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You’ve made the decision that it’s time to set up a website for your Cricut business and you’re super anxious.
Regardless if you’re setting up your own website or paying someone else to do it for you, these are the most important things you need to do before your website is even built.
Jump to Sections in this Post
- 1. Buy a domain name
- 2. Reserve your social media accounts
- 3. Determine your brand colors – HEX and RGB codes
- 4. Get your logo and favicon made
- 5. Write your policies
- 6. Write your FAQs
- 7. Get a Google Voice number
- 8. Set up a virtual mailbox
- 9. Set up a professional email address
- 10. Write product descriptions and instructions
- 11. Take photos
- 12. Find websites you like
- 13. Find 3-5 competitors
- 14. Create a Cricut business spreadsheet
- 15. Organize your files
1. Buy a domain name
Before you begin setting up your website, you need to buy a domain name. My domain name for my website is insideoutlined.com. I buy all of my domain names on GoDaddy and I typically get them for about $20 each.
If the domain name you want is already taken, you can buy it from the owner, which will typically cost thousands of dollars, or you can decide on a different name or a different extension (.com or .co). There are thousands of domain name extensions to choose from.
You can also buy your domain name from Shopify and Squarespace. If you go this route, you need to be ready to start designing your website ASAP to take advantage of any trial offers Shopify or Squarespace may be offering.
If you’re not ready to start designing your website yet, I recommend buying your domain name in advance from GoDaddy so that no one else takes it before you do. You may think you’re the only person on the planet with that business name, but I can assure you that you’re not.
When you buy your domain name from GoDaddy, you can transfer it to Shopify, Squarespace, or any other e-commerce platform.
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
Just as I told you before about buying your domain name so no one takes it before you get to it, you need to do the same thing with any social media platforms you will be using.
You want to do this so you can have a consistent name across all of your platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, etc.).
Even though you won’t start adding content to these platforms yet, you’ll already have the account set up when you are ready.
3. Determine your brand colors – HEX and RGB codes
Your brand colors need to be determined before setting up your Cricut business website because you will incorporate those colors into your website, marketing materials, social media, and packaging.
When deciding on your brand colors make sure you know the exact colors by getting a HEX or RGB code. These are numbers or a combination of numbers and letters that give you an exact color match.
Once you have the HEX or RGB color codes, write them down in your business operations manual. I’ll talk more about the business operations manual in number 15.
Please don’t choose too many colors for your brand.
4. Get your logo and favicon made
Your logo is what people will see most often and be able to identify and associate with. Your logo will obviously go on your website, but also on your flyers, business cards, packaging, etc.
Please choose a logo that’s clean and can easily be cut with your Cricut machine and will look good on the packaging.
A favicon is that small icon that you see for different tabs that you have open in your web browser.
If a customer has 5 tabs open on their computer and they switch to a different tab, because you have a favicon that they recognize and remember, they can easily switch back to your website.
If you want to create your own logo and favicon, I recommend using Canva, but you can also pay someone else to do it on Fiverr, and I also create logos as well.
5. Write your policies
Writing the policies for your Cricut business in advance will make the website setup flow much smoother.
You will need to write the following policies to inform customers in advance: return, refund, exchange, shipping, personalized products, etc.
You will also need to write a privacy policy that informs customers of how your website uses their data. You can find templates online to create privacy policies, just Google it.
For all the policies you need, you can copy and edit them from other websites that are similar to yours or you can use tools like ChatGPT to write them for you.
Be sure to add all of your policies to your business operations manual (number 15 below).
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
6. Write your FAQs
You also need to write and answer Frequently Asked Questions on your website.
This is important because it will limit the number of repetitive emails you get from customers asking about shipping, how long it takes orders to process, and whether they can make changes to their orders after the order has been submitted.
7. Get a Google Voice number
If you don’t want customers to contact your personal phone, you can set up a Google Voice number and include it on your website, business cards, and other marketing materials and business documents.
Setting up a Google Voice number is very easy to do and there is an app you can download to make calls and send texts from your Google Voice number.
You can only set up a free Google Voice number with a personal Gmail account, not a business Gmail account.
8. Set up a virtual mailbox
Because you will likely be shipping your Cricut items you definitely want to consider getting a virtual mailbox.
When you ship your Cricut items, you will need to include a sender address on the shipping label and if you don’t want to include the address to your home or apartment, you should get a virtual mailbox.
I use Anytime Mailbox and I only pay about $9 per month for this mailbox. Anytime Mailbox partners with local businesses in medium to large cities where you will be assigned a suite number. The Anytime Mailbox partner business will have a physical presence so whenever you receive packages, you can go to their location to pick them up.
