Full Transcript
Lauren: Okay so I have a friend who owns a coffee shop. And I looked at her website the other day... and her hours are wrong. Her menu still has stuff from like 2022. And I asked her about it, and she just goes... I know, I know, I just don't have time.
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor... We make interwebs and website stuff make sense... Let's get into it.
Honor: Yeah, your friend is not alone at all. Most small business websites are out of date. And it's not because people don't care... it's because running a business is already a full-time job.
Lauren: Right, like she's not lazy. She's literally there at 5am making pastries.
Honor: Exactly. So here's a number that might surprise you. The average small business owner gets only one and a half hours of uninterrupted productive time per day.
Lauren: Wait... one and a half hours? That's it?
Honor: That's it. And 84 percent of small business owners work more than 40 hours a week. But most of that time goes to putting out fires... customers, employees, suppliers, invoices. The website isn't on fire, so it waits.
Lauren: Oh, that makes so much sense. Like, the website is never the emergency. There's always something more urgent.
Honor: Right. And here's the other thing. Remember when people used to say websites are easy to update yourself?
Lauren: Oh yeah, the whole, it'll be so simple, just log in and change it!
Honor: Yeah. So here's what actually happens. You try to change your phone number. And suddenly you're in a dashboard with 47 menu options. There's some block editor you don't understand. The button says Publish and you're not sure if clicking it will break everything.
Lauren: And then you just... close the tab. I'll figure it out later.
Honor: Exactly! And later never comes. This isn't user error by the way. Almost half of people who use these content management systems say publishing content takes over an hour. 14 percent say it takes a full day or more.
Lauren: A full day? To update a website?
Honor: Yeah. These systems were built for professional web developers and marketing teams. Not for a coffee shop owner who just wants to add her new latte to the menu.
Lauren: That's like... giving someone a commercial kitchen to make toast. Like yeah, technically you could figure it out, but why would you want to?
Honor: Perfect analogy. And the thing is... an outdated website actually costs you customers. People form an opinion about your site in 0.05 seconds. And 75 percent of people judge your credibility based on how your website looks.
Lauren: Oh no. So they see the wrong hours, the old menu, and they think... if the website's this outdated, what's the actual shop like?
Honor: Exactly. They don't call to complain. They just leave and go to your competitor instead.
Lauren: Okay so what's the solution? Because it sounds like option one is learn the confusing dashboard, which... no. And option two is hire someone every time you need a change, which gets expensive fast.
Honor: There's actually a third option now. Get a managed website. Someone else owns the problem entirely. You just email or call when you need something changed. You never log into a dashboard. You never learn any system. It just happens.
Lauren: Oh, so instead of learning the commercial kitchen... you just tell someone what toast you want and they make it for you.
Honor: Exactly. And honestly? That used to be expensive. But it doesn't have to be anymore.
Lauren: So the moral of the story is... if your website keeps falling to the bottom of the to-do list, stop fighting it. Take it off your plate entirely. And if you want someone to just handle it for you... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah. With us, you never log in. Need something changed? Email or call, we handle it within a business day. It's 79 dollars a month, everything included. No extra fees for updates. Month-to-month, cancel anytime. And I'm in Arroyo Grande, I pick up the phone.
Lauren: Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening.