CUSTOM Squarespace Website in 2 Weeks? | A Look at My Web Design Process
Ever wondered what it’s like to work with a professional website designer?
Or maybe the thought of getting a completely custom brand new website up and running in just 2 weeks sounds too good to be true.
Well, I’m excited to tell you it’s NOT too good to be true - because I do it!
And today I’m giving you a sneak peek into my process working with clients as a web designer.
Rather watch instead of read?
Here’s that video for ya!
Hey guys - welcome or welcome back! If you don’t know me, my name is Ranita - I’m a website designer who loves teaching people about Squarespace, and I’m the creator behind Gold Standard Design.
If you're a creator, blogger, podcaster, or solopreneur looking to dive into the world of Squarespace - I’ve got you covered.
Booking: Discovery Call
Ok, so let’s say someone is looking for a designer to build them a website and they’ve found me.
The first step in the process is booking something called a discovery call.
The prospective client would fill out a booking form on my website to tell me a little bit about what they’re looking for, or what they’re interested in, and then they would pick a time on my calendar so we can chat over a video call.
The purpose for this initial call is for me to ask a few questions.
To more clearly define the scope of what this person is wanting
To see if I’m able to deliver what they want
To see if we would be a good fit and would work well together
Now, this last part is both a judgment on my side as well as on their side, because if they meet me and just don’t like me for any reason obviously we wouldn’t be a good fit to work on a project together.
And that’s ok! Not everyone is a good fit.
Booking: Proposal
After this call I will go ahead and email a proposal and contract for their project outlining all the things we talked about and just really making all the deliverables clear so we’re on the same page.
From there, the client has the option to :
respond and accept the proposal and contract
to request edits to the proposal, or
to just not say anything and we go our separate ways!
Initial Deposit & Client Gift
Once the client has accepted the proposal and signed the contract they will receive an invoice for their initial deposit.
Personally I prefer to bill in thirds, so this initial deposit will be ⅓ of the total project cost.
This is to hold space in my calendar for the client and just lets me know they’re serious about working together.
Once I’ve received their deposit I like to go ahead and send them a little gift just to say thank you for choosing me and to show that I value their business.
I usually use a site called Box Fox for this, which is nice because you can sort the gifts by price, category, occasion, or you can even build a custom box.
Sidenote - this is not sponsored, but I do like using BoxFox to send little thank you gifts to my clients.
Project: Client Homework
Now that the paperwork stuff is done we get into the client homework section…
…which I’m realizing now doesn’t sound very fun, because I don’t know if there are a ton of people who LIKE doing homework…
But regardless!
When we had our discovery call I would have mentioned that they would need to pick a start date for our project from my design calendar
BUT
that they would need to give themselves ample time to complete their homework first.
This is because I don’t start actually building the website until all of the content is completed.
One thing I do make very clear is that if all their homework is NOT completed by the project start date they will need to pay ANOTHER deposit and pick another start date.
I’ve found this is a good way to keep people on track
(because who wants to pay more money for no reason)
and this also helps me keep my schedule when it comes to other clients as well.
Because if one person started late, that means I would be finishing their work later than I thought, which means I’d have to push back the start date of the next project, and - well - you see how it can get out of hand?
So - what is this homework you ask?
Great question - I’d love to tell you!
I create a Google folder for my clients with a couple different questionnaires, copy templates, and instructions on how to create a Pinterest inspo board.
The questionnaires and Pinterest board are more for the people who don’t necessarily have their brand or style quite figured out yet.
So if someone already has an established brand we just skip that.
The copy templates are guides that take them through how to write all the words that will go on their website pages.
I do encourage my clients to write the majority of their copy themselves (with help and prompts from the templates) because it’s important that THEIR unique style and personality comes through.
This Google folder will also be a place for them to drop any pictures or images they want included on the website, and will be the main way we communicate once the project starts.
It ends up being much easier for me this way than trying to sort through a bunch of emails and put all the materials in the right folders and stay on top of all that.
This folder is also where I’ll store any graphics or assets that I create for their website so they can download all those once we’ve finished our project.
Interested in seeing how I help my clients prep and write their website copy?
I’ve got a FREE
Squarespace Website Prep Guide
just for you!
