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Is WordPress the Right Choice for Your Business? - Pros, Cons, and Alternatives
Mar 25, 2025
Wondering if WordPress is the right choice for your business website? We discuss the benefits, limitations, and alternatives to WordPress for small business owners. Learn when to choose WordPress and when to consider other options like Shopify, Wix, or Squarespace. In this video, we discuss the pros and cons of using WordPress for your business website and explore alternatives like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. Learn the types of businesses that benefit the most from a WordPress website and when it might be better to consider other platforms. While WordPress is a versatile and popular content management system, it's crucial to evaluate whether it's the best fit for your business. Consider your needs, your desired level of involvement, and your budget before making a decision. And remember, the success of your website depends on understanding your vision and choosing the right platform and team to bring it to life. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more helpful tips on growing your business online! Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:04 - What kind of businesses is WordPress best suited for? 02:36 - When to choose WooCommerce or other eCommerce solutions 04:10 - When WordPress might not be the best choice for your business 05:17 - Deciding if WordPress is right for you 07:15 - Should you set up your WordPress site by yourself or hire someone? 08:48 - How to find a reliable WordPress developer or designer 11:06 - Discovering WordPress Meetups and the community 13:14 - Staying in control of your vision when working with a developer or designer
View Video Transcript
0:00
I want to use WordPress to set up my
0:01
business website do I want to try and
0:03
set this up for my by myself or do I
0:05
want to hire somebody I have a story a
0:08
long time ago
0:09
where I made things sold things
0:11
and I had a problem because I wasn't
0:13
getting paid when I chip stuff and I
0:16
realized the reason I wasn't getting
0:17
paid was I didn't send out any invoices
0:19
so people don't pay you if you don't
0:21
answer the money so I thought well okay
0:23
I'm gonna take care of my books I'm
0:25
gonna learn how to keep my books and I'm
0:28
gonna spend and I spend a lot of time on
0:30
my books you know what happened I didn't
0:32
make any art so I hired somebody because
0:35
if that's not what I want to do and it
0:38
makes me crazy to have to do it get
0:40
somebody else to do it for you
0:44
[Music]
0:48
WordPress is a popular content
0:50
management system used by many small
0:52
business owners but are there some
0:54
businesses it simply isn't suited to
0:56
support e-commerce for example Kirsch
0:59
mcconnellogue of
1:01
wefixbrokenwebsites.com has been working
1:03
with WordPress since 2005 and tells us
1:06
about the platform's benefits and its
1:09
limitations so kurch just to get started
1:13
um what kind of business or business
1:15
businesses that is a WordPress website
1:17
passport now I I realize this is a
1:19
loaded question because I think there's
1:21
probably I mean WordPress is very
1:24
versatile but in general in general we
1:26
were talking before the show about the
1:28
kinds of businesses that wordpresses
1:31
probably best suited for at least in its
1:33
simplest form well you're right about
1:36
the loaded question I mean theoretically
1:38
you could do anything on a WordPress
1:40
site I mean there's big I'm not sure New
1:42
York Times is the right answer but
1:43
there's a lot of real big
1:45
companies that use WordPress but if
1:48
you're little and you're just starting
1:51
out and you're a little bit
1:54
you you want to make sure people uh know
1:56
where your store is they want to know
1:58
where you're you know that don't I've
2:00
had therapists who say that what they
2:02
really like about their website is
2:03
somebody goes there and gets directions
2:04
they don't have to have a secretary
2:06
answering the question of how do I get
2:08
to your office so simple straight up
2:10
almost slightly better than a brochure
2:14
that's like the basic of basicness but
2:17
then if you want to have uh if you want
2:19
to have a Blog if you want to do some
2:21
sort of educational stuff it's great for
2:23
that it's I mean it's good and if you
2:25
have this thing you want to sell it's
2:27
good for sales and and again there's we
2:29
talked about this before it's a there's
2:31
a I have a book or I have a sweater I
2:34
