Let's get into the true price of doing it yourself, because the DIY builders, they make it look so simple. They sell the launch. They've made that part incredibly easy. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The real work starts after the site goes live. Just getting a decent site built can take what, 20, maybe 40 hours? At least. But the real-time eater is the ongoing maintenance. That's the part nobody talks about. You mean all the updates? It's a constant update cycle. You have your core system, your theme, and then all your plugins. And they all need to be updated constantly, mostly for security. And when you update one thing? Something else breaks. It's like a cascade. You patch your theme, but now the plugin that runs your online store isn't compatible. And suddenly your checkout page is just blank. Exactly. And you might not even notice for days, until a customer calls to complain. So now you've lost sales and you're spending your night searching forums for a fix. And all that time is time you're not spending on your actual customers. It connects right back to that work-life balance issue, right? That feeling of always being on the job. Absolutely. The website is a machine that's always on. And it makes you feel like you have to be too. It's the perfect recipe for burnout. Let's talk about those burnout numbers, because they're pretty scary.
[4:02]
They are. Over half 52% of entrepreneurs say they experience burnout every single year. And it gets deeper. Nearly 88% struggle with business-related mental health issues. Stress, anxiety. It's a real crisis. And when you look at how little time off they take, it makes perfect sense. It's staggering. 61% of owners take just five days off per year. Five. You can't recover in five days. If you're that stretched, the last thing you can afford is to spend one of those precious days off trying to figure out why your website crashed. Which brings us back to that resolution. Delegation. It works because it doesn't require more willpower. It actually removes the need for willpower. Right. You decide once and the problem is gone. It saves you time immediately. And it's genuine protection against that burnout we were just talking about. So let's paint a picture of what that actually looks like. What does stress-free website management feel like for say a business owner in SLO? It feels like the website is just an invisible employee that always does its job. It just works. It's a tool, not another problem to solve. Okay, so let's say I need to change my store hours or add some new photos for a seasonal special. What happens? You send an email. That's it. Just an email. Just an email to a local contact. It gets handled for you quickly and professionally. There's no logging in, no forgotten passwords, no late night googling of error messages. That entire category of emergency has just gone. And what about the bigger things? The things you don't even see coming like when Google changes its algorithm? Someone else is already on top of it. They're making sure your site stays fast and secure so you stay visible and search results. When hackers find a new vulnerability, which happens every single week, your site is already passed and protected. So you get stopping the reluctant IT department? You get to be the client again. You can focus 100% of your energy on why you started your business in the first place, whether that's serving customers here in a rolloogrande or expanding down into Santa Maria. It's really the most strategic move you can make for your own time and, frankly,
[6:05]
your own sanity. It really is. It's the one resolution that asks you to rest easier. Not work harder. That's the quick tip for today. If you want a professional website without the agency price tag or the DIY headache, here is the better way. At Ugrow.pro, we build it, we manage it, and we handle every update forever, all for just $79 a month. There is zero setup fee, no contract lock-in, and it is strictly month-to-month, so there is zero risk. We're local here in AG and we can have you live in days, not months. We want to see what your site could look like. Go to Ugrow.pro right now and we'll design three custom mock-ups for your business, completely free, no strings attached. Thanks for listening and keep growing.