It includes everything you need to
research what people are looking for in your industry
do research on your competition
write copy for all your website pages
As a bonus I’ve included a few key design tips as well so you can build your entire site in record time!
Project Week 1: Opening Call
All right, now that we’ve got the date picked and the homework completed we’re ready to officially start building a website!
On day one of the 2 week period I schedule an opening call to confirm any small details like logins or passwords that I might need and just confirm everything one more time.
Project Week 1: Initial Design
Now I get to work building what will become the Home page.
On this first day I’m putting together a color palette if they don’t already have one, I’m setting fonts, playing with the look of buttons and links.
Basically doing all the style stuff first.
Once that’s done I send this page link to the client so they can review it and make any initial edits to the style.
The reason I send them this first request for edits so soon is because it’s easier to get the basics like colors and fonts set up-front.
Otherwise if you end up making a change after 4 pages are built, now you’ve got to comb through each page to see how the change looks.
It just ends up being more work that way, which is not fun for anyone!
In case you were wondering, I do build my clients’ websites inside my own Squarespace account.
I do that because it gives me a bit of security to know that they won’t just kick me out of their Squarespace account and take the website without paying!
Plus, since I’m a Squarespace circle member I can actually get my clients a discount on their Squarespace plan by building it in my account first.
Project Week 1: Full Design
Once the client has signed off on the styling I go ahead and get into the meat of building out each page they’ve requested.
So I’m adding in all the content they’ve provided, popping in text and images, embedding links, all that kind of stuff.
I’m also checking the mobile design to make sure that it looks good and works well.
Project Week 2: Edits
After the site has been built I send the link to the client a second time for them to poke around, play with, and review.
This is now where we’ll go back and forth with the client requesting edits and me completing them for review.
I give my clients unlimited edits within our 2 week period, so it’s important that we’re both really responsive and on top of things during these 2 weeks.
Also, it’s at this time I’ll send an invoice for the 2nd of the 3 payments, as we’re about halfway through the project.
Project Week 2: Finishing Up
Also during this second week as I’m making all the edits I’m testing out the functionality of the links and buttons I made.
So basically clicking each one and making sure it goes where it’s supposed to!
And then of course any finishing touches or tweaks to make the site look and feel exactly how it’s supposed to.
On the last Thursday of our project timeline I’ll send the site link to the client one last time for them to go through and request any last edits and just make sure everything is feeling good to them.
Launch Day
The last step is to actually get the site launched and live.
So I’ll schedule another video call with the client so I can walk them through exactly how to use and update the entire site.
My goal for every client is to get them familiar and comfortable enough with their site to be able to work on it themselves so they don’t NEED to pay me or any other designer to work on it if they don’t want to.
I’m totally ok if they want to, but I don’t want anyone to feel locked into anything if they don’t need to be!
This video call gets recorded and then I’ll put it on a hidden page of their website so they can refer back to it whenever they need to.
During this call I’ll also send over the final invoice with a quick link to pay while we’re chatting.
I do this on the call because it’s the easiest way to make sure we both get what we’re after.
I’m after the money 💸 we agreed on, and they’re after their website, so I figure it’s best to just take care of both things at once!
Once I’ve received their final payment I will go ahead and transfer the website from my account to theirs and show them how to pick a Squarespace plan if they’re not sure which one to go with.
And as I mentioned earlier, a perk of building my clients’ websites inside my Squarespace account is that once I turn it over to them I can pass along a 20% savings on their Squarespace plan - so that’s fun!
Post Launch Support
Now that we’ve wrapped up the project, completed all the payments, and launched the website everything is super great and awesome and perfect! Right?!
Mostly… but sometimes not.
Which is why I give my clients a 2 week period after we’ve finished to reach out to me with any follow up questions or problems.
If it’s something we didn’t cover in our launch day tutorial call and it’s something pretty simple for me to fix - I’ll usually just go ahead and take care of it.
And if it’s something we DID cover in our launch day tutorial I’ll point them to the timestamp in the video where I show how to do that.
But if it’s something more complicated like adding a completely new feature that we didn’t discuss I’ll offer the option of booking my time to add in whatever that is.
Wrap Up
So that’s it! Now you know my entire client process from start to finish.