want to sound then you don't need
2:36
woocommerce you don't need Shopify you
2:38
don't need anything else you need
2:39
essentially uh it could use a PayPal
2:42
button that you get from PayPal to put
2:43
on and that would work or you have three
2:46
things you want to sell and you could
2:47
use the gravity forms or something like
2:49
that to let people just buy this one
2:51
thing and it's great but if you go into
2:54
hundreds of jewelry uh that's going to
2:58
be you know turning over maybe Shopify
3:00
is a better answer and here's one that
3:02
you'll have to look up Mal's Dash
3:05
e-commerce
3:06
m-a-l-s-e is if you have if you have um
3:10
things you're selling and you have lots
3:12
and lots of options for each thing
3:14
woocommerce is paying the next for that
3:16
but Mouse does great work
3:19
should explain quickly for those who are
3:22
not for uninitiated what woocommerce is
3:24
Commerce is a plug-in for for WordPress
3:26
that allows you to set up sales I think
3:30
they also do memberships uh anything you
3:33
want people to buy it's it's it's kind
3:35
of tedious to set up in the first place
3:37
a lot of boxes to miss and things to not
3:40
get quite right but if you're selling
3:42
you know t-shirts in small medium and
3:45
large it's great if you have some
3:47
collection of uh just a lot of things
3:50
but not thousands of things although it
3:52
could support thousands of things so I
3:54
so I think what I'm hearing is and we
3:57
talked about this a little bit before
3:58
the show started though it might be a
4:00
controversial statement if you're just
4:01
getting started and you're gonna you're
4:04
planning to set up a whole store full of
4:07
and then you have hundreds or thousands
4:09
of pieces of merchandise all kinds of
4:11
things like that that might not be the
4:14
best use a store like that uh is is more
4:17
a store and less
4:20
sharing of information for example
4:22
Amazon which is not a WordPress site
4:25
Amazon doesn't try to educate you they
4:28
just try to sell you stuff and maybe
4:30
that's the maybe that's the bottom line
4:33
of you know what are you trying to do on
4:35
your website just sell stuff maybe not
4:37
the best choice but if you're trying to
4:40
do some education some more information
4:44
you're trying to pass off at you know
4:45
classes or something like that then
4:48
Spotify how do you decide if WordPress
4:50
is is right for you and maybe
4:53
one of the things that we should think
4:55
about here when we're asking this
4:57
question is there's kind of other ways
4:59
you can promote your business too you
5:01
can you can have a there are people who
5:03
have a Facebook page for example and
5:05
nothing else you know a lot of people
5:07
who are new think well I don't need all
5:10
that I could just have a Facebook page
5:12
or Facebook group but in Facebook I
5:15
don't I'm making this number up but
5:17
content has a shelf life of about 20
5:19
minutes and if somebody misses it on
5:21
that 20 minute thing then you've lost
5:24
something I'm not saying it's nothing
5:26
but you know it's it's you might start
5:29
there but once you're sure that you're
5:31
really moving ahead and you really want
5:33
to have an actual website that actually
5:35
has content on it and information on it
5:39
then you want to move into the next
5:40
thing and some people will say Wix or or
5:43
whatever the Squarespace or something
5:45
like that
5:46
um
5:47
uh I'm a WordPress person so I'm going
5:50
to tell you all that's crap but it's
5:51
probably not depending on what you want
5:53
to do with it if you want somebody to
5:55
keep coming back to your website not
5:58
just you saw an ad and want to buy these
6:00
shoes that you know that's that's one
6:02
kind of website but if you want people
6:04
to come back to to uh learn to know who
6:08
you are to like you to trust you and
6:10
then get around to buying something you
6:12
got to have more than just a store even
6:15
in a brick and mortar store people come
6:17
in they're going to look can I help you
6:18
no I'm just looking and they do that a
6:20
couple of times and then they decide you
6:22
know what I'm going to go back there and
6:23
buy something but you have to get
6:25
through the know me like me trust me
6:27
before you can pass me your money
6:30
whatever it is I want to say I want to
6:32
use WordPress to set up my business
6:33
website do I want to try and set this up
6:36
for my by myself or do I want to hire
6:38
somebody I have a story a long time ago
6:40
I had a business where I made things and
6:42
sold things at craft shows and I had a
