Full Transcript
Lauren: Okay so my friend is building her website on Squarespace. She's like, "It's only 16 bucks a month, I can do it myself over the weekend." And I'm sitting there thinking... should I warn her about something?
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: So here's the thing about that 16 dollars a month... it's real, but it's also kind of a starting point, not the final number.
Lauren: What do you mean? It says 16 bucks right there in the ad.
Honor: Right, but that's the Basic plan. And on the Basic plan, if she sells anything... Squarespace takes 2 percent of every sale. For digital products, it's 7 percent.
Lauren: Wait, on top of credit card fees?
Honor: On top of credit card fees. So let's say she sells a 500 dollar service package. Squarespace takes 10 dollars right off the top. Then the credit card company takes another 15-ish dollars. That's 25 dollars gone before she sees a penny.
Lauren: Oh! That adds up fast.
Honor: It really does. And to get rid of those Squarespace fees, you have to upgrade to the 23 dollar plan. So already that 16 becomes 23.
Lauren: Okay, but 23 is still pretty reasonable...
Honor: Sure, but then you add the other stuff. Domain renewal after the first year... 20 to 70 bucks a year. Professional email through Google Workspace... 6 to 72 dollars a month. Appointment scheduling... 16 to 49 extra. Email marketing... another 5 to 48.
Lauren: Hold on, hold on. So if she wants what a normal business actually needs...
Honor: A realistic monthly cost? Forty to eighty dollars. Not 16.
Lauren: That's like going to a restaurant and the menu says "burger 5 dollars" but then it's 5 dollars for the bun, 8 dollars for the patty, 3 dollars for cheese...
Honor: And you have to cook it yourself! Because here's the other part nobody talks about... your time.
Lauren: Right, she said she'd do it over the weekend...
Honor: Yeah... studies show building a website yourself takes somewhere between 30 to 400 hours when you factor in learning the platform, planning, building, testing, and fixing things.
Lauren: I'm sorry, 400 hours?
Honor: That's the high end, but even the conservative estimate is 30 to 40 hours. And if her time is worth 50 dollars an hour to her business? That's 1,500 to 2,000 dollars in opportunity cost. Before the site even goes live.
Lauren: Whoa. So the "free" DIY option is actually costing her more than just hiring someone.
Honor: Potentially, yeah. And then there's the ongoing stuff. Small businesses spend an average of 5 hours per month on website maintenance. Content changes, troubleshooting, updates...
Lauren: Five hours a month forever?
Honor: Forever. At 50 dollars an hour, that's 250 dollars a month in her time. Every month.
Lauren: Okay that's... that changes the math completely. But here's the thing, what if she picks a template, builds the whole thing, and then realizes she hates it?
Honor: Oh, this is the part that really surprises people. In Squarespace 7.1, once you pick a template, you can't switch it.
Lauren: What?!
Honor: If you spend a weekend building your site and then decide you want a different look? You have to start over from scratch.
Lauren: That's like... choosing wedding invitations and then being told you can never change your font for the rest of your marriage!
Honor: Ha! Yeah, pretty much. You're locked in. And as your business evolves, you might hit other walls too. Only one level of dropdown menus. Only 47 add-on options compared to other platforms that have thousands. Limited payment methods. No autosave...
Lauren: No autosave?! So if her browser crashes...
Honor: That work is gone. No version history either.
Lauren: Okay. So the moral of the story is... before she commits, she needs to add up the REAL total cost. Not just the sticker price, but all the add-ons. And she needs to think about what her time is actually worth.
Honor: Exactly. DIY makes sense for some people who genuinely enjoy building websites. But for most business owners who have better things to do? It's usually not the deal it looks like.
Lauren: And if she doesn't want to do the math and just wants someone to handle it... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah, with us it's 79 dollars a month. That's it. Everything included... hosting, security, updates, unlimited reasonable edits. No setup fee. Month-to-month, cancel anytime. And if you want a redesign in a few years? That's included too... we call it the Everfresh Guarantee. No template trap.
Lauren: And you can call an actual person!
Honor: Yep, I'm in Arroyo Grande. I pick up the phone.
Lauren: Love it. Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening!