2025 Another Fab Year in Business for Ready Steady Websites®

Usually at the end of the year we do a rundown of the most clicked on blog and email headings from the year. We’ve had a look and we’ve found the learning is very similar to the last two years and so if you’re interested in those you can take a look at last year’s post here.

What we felt would be more useful is if we shared some of the other learning we have taken from being in business this year.

2025 is the Year People Want Stuff Done for Them

When we launched Ready Steady Websites® we did it because lots of people told us they wanted a lower budget option to create their own website but which had more hands-on, consistent support than the other options out there. But over the years we have seen more people wanting more and more of their website done for them which is why we created our new Website Launch Plans which this year have quickly become our most popular plans.

It’s actually really positive to us to see this change because we feel that more people are valuing their time and focusing on doing what they’re good at in their business and letting us take care of what we’re good at.

Where Has Most of Our Business Come From?

Most of our business has come from referrals and collaborations and if you’re one of the people who has been part of that we are really grateful, thank you.

Getting Business from Referrals

Most of the time these referrals are from people who have worked with us. We’ve done a good job for them and they actively tell people about it or when someone mentions they need a website they’re told that they must come and speak to us.

They have also come from people clicking on the link in someone’s website footer who created their website with us. These aren’t even people who know the website owner but they’re looking at the website because they’re interested in that person’s business, they think the website is great and so they click and end up working with us.

This is a real lesson in how even the smallest touch points with your brand can be important, someone just seeing your business name somewhere that links to your website could be key.

Other times these referrals are from people who have got to know us through networking. Usually this takes time. You need to get well known in networking groups for people to know you and trust you enough to recommend you to others without actually having worked with you themselves. This is why I despair a little bit when I hear people saying, “I went to this networking group once and I didn’t get anything from it, so I didn’t go back”.

There is one networking group I’m in that after meeting someone twice she was happy to refer her client to us. But we really hit it off and that’s not often the way it works.

There are three networking groups I’ve been in for years and to start off with I couldn’t attribute any work to them but I was enjoying building the relationships and now there’s a long list of work I can attribute to them. There are also people who belong to more than one of those groups so I see them more frequently and the relationships become even stronger. Someone from one of those groups introduced me to the group where I picked up work after a couple of meetings and so they have to take a shared credit for that.

And in most of those groups now I’m networking without being there. If someone needs a website someone else says my name and then someone else tells me. The network works!

Getting Business Through Collaborations

I set myself a goal every year to do at least 12 guest appearances. Whether that’s running online guest workshops, speaking at events either online or in person or writing guest blog posts. The idea is I do one a month but it’s never that evenly spaced, I did six across February and March!

All of these things happen in collaboration with someone else lending me their audience or running an event with me and many of these opportunities come about because of networking and referrals.

In 2025 I did 17 and off the back of those we gained some new Ready Steady Websites® members directly, added people to our email list to continue to nurture them, sold copies of our book, made new connections on LinkedIn and had some great calls.

Getting Business Through LinkedIn

And having mentioned LinkedIn, this is the first year since we’ve been in business that we can attribute getting new Ready Steady Websites® members directly from the platform.

People have seen me commenting on other people’s posts and decided to connect with me or seen my posts because connections in common have commented on them and reached out.

On the whole these comments and posts aren’t particularly business related but they show me as a normal, easy to get on with person and they decide Ready Steady Websites® might be the right place to go for their website based on that.

But just in the same way as I can’t always attribute getting work from one networking group, I can’t say it’s just LinkedIn because the connections we have in common which allowed those people to see me were made at networking.

Show Up Regularly

I think the overarching takeaway for what has helped 2025 be a better year in business of Ready Steady Websites® than the last couple, is show up in the right places regularly.

You can’t do it all but once you find the networking groups with the right people and the social platform(s) that feel right to be on, do it regularly, consistently and do it well and results will come over time.

And the Key Thing…

Make it easy for people to get to your website once they’ve found you. All the email subscribers, books bought and calls booked that have come from our outreach have come through our website.

So, put your website link in your social bio. Put it on your business card, whether it’s real or virtual. Share it in the chat on Zoom. Because as our friends at Yellow Tuxedo always say, your website should be at the centre of your ecosystem.

We hope 2025 has been a great year for you too and thank you for your ongoing support. Here’s to another awesome year in 2026!

And if you’re wondering, the photo is of Chris at our business birthday party this year, celebrating 15 years of being in business 🥳