6:44
problem because I wasn't getting paid
6:46
when I ship stuff and I realized the
6:48
reason I wasn't getting paid was I
6:49
didn't send out any invoices so people
6:52
don't pay you if you don't answer the
6:53
money so I thought well okay I'm gonna
6:56
take care of my books I'm gonna learn
6:58
how to keep my books and I'm gonna spend
7:00
and I spend a lot of time on my books
7:02
and you know what happened I didn't make
7:04
any art so I hired somebody because if
7:08
that's not what I want to do and it
7:10
makes me crazy to have to do it get
7:12
somebody else to do it for you now the
7:14
the kind of beauty of Wordpress is you
7:18
could get somebody to set it up for you
7:20
and if you want to if you have the
7:22
inclination to if you have the interest
7:24
in the puzzling of it you could maintain
7:27
it yourself you could add your own
7:29
content you could change the prices you
7:31
could you know add pictures you could do
7:33
all those things yourself it's it's it's
7:35
relatively easy it's not uh uh uh you
7:39
blink your eyes and pictures are there
7:41
or blink your eyes and a link is there
7:43
you have to want to do it and it's and
7:46
it's tedious and it takes time and it
7:49
always takes more time than you think
7:51
it's going to take even for people who
7:53
know what they're doing so that's sort
7:55
of the line there is is is that what you
7:58
want to do with your time or not but you
8:00
know you look at awful lot of people who
8:02
have been doing WordPress press for a
8:03
long time and even new people how do I
8:05
get started I needed a website uh my
8:08
first one was HTML and then I oh anybody
8:10
have a Blog cheese that's interesting I
8:12
want that and then that was you know
8:14
2005 and here I am all these years later
8:17
so but I like it I want to do it it's a
8:19
puzzle it's fun so that's your sort of
8:22
line of can you do it yourself yes
8:24
do you want to
8:26
maybe maybe not I want to find somebody
8:29
a WordPress developer or whatever you
8:31
want to call it I'm going to find
8:33
somebody
8:34
set this up for me
8:36
where do I find somebody there's an
8:38
awful lot of people who say oh my kid
8:40
can do that my neighbor's kid my my
8:43
brother can do that my uncle can do that
8:45
and the problem we have with somebody
8:47
who's related to you
8:50
uh or even a friend uh if if they get
8:53
stuck if they family members often get
8:57
bored and go away and don't want to do
8:59
it anymore and then you're sort of
9:00
screwed uh and and and so and then if
9:04
you decide you don't like what they're
9:05
doing it's really hard to tell your son
9:07
you know this isn't what I'm looking for
9:09
so finding somebody else I think is the
9:12
first part and then you know if you were
9:15
to find a local Meetup you could go to a
9:17
Meetup and you could ask around who are
9:19
you using who did it for you what you
9:21
know can can you help me start with
9:24
something can you
9:25
you know how how do I go about it I I
9:30
hesitate to stay safe sites like um
9:33
Elance I think it has a new name now but
9:36
uh uh for five or something many uh
9:39
upwork upwork yeah yeah that's what it
9:41
was fiber or right yeah I hesitate to
9:44
say I mean maybe it'll be fine uh maybe
9:47
it won't be
9:48
um things you want to be sure if you get
9:50
somebody to do this work for you is that
9:52
you own the domain name and you own the
9:56
hosting so if they get anything's wrong
9:59
you still have control you go to your
10:02
small business group and ask somebody
10:04
the small business group and the other
10:05
thing you get from that is being able to
10:07
ask a a random collection of people how
10:11
much did it cost you I mean you're gonna
10:13
get answers everywhere between 500 which
10:16
is or you know 25 000 and you gotta you
10:22
got to figure out what's it worth to you
10:23
and how much do you think you can make
10:24
it if you're just starting out and
10:26
you're selling three books you don't
10:28
want to spend thousands of dollars on
10:30
that because the likelihood you are
10:32
getting it back is you know maybe not
10:35
that great
10:37
you touched on something and this
10:39
happens to be how you and I met
10:40
interestingly enough but you you talked
10:42
about WordPress meetups
10:45
um you know I think as a non-wordpress
10:48
developer you know I I could just say I
10:50
enjoyed so much just just going to one
10:52
and I think that it it opens your eyes
10:55
and you meet people and even if you're
10:58
not a WordPress developer you meet
11:00
people and if you need this kind of
