How to Design a Website in One Day
Building a website can take weeks, but Circle member Laura Scholes has proven it doesn’t have to. She founded The 24-Hour Site in 2017 to help businesses launch their websites faster. After all, done is better than perfect—and Laura realized that many businesses don’t need complex websites. They need websites with great storytelling and clean design, and they need them fast.
Laura’s business model is focused on delivering great websites quickly, so clients can get fast results without feeling stressed or hurried. When clients reach out, she sends them a list of what she needs, schedules a video consultation, and starts designing the homepage. Once clients sign off on her work, Laura builds out the rest of the website. This entire process can take as little as 24 hours or just a few days—much less than the average website build. And like many web designers, Laura offers a 30-day support period after the website goes live.
We interviewed Laura to learn more about starting The 24-Hour Site, growing the business, and what she’s learned along the way. She shares tips for setting boundaries with clients and highlights some of her favorite Squarespace features. She also walks us through the step-by-step process she follows to design a website in days.
How did you get into web design?
Laura Scholes: I came into web design in a nontraditional way. Here’s the short-ish story: I have a boutique copywriting agency, Story House Creative, where I do all kinds of writing for clients big and small. Some of my solopreneur clients were getting ghosted by developers or just generally having a heck of a time getting their sites made. These people didn’t need websites with a million bells and whistles. They needed clean and modern sites that put as much focus on the copy as the design.
I was ready for a new challenge and realized this was a niche I was born to fill. So I dove into learning Squarespace and taking cues from all the great designers I’ve worked with over the years.
What inspired you to start The 24-Hour Site?
Laura: My goal with The 24-Hour Site was simple: make it easier and faster for solopreneurs to launch their businesses with a good website. They’re so busy starting or building their business, the last thing they want to do is spend weeks going back-and-forth with a designer and developer. I knew I could do it differently.
When did you launch The 24-Hour Site? How has the business changed since then?
Laura: I officially launched in mid-2017 but was very much in beta for the first year and a half while I honed my skills and processes. I really kicked things into gear in the second half of 2019. My copywriting agency is still going strong, and I’m very intentional about balancing my workflow so I get to enjoy both businesses equally.
Over the past few years, I’ve dialed in my processes. I used to really make sites in a day, and I still can. But none of my clients have ever needed a site launched literally in 24 hours, so the process has evolved in a way that gives them the best of all worlds: a dynamite site on a super-fast timeline, and with a more laidback experience.
I’ve also evolved my target audience. I learned that I can have the most impact on businesses in the professional services realm: consultants, financial planners, therapists, lawyers, doctors. These are areas where sites don’t usually have great design or copywriting; I can do both.
What does your team look like?
Laura: I am the team! People are always telling me I could outsource site building to other contractors to build my business, but I have no interest in that. I like how organically my business is growing, and I like doing everything myself (I am fully aware of my control freak tendencies!).
Walk us through your process for quickly designing websites.
Laura: My process is the same every time: once a new client is booked, I send them their “homework”—a checklist for all they need to provide me to build their site (logos, photography, domain stuff, and background info for the content). They also receive my branding questionnaire to help me understand what their business is all about and what makes them unique. It’s the secret to me being able to write great copy for them.
Once they get everything back to me, I schedule a video call to dig in and go deeper on everything. Then we schedule the site kickoff date. On that day, we’ll iterate on their homepage that I’ve been working on in the background since our call. The homepage sets the tone for the rest of the site’s pages, so once it’s approved, I can get cranking on everything else. Depending on how quickly my client wants to move, this can all happen in two to three days, but it’s usually more like a week.
What does your client onboarding process look like? How do you set expectations?
Laura: My checklist/questionnaire is my onboarding process. By the time they’ve completed everything, they know a lot more about their business and their site than when they hired me. In terms of expectations, I make sure clients know before they sign the contract that their wholehearted participation is key to making their website great. If they’re not up for that, we’re not going to be a good fit.
In fact, just yesterday, someone emailed me to get a proposal for a site. I sent him my calendar link to book a video call so we could chat and get on the same page about exactly what he needed, but he said he was only accessible by email. I emailed him back and said it wasn’t a good fit for me.
What does your client offboarding process look like?
Laura: When the site is launched, it triggers my offboarding sequence. That starts with sending out an invite for my client to book their one-hour Squarespace tutorial. They get 30 days of support following the launch, so I make sure they know when that ends and what’s covered in that. I then send them my list of Squarespace resources in case they need any help after our 30 days are up.
Finally, I send them a brief questionnaire to get their feedback on what it was like to work with me. This helps me improve my business and generates those all-important testimonials.
How does Squarespace empower you to quickly deliver websites? Are there specific tools or features you find especially helpful?
Laura: I would literally not have a business without Squarespace. And more specifically, 7.1 and Fluid Engine have been absolutely game changers for me. There are so many features I could call out, but if I have to play favorites:
Saved Sections (OMG, I kind of get teary thinking about how much time this has saved me)
How easy it is now to optimize your site for mobile without screwing with the desktop version
Everything related to images—easy resizing, the Asset library, the Unsplash integration
I’m really grateful for every bit of Squarespace.
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned while refining your process?
Laura: Getting feedback from past clients is a huge help to making things better for future clients, and it’s worth the sting of critical feedback to set yourself up for a more solid business.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to adopt this (or a similar) business model?
Laura: I say to my clients all the time: if you don’t want to offer a particular service or work with a particular kind of client, don’t put stuff on your website that would attract that kind of customer.
So I’d say something similar to a person wanting to adopt this—or any—model: Make sure you’re building the business you want to run, not what you think your business should be. It’s your life; design it how you want it.
Knowing how to make a website in a day is impressive. But The 24-Hour Site is successful because Laura saw a gap in the market and filled it. As you look for ways to differentiate yourself as a web designer, don’t just try to do things better, faster, or cheaper. Consider what problems your clients have, and look for unique ways to solve them.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
