If you’ve never been held hostage by your Web designer consider yourself lucky. Time after time small business owners complain about not having any control over their web presence. They either don’t have the technical expertise to build their own website, or update it on their own. Each time the Spa Owner has an idea for a new page, or new content, they have to pass it on to their web designer. This usually carries high hourly fees, and can take time, often weeks, to get just a small addition or change in the website copy.

Enter the world of  WordPress. WordPress is a self-hosted website building platform that you can learn to use yourself. Even if you don’t want to build the site from the ground up yourself, you can hire someone at a reasonable cost to build it to your specifications, and then take over when they are done. The way WordPress works is by creating pages or blog posts. It’s easy, intuitive and anyone can do it. If you can use your online banking site, pay for an eBook with PayPal, or participate on a community forum then you can figure out how to use self-hosted WordPress. By being able to do simple updates yourself, or even change entire templates without ruining your entire site, you take back control of your Spa.

Due to the fact that WordPress is an open source software, new functionality is added all the time, and you don’t have to pay anything to upgrade it.  The only time you pay for anything to do with WordPress is for hosting fees. You can of course, pay for support services such as virtual assistants and web designers if you choose to. Finding people who specialize in WordPress isn’t that difficult due to the popularity of WordPress.

You can also pay for, if you choose, premium templates, unique templates, or specialized plugins and add-ons. Otherwise, it’s free. If you’re willing to learn how to use your WordPress site you can cut down substantially on the cost of having a website for your Spa. It’s really easy to use so there is no doubt about your ability to learn to use it. The important thing for you to do is jump in and give it a try. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you actually do it. If you need help along the way there are people who can assist you.

If you want control over your website and your Spa using WordPress as your website platform is a great way to do that.  Never forget that aside from having a website you also have a Spa to run and unless you’re earning money creating websites, then having the Spa website is just part of your business, therefore you must find a way to spend as little time as possible doing the website stuff, and doing more time running your Spa. With WordPress you can have the best of both worlds. A fabulous website that you control, and plenty of help when you need it.

Please, save yourself some time and money and take advantage of the many opportunities to grow and expand your Spa using WordPress. With the powerful marketing tools you can implement into your WordPress website, you can seriously grow your clientele in no time! Trust me when I share this with you as an Esthetician who has owned her own business myself and having spent countless hours and money on websites that did not work for me. It’s no longer about just putting up a website anymore. Otherwise, if you hold to this way of doing business, you are simply lost in cyberspace.  Having a website that is  ”eye candy” is great, but if you don’t have the tools to market your website effectively, it basically sits there and “looks pretty.” Don’t let your Spa fall into that category.

To Your Success,

Valarie Hurst

Valarie Hurst & Company

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