7 Ways Your Website Can Transform Your Life

Congratulations! You have taken an important first step towards professional success. Having a world-class website that serves as the center of gravity for your marketing efforts is essential.  I am certain that you are expecting a number of results in return for your investment. You want to attract and retain customers/clients. You want to establish yourself as a preeminent provider in your area of expertise. You want to increase your image and brand so that you can charge a premium for your services. And, of course, you want all these efforts to lead to greater sustainable wealth.

Would you believe me if I told you those results, although significant, are a mere scratch on the surface of the potential available to you as you embark on your website development process?

The most significant aspect of website development is the process itself.  The results you will actually achieve over time aren’t found in the quality of the material on your site, but in the way in which going through the effort to create your website, you are able to live into and become the business and brand you want to be.  The only way that you will be able to excavate and exploit this potential is by becoming aware of this more essential dynamic.  If you embrace with purpose the way each phase of the web development process is a part of the journey to becoming who you need to be in order to become successful, you will find the hidden treasure that web development can be for you. The return on investment will be dramatic…and life changing.

Let me share with you a few ways that your web development process is a purposeful professional and personal development opportunity:

1. Reflection: The web development process forces a busy entrepreneur to reflect.  The best actions are equally balanced with reflection. If you skip the web process and go straight to marketing, you might employ tactic after tactic without really having a sense of the end game outside of finding clients. But using this process, you will be forced to really understand who you are, what your strengths in the marketplace are, and what you care about. To write a meaningful value proposition, you will have to think more deeply about the ways you improve a clients’ condition.
2. Clarity: Good strategy is nothing but tough decisions and tradeoffs. When you start to list your products and services against your value proposition, you will be forced to decide which business you will be in and which you will not be in. You will see while writing your content, which parts of your business excite you and which parts positively drain you. You will also see how offering too much muddies an otherwise good marketing message.  As a result, you will be forced to make decisions and come up with answers to essential questions such as, Who am I? What do I want?
3. Character: To be in business for oneself requires a great deal of focus and personal discipline. This process will challenge your ability to live out the lifestyle of an entrepreneur, because you will have to set deadlines for yourself and stick to them. You will have to say no to other things that might be grabbing your attention in the short-term in order to create a website that will set you up for the long-term. If you have challenges in getting the content done, responding to requests from your web team, you have the opportunity to ask yourself how those challenges translate with your clients.
4. Challenge: Web development forces you to walk off the map of your comfort zone. It is not easy to write materials, in the form of the materials on the site or articles and resources. It is hard to put yourself out there for the entire world to see and to know that if someone reads what you wrote, they have the choice to accept or reject you. It is hard to film videos if you have never done so before, or to ask for testimonials. You will be forced to take risks every step of the way. How you respond to the challenges now will be a strong indicator if you have what it takes over the long-term.
5. Commitment: Being a success is not about finding that silver bullet idea, but doing the hard work over the long haul. Jon Bon Jovi was asked about the band’s longevity and the luck involved. His response was, “The harder we work, the luckier we get.” There are so shortcuts to success, only a lot of hard work over time. If you aren’t willing to do the hard work involved with your website, will you be able to do the other things that are difficult but also required for you to succeed?
6. Application: You may have started this process after attending a workshop that gave you some business ideas. Or maybe you read a book or attended a workshop. At these events, you may have learned about establishing a brand, setting fees, creating meaningful products and services, marketing, and so forth. As with many training events, what you learned is always at risk of becoming another binder on your bookshelf or file in your computer. But if you embark on web development, you have a unique opportunity to walk out what you learn. You will give what you learned at those events legs as you put that knowledge into practice.
7. Validation: Your website gives you the opportunity and a reason not only to ask your clients what you do best and how you have helped them, but also a place to capture your track record of success. At the end of the day, we all want to know we have made a positive to the contribution in the world and your website gives you a repository for your accomplishments. In addition, you will have the validation that you need to face challenges, deal with difficult issues and complete arduous tasks – all of which are essential to be successful in your life as an entrepreneur.

There are two ways to look at your website’s return on investment. The first way is to look for a return as if you were a gold miner. In other words, you do what you need to do in order to find the gold, mine it and sell it. But once the gold is gone, it is gone. The second way is to look at your website development process as though you are looking for and finding a rich oil well.  Sure, there are similarities in the work – you have to find and mine. But an oil well is a much more long-term, sustainable source of income. And that is what your web development process can be for you, if you let it be the tool that makes you into a person who is ready for the next level of success.

The Bottom Line

When approaching new ventures, we all have a core question to ask ourselves: Do we have what it takes? We may be brave enough to voice this question to a mentor or a few close friends. Or, perhaps we keep the question buried in our hearts…unacknowledged.

The most important return on investment for your web development process is a sense in both your head and your heart that you have what it takes.  You can do it. You can translate what you know and find ways to leverage that expertise to help others. You can truly improve a client’s condition.

Imagine the difference it would make to your marketing efforts, fee setting and client delivery, if you really knew that if they did by not signing with you or considering your recommendations, they would be making a big mistake. Imagine how your life would change if you knew that you spent every day using your gifts and talents in a productive way and were paid well in return.  Imagine living a life that gave you a sense that the answer to your nagging question on having what it takes was a resounding,  "Yes!"  That “yes” is the hidden potential to website development.