11:03
talent it's a great pool but tell people
11:06
a little bit I mean
11:11
I was amazed to find one in my community
11:14
just meeting there you know just meeting
11:16
at the community college so Meetup
11:18
meetup.com I think uh has meet a group
11:22
which is kind of a a group of people who
11:26
have a similar interest it could be
11:27
everything from I just moved here to I
11:30
like salsa dancing to uh how to make
11:33
drinks how to do everything so you go
11:34
there you search within whatever your
11:36
reasonable amount of driving space is uh
11:39
for WordPress and and then you find out
11:42
when the meeting is and you go and also
11:45
first of all and every time I've been to
11:47
a Meetup there's always been at least
11:49
one person and even in real small groups
11:52
at least one person who has no idea what
11:54
they're doing and they come there and
11:56
they ask questions and there's always
11:58
somebody there who will help them and
12:00
the beauty of it also is that even if
12:02
you think
12:03
I think I know pretty much I don't know
12:05
everything I don't even probably know a
12:07
lot in the big pictures of life but I
12:09
know I can help lots of people who are I
12:12
say this less than me but I don't mean I
12:13
mean who don't know as much as me and I
12:16
can learn from people who know way more
12:18
than me and and it's a it's a very the
12:21
WordPress community in general is a very
12:23
welcoming group and they want to make
12:27
your life easy and they want to help you
12:29
and even if it's just a I can't figure
12:31
out how to do this one thing but I got
12:32
my whole side with this one thing go
12:34
find somebody there who can who will say
12:36
oh yeah I can help you with that boom
12:37
boom bogey humble also lots of the
12:39
meetups over the last couple of years
12:41
with the pandemic have been online so
12:44
virtual so you can find virtual meetups
12:48
and we've had a couple of them and we
12:50
had a guy from Colorado and a guy from
12:52
India who you know came to the Meetup
12:55
because they could and they're free
12:57
there's this idea that you have to stay
12:59
in control of your vision because you
13:01
know how your business works so somebody
13:02
gives you a bit a website that just
13:04
doesn't work for your business just does
13:06
not work for your business
13:09
um then you're in trouble this is it
13:10
yeah before you even talk to anybody you
13:14
must write down on paper write down what
13:17
exactly you want your website to do what
13:19
do you imagine it needs to do and what
13:22
do you think it should look like and if
13:24
somebody comes to me and says I want to
13:26
can you just can you draw me a picture
13:28
on a piece of paper with a pencil take a
13:30
picture with your phone scan it send it
13:31
to me how do you think it should be laid
13:34
out don't put content in it just give me
13:36
a picture so I have something to start
13:38
from from where to go so so I have this
13:41
personally I have this weird sort of
13:43
geekifiedness and and artistic stuff so
13:46
I can do an awful lot of design work
13:48
myself but if I don't know what anything
13:51
if I don't have any idea what it is you
13:53
want well then I'm sort of at a loss and
13:56
if what you want is something more
13:58
complicated than what I can do then I
14:00
can say oh well we're also going to need
14:01
a designer and that's a whole different
14:03
kettle of fish but knowing what it is
14:06
you want what are the pieces what you
14:08
know what are you going to do with it
14:09
who is who are your clients who are your
14:11
ideal clients who are your visitors who
14:14
do you want to have as your visitors you
14:16
know well I remember asking this
14:18
question to somebody one time a long
14:19
time ago when I was coaching and I said
14:21
so what's your ideal customer oh well
14:23
well somebody pays me you know that's a
14:26
perfectly legitimate piece of an ideal
14:29
customer somebody who pays on they say
14:32
they're going to pay I want the money
14:33
you gotta pay knowing all of those
14:35
things before you start talking to
14:37
somebody is really helpful and that's it
14:39
for another episode of small business
14:40
15. thanks again to Kirsch mcconnellog
14:43
and please like And subscribe if you
14:44
enjoyed the show and please leave a
14:46
comment and let us know what topics
14:48
you'd like to see covered in future
14:49
programs for more small business news
14:51
and tips join us at smallbizstrends.com
14:54
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