Your Client's Business Success is Not on your Shoulders as their Web Designer

When you work with clients on such an integral part of their business, like their website, you kinda feel this pressure like it has to succeed or you did something wrong.

If you’re new to web design, this is a super common fear. You might not even voice it like that out loud, but your actions are probably showing that you’re too worried about them, and in turn putting their success on your shoulders, when it doesn’t belong there. 

Take a step backwards... are you really doing what's in your scope of work/project plan/process?(We just talked about this actually.) Or are you trying to take on every little piece that needs to be done?

Get clear on what they need to have or do, and then only do what you're responsible for/in control of.

‍THEN, LET THEM DO THEIR OWN WORK

I can’t tell you how many of my past clients have PRAISED my process by making them answer SO MANY questions in their pre-work. They’ve discovered amazing things about themselves and their work by going through that process. If I just let them skip it or did it for them they’d never get to experience that. 

You're actually hurting them by doing too much for them 

It's like if you never discipline a child or always do their laundry. NO one will want to be around that adult one day haha. You can't do all of the business stuff, setup every single integration, branding, copywriting, stocks advice, find them a VA, and build the website for them. 

You do what you're hired to do.

I'm giving you permission to not LOVE everyone you work with/for. 

In a "normal" job setting you'd have people you love, people you get along with, and people you're not crazy about. 

There's a lot out there about ‘dream clients’ and only working with the best fit people, and I'm all about that, but also keep in mind at the end of the day, these are still people hiring you to do a job. 

Once you do that job, you're done.

What they do afterward (market themselves, speak up about their business, or NOT do anything so their website never sees any traffic, or they didn't give you keywords so they're not found in search) IS NOT YOUR FAULT. 

You're building a website, it's a tool in their business, they're not hiring you to run their business, or market it for them. 

Friends, some of this is also on you to make sure you're being clear about what a website can do to HELP them do the things they're already doing. Like having a structured place to send people when THEY'RE out marketing themselves. Plan at the end of your process to teach them how to use their website. Give them the power to do things themselves. It’s empowering to do things on our own. Don’t take that from them by putting their success on you.

Lastly, we can't take action for them. 

We can only set them up for success through the avenues we're hired for (web design). If at the end of the design, they still have a product that flops, or a program that doesn't sell out, that's on THEM not on you, if you did your job right.

"Set them up for success and then wish them luck."

I’ve actually got a pretty sweet bonus on process, packaging, and pricing your web design services inside of my course Design+Grow with Webflow. It opens up for enrollment again soon. Hop on the waitlist here.

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As I tend to do, here’s a real world (outside of our creative online business bubble) example. 

We’re building a house. When our builder Mike finishes our house, he is NOT in any way shape or form going to be sitting down for coffee one Saturday morning WORRYING about whether I’m cleaning my floors or not. Or whether my kids have banged up the walls, or a dog has peed on the floor and ruined the look of the house. He is doing HIS JOB, he’s giving us his ALL, and he’s doing WHAT WE HIRED HIM TO DO. But after the job is done… he’s out of the picture. He’s not coming back to check (I mean he’s sweet so he might check in on us) but he’s not trying to run our family, tell me how to parent or pay my utility bill. See my point?

I’d love to continue this conversation with you. Find me on Instagram @sitemakerstudio and let me know if this hit home for you?