The holiday season will soon be here, bringing excitement and festive cheer. It is a wise decision to start planning for setting up attractive discounts and special sales for the holiday period, as well as for the time following the holidays. Thinking ahead and organizing these promotions now will ensure that you maximize your business opportunities during this busy season.

Is it truly possible to create a professional and fully functional website in just two weeks? That is indeed a great question! In my experience, I have successfully utilized this method of designing websites for a wide range of clients across various industries. Being able to dedicate two full weeks to the comprehensive design and development of a website for a client is an exceptional opportunity that often allows for creativity, attention to detail, and client collaboration.

The holiday season officially begins in November and continues on through the end of December. During this time, customers will be enthusiastically purchasing gifts and decorations for a variety of different holidays celebrated across the country.

INVOICES SENT THROUGH SQUARESPACE

Squarespace recently introduced a fantastic new capability across its various pricing plans. Now, you have the option to seamlessly send invoices to your clients directly through your Squarespace website.

CUSTOMIZED SIGNATURE FOR YOUR OUTGOING EMAILS

Canva.com is a versatile graphic design platform that I frequently utilize for both personal projects and business endeavors. It's a tool I consistently recommend to friends and clients due to its user-friendly interface and extensive range of preloaded templates, which can be easily customized to suit various needs. Additionally, Canva offers the flexibility to create designs from scratch, making it a go-to choice for all levels of design proficiency.

GOOGLE REVIEWS ADDED IN REAL TIME

Squarespace has so many features included in their website platform that there are few times when widgets are needed. A widget is an application that allows you to perform a function that a platform cannot perform alone. I prefer not to add widgets to a website as it slows the site down. Recently, I learned about Elfsight.com where you can add one free widget. They have multiple widgets, but you need to pay to use more than one. The reviews are updated automatically, and the incoming information can be customized by design, style, and color.

Desktop Version and Mobile View

This is simple but often overlooked when updating your website.

Squarespace has a new feature called Courses. Courses are a guided curriculum for customers where you can create your own unique content and showcase your expertise through free access, a fixed amount, or a subscription plan.

Squarespace has an Extensions area within each website. Extensions are third-party tools that easily connect to Squarespace websites. Each extension is an add on tool so there may be additional costs.

The holiday season begins in November and runs through the end of December. Customers will be purchasing for many different holidays.

A new feature from Squarespace has just been released to 7.0 and 7.1 websites.

The Home Menu has been changed to create one single entry point for website editing.

Shape blocks enhance your website design by adding different shapes in various colors.

This is a feature I have been waiting for - Text Highlight! Text Highlight allows you to add additional emphasis to your text, sentences, and whole paragraphs. This means you can now underline, cross out, circle, and more in several ways and even animate.

Learning how to make business tasks easier.

When I first started my business, I used excel spreadsheets, a calendar, a program where clients could sign contracts online, and an invoicing system. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money in the beginning, so I used what I knew. That worked but when I started getting more clients, I was spending much more time with all these systems that didn’t work together.

Another new Squarespace feature.

Sections Dividers are a fun new feature to change the bottom of a section from a straight line to a different shape. There are a few different shapes to select at this time and you can even customize the width, height, and alignment. There are so many new possibilities on a webpage.

Squarespace has yet another new feature.

This new Asset Library feature is great. It is listed on the Home Menu of all Squarespace websites. You can upload a picture or many pictures at once. You can even add folders to help sort the images.

I have been waiting and hoping for something like this within the Squarespace platform! Squarespace has added saved sections you can use within the pages of the website.

Squarespace has a new content editor for block sections within pages. The editor that we have been most comfortable with is now called Classic Editor and the new editor is called Fluid Engine. Fluid Engine brings a new flexible design grid system gives you so many possibilities to create the website you envision.

Is it possible to create a professional website in two weeks? Great question! Many website designers have this added model to their business, and I think it’s an excellent idea. Being able to devote two weeks to designing a website for a client is fantastic. I have officially been a website designer for a year and can tell you that, yes, this is possible.

Last weekend I was asked to speak to a group about the benefits of a website and online forms. I had created a website for a local club in this organization. I tried to be general in sharing why this would benefit each club around the United States.