Why owning your own domain is so crucial

In my experience as an owner of Quick Sites International, I interact with many businesses in all kinds of areas. Some of them have a well-defined technology orientation; some of them are new in the business and have no technology orientation whatsoever. This article is aimed at the new businesses who aspire to design their first business website and expect to fail from their first step.

When initiating a business, the first thing everyone thinks about after deciding upon an area of focus for the business is the name of the business. Since businesses need to have a digital presence, the natural thing too do next is to purchase a domain.

This is the point at which many entrepreneurs can easily fail. It is so easy to throw the responsibility on another person, one who has more technical orientation, than to buy your own domain. However, the fact is that buying a domain for your website is exactly like buying your own house.

Would you consider giving that responsibility to another person? In the case of real estate, the answer is probably “no.” But, in many cases that concern domain purchases, the fact is that many entrepreneurs hand over the responsibility for the purchase of their domain to someone else—their secretary, the website designer, their son, their friend, and God knows who else.

Unfortunately, many business people don't know that as soon as you have any problem with your domain— renewing your domain, transferring it to another website or host, or changing your domain registry—you will have to use your special ID, which usually includes your email and password. If you don’t have it (remember, in this scenario you gave the responsibility to your 13-year-old nephew, and he has the password somewhere, but he can’t remember where), you will have serious issues proving that you own this particular domain.

As a website design agency, we often find ourselves chatting with, writing to, and sending legal letters from attorneys trying to prove ownership of a domain. Believe me, it is not a nice process, and it takes many hours of work to solve these kinds of issues.

It doesn't help to be someone’s website designer either, since the authorities of the domain registries will not accept any application from anyone other than the registered owner of the domain confirming his original mail, address, and phone number.

So do yourself a favor. When purchasing a domain, please do it yourself. Be very careful, check every detail, and write down every password, username, and client and/or account number. Put this information in a safe place that you can access whenever you need it.

Wishing you success!

Maya Liberman and the Quick Sites International team.

#websitedesign #smallbusinesses #designagency #websitehosting #domainregsitry