You can also use a P.O. Box if Anytime Mailbox isn’t available in your community.
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
9. Set up a professional email address
One easy way to legitimize the look of your Cricut business is by having a professional email address that includes your domain name (For example: byrd@insideoutlined.com instead of insideoutlined@gmail.com).
I use Google Workspace and it costs about $6 per month and with that I’m able to set up a professional email address and also have access to Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, and so much more.
10. Write product descriptions and instructions
Your product descriptions are very important in informing potential customers about the items they will be buying from you. You want to be sure to add as much detail as possible in the description.
If you’re selling shirts, include the brand of shirts you use, the material, and how to care for the shirt. Most of this information can be found online from wherever you bought the shirt.
If you’re selling personalized items, include details about what you need from the customer.
For personalized items, you can also include instructions on how to place an order as seen in this screenshot from my online store:
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
11. Take photos
You should have plenty of photos of the items you’ll be selling. If not, get some foam core boards from Dollar Tree, grab some props and a ring light/softbox lights, and take some high-quality photos of your Cricut items.
You can use Canva to edit your photos and even to make mockups of items.
12. Find websites you like
The hardest part of building a website is determining its design and the best way to simplify this process is by finding 3-5 websites that you like.
These can be websites of people who sell products similar to yours or they can be websites that sell products that you don’t sell.
To find websites I suggest searching on Google for different products. You want to look for websites that are run by small businesses, not global companies.
The goal is to find websites that have a layout that you like. You can then go and design your website in a similar way.
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
13. Find 3-5 competitors
As mentioned above, if one of your competitors happens to have a website you like and sell products similar to yours, you need to take a deep dive into how their website functions.
For example, if they’re selling personalized cupcake toppers and they allow customers to upload a photo, how do they want the photo submitted? Do they have customers email them the photo or can customers directly upload the photo on the screen?
This is important because it lets you know what functionality your website needs to have. In the example above, you want customers to be able to do everything on one screen and not have to email you pictures, etc.
If your competitors are offering products you hadn’t thought of, you can consider doing that as well.
Find 3-5 competitors and take note of what they are doing, good and bad, and use that information to grow your business.
14. Create a Cricut business spreadsheet
Because you will have a lot of data that you’re looking at for your business, it’s very important to keep all that information in a central place, AKA, a Cricut business spreadsheet.
The main type of data you want to include in your Cricut business spreadsheet is the price of all of your items so you can quickly see your numbers.
Let’s say you want to go to a pop-up shop and you want to create a price list of all the items you take with you. If the only place where your prices are stored is on your website, you’re going to have to manually go through your website and make a list of the prices of all the items.
If you had a spreadsheet that has all of this information in it, you can easily print it without having to do a lot of work.
Another reason you need a Cricut business spreadsheet is to keep up with all the vendors you use for the items you sell.
If you buy shirts from Jiffy.com, put that in your spreadsheet. If you buy leopard print heat transfer vinyl from HTVRONT, put that in your spreadsheet.
This helps you stay organized so when it’s time to reorder products, you don’t have to remember where you bought certain items from, you can open your Cricut business spreadsheet and get to work.
I also suggest tracking the cost of the supplies and how much you were able to get for the price.
To create a Cricut business spreadsheet, I recommend Google Sheets because you can work with it on a computer/laptop and they have an app you can download.
If you need help with your Cricut business schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.
15. Organize your files
The most important thing to do before you set up your Cricut business website is to make sure you organize your files.
You’re going to be working with a lot of files. You will have SVG files, photos, logos, and so many more documents that you’ll be working with and it can be overwhelming if you’re not organized.
I recommend using Google Workspace (mentioned above in number 9) because you can write your store policies in Google Docs. You can create your Cricut business spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
You can save all of your photos including your logos to Google Drive. Also, be sure to save your photos, SVG files, and documents with names that are descriptive so you can search for and easily find them later.
Finally, with all of the information that you create in all the steps above, create a business operations manual so everything can be in 1 place. Use Google Docs to create a business operations manual.
Include the following things in your Cricut business operations manual:
- Hex and RGB codes for all colors used in your brand
- All policies including return, refund, exchange, shipping, privacy, etc.
- FAQs – Questions and answers
- Google Voice phone number
- Virtual mailbox address
- Competitor research
- Links to your social media accounts
- Passwords to all of your accounts
I hope you enjoyed this article on 15 Things to do before setting up your Cricut business website.
If there are tips you would like me to add, leave them in the comments below or email me at byrd@insideoutlined.com.
