No One should make you feel this way about your Business!
Now this is common to so many web designers freelancers and some website design companies. Most business owners don’t have control of their website and even worse is, the website designer or the company is not listening to them to do the requested changes and updates – this is appalling!
This really bothers me because in today’s world your website is one of your business assets. And for those of us who do not have a brick and mortar location, it is our brick and mortar store.
When your web person has all the access, all the logins and it is exactly like someone else having the keys to your store and in this case – not letting you in. This is WRONG!
I am not saying that all website people are bad, but as the business owner you need to have some semblance of control on your business.
Yes, the web designers are the people with the expertise, but they should be working in conjunction with you not against you. The case I ran into this week, the owner was asking for changes the person would not do. When we did a review what the web person would setup for her, worked against all principles of email marketing and list building which is what the client’s goal with the change was. She knew what she wanted, and the person would not do it. What they did was very antiquated and outdated and would never accomplish the client’s goals.
This is wrong… your web person needs to be a partner.
When you get a web designer to do your website, tell him to open all the accounts in your names. It is the way to go, because someday you might want to move on, (or the designer himself) and without any access, this can be hard to do. Many web designers do host accounts for their clients which is fine as long as you follow my two rules below.
If you are working with someone who has all the control on your website, this is fine as long as two things happen:
- If you do not own your own hosting account and domain registry, your web person MUST give you a full and complete outline of their backup plan should something happen to them. If they have all the access and cannot access the website on your behalf what will happen? (This is your entire business, your livelihood, you need an answer and a plan.)
- When they work with you it needs to be a partnership. When you ask for something they must give reasons why they suggest, or don’t suggest, making certain changes you ask and request. They must listen to you and your concerns.
This kind of website-owner relationship is NOT fine if you are not getting these 2 items fulfilled.
Go ask your website details, maybe the cpanel access and domain login access from your web designer today.