Business First, Website Second

Early in my career, I had the chance to sit in on strategy meetings that I probably didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

I was young, still figuring out my place in the industry, and surrounded by people who had been doing this for years. At the agencies where I started, there were senior leaders who didn’t just talk about websites, they talked about businesses. Real strategy conversations. The kind that happened before a single design file was opened.

At the time, I was mostly there to observe. I wasn’t leading those discussions. I was listening, taking notes, and slowly realizing how much went into a website project long before design or development entered the picture.

They talked about positioning. Customer behavior. Revenue streams. Internal workflows. Competitors. Sales cycles. What needed to change on the website and what absolutely couldn’t break.

And honestly, a lot of it went over my head at first.

But over time, a pattern became clear. The smartest people in the room weren’t focused on what the website looked like. They were focused on what the business needed the website to do.

That exposure shaped how I think about projects to this day.

Website projects always start from one of two very different places: Either it's brand new or an upgrade.

Scenario #1: Brand New Website

If it's brand new, the biggest challenge usually isn’t technical, it’s clarity. Getting aligned on who the business serves, what problem it solves, and what makes it worth choosing. Most founders have those answers somewhere in their head, but they haven’t always organized them in a way that translates cleanly into a website.

That’s where early conversations become incredibly valuable.

Before getting into layouts or page structure, I spend time learning how the business actually works. Who their customers are. What their services really deliver. What objections they hear most often. Where leads come from and what happens after someone reaches out.

Over the years, I’ve developed a set of questions that helps guide those discussions. Nothing fancy, just practical fundamentals about customers, services, competitors, and what makes the business different. It’s the kind of thinking that has existed in marketing and business strategy for decades, and there’s a reason it hasn’t gone away.

Once those answers are clear, the rest of the website process becomes much more focused.

And to be clear, there are absolutely times when a client comes in fully prepared. They have a sitemap ready. Their content is written. They know exactly what belongs on each page and just need someone to build it.

I’m happy to step into that role. Give me clear instructions and I can execute.

But where I tend to deliver the most value is when a business wants someone to step back and help evaluate what they actually need before anything gets built.

Scenario #2: Upgrading a Website

More often than not, though, I’m working with businesses that already have a website.

And those sites often do far more than people realize.

Not long ago, I was referred to a potential client in the commercial mortgage space. He reached out because he wanted a new website. His site functioned well, but visually it didn’t reflect the level of professionalism he wanted to convey. He described it as needing something more elegant.

When he first reached out, it sounded like website rebuild.

But as we started walking through the site together, it became clear that this wasn’t just a handful of pages. There was a lot happening behind the scenes.

He had custom loan calculators built around his specific offerings. Rate comparison tools. Conditional forms that changed based on user input. Lead routing tied directly into a custom CRM. Tracking integrations that monitored where leads came from and how they moved through his pipeline. Reporting features that helped him evaluate deal flow and performance.

This wasn’t just a website. It was infrastructure.

Rebuilding that from scratch on a new platform wouldn’t just mean redesigning pages. It would mean recreating functionality that his business relied on every single day. That takes time, careful testing, and introduces risk, especially when the existing system is already working well.

So instead of recommending a full rebuild, I suggested something much simpler.

Keep the foundation. Improve the surface.

And in that moment, I talked myself out of what could have been a much larger project.

But it was the right call.

We focused on updating the visual presentation of key pages like the homepage and primary entry points on the same exact same template he was using. We refined typography, spacing, and layout balance. We modernized the look without touching the systems that powered his workflow.

It was faster. More efficient. Less risky.

Because what he actually needed wasn’t an overhaul. He needed thoughtful improvements to the one he already had.

Experiences like that are why I’ve always tried to build a skillset that sits somewhere between design, development, and business thinking.

Many web designers are excellent at visuals. Many developers are excellent at building systems. Both roles are critical, and both require real expertise. But websites live at the intersection of business goals, user behavior, and technical systems. Treating them as only one of those things usually leads to missed opportunities or unnecessary work.

I’ve always preferred to look at the bigger picture. Not just what can be built, but what should be built. Not just what looks good, but what supports how the business actually runs.

That’s where the idea of Business First, Website Second comes from.

Every project I take on starts with a conversation.

I offer a free consulting call at the beginning of every engagement, and honestly, those calls have become one of my favorite parts of the job. After spending hours deep in code or working through layout details, it’s refreshing to step back and talk to someone about their business.

To hear why they started it.
What problem they saw that others missed.
What they’re proud of.
What’s working.
What’s frustrating.

There’s something genuinely interesting about hearing those stories. Every business has one.

And those conversations almost always lead to better decisions, whether that means building something new, refining what already exists, or taking a direction that wasn’t obvious at the beginning.

Because in the end, the goal isn’t just to build websites.

It’s to build the right ones.