In this day and age, if you do not have a website for your business, regardless of whether it is small and local, your competitors who have one will leave you in the dust. We are living in a digital era where almost everyone is using the internet for practically everything from shopping to getting a college education. As such, having a well-designed, informative website for your online interests is no longer a luxury but a necessity if you are to publicize your brand and drive sales.

Creating a successful website is always an expensive proposition that demands a lot of time and resources. While there are new tools and technologies today, that have made website building easier and almost free, you have to keep in mind that you get what you pay for. If you want your website to feature prominently on a Google search engine results page, you must invest in a modern design.

Expensive as it may be, insufficient funds should not frustrate your efforts towards building a great website or redesigning it for a fresher appeal. Read on to find out the various options you have for financing your website design or redesign project.

Explore cheap personal loans

The downside to getting money from those closest to you is the risk of ruining relationships should your venture fail. If you want a relatively small amount of startup capital, consider taking out a loan. Since banks are very stringent about giving out unsecured loans, consider borrowing from reliable online lenders who specialize in giving out cheap personal loans even to people with bad or no credit.

Start with bootstrapping

You must first self-fund your project for a while before looking to other funding opportunities. For other people to believe in your vision, they must see that you believe in it yourself. You achieve this by showing that you are comfortable investing your own resources into your venture.

Self-funding involves scrapping together your personal funds from savings accounts, zero interest credit cards and any money you can get from leveraging your personal assets. This is a great first approach as opposed to raising or borrowing. It frees you from monthly payments that could deter your business growth or prove problematic if you run into snags along the way.

You might scrap up enough to fund your website from creation until it starts generating positive cash flow from operations.

Consider external sources of funding

If you can barely scrape together enough personal funds to get your site up and running or if you are looking to scale your business quickly, you should consider bringing in external sources of funding. The easiest place to start is with your friends and family. They are more likely to believe in your vision and offer support compared to strangers on crowd-funding sites. You can also opt for business loans from online lenders like Kapitus.

Make your Website design budget

How much does an up-to-date website design cost? It is almost impossible to come up with a one-off quote. This is because a number of reasons including varying definitions of a great website. This however does not mean that you should pour an uncontrolled amount of money into it.

Your first step should be determining how much the project could realistically cost you. The cost should be the sum of both the building cost and burn rate. Next, write down the budget indicating specific costs and stick to it. Do not spend more than you have budgeted for unless there is no other option.

In Conclusion

There are a number of funding options for your website design or redesign project. Chances are that you will consider one or all of them as your business grows. Finding the funding you need can be the biggest hurdle that is hindering your progression as an entrepreneur. However, once you have scrapped together enough savings, found investors for your business venture or gotten approval for a cheap personal loan, you can get your modern website up, running and ready to outcompete your rivals.