How to build a website for a new business (before you open)

Fernanda rented the space on August 3rd. She painted, had the sign made, and put it up on Saturday: Papelería Fernanda, blue letters on white, on an avenue in Tepic. She opens Monday the 24th.

Ever since she put up the sign, two or three people poke their heads in through the half-raised shutter every day.

—Are you open yet? —Will you have the school supply lists? —Do you make copies?

She answers from inside, her hands full of packing tape.

Those people already found her on their own. The problem is everyone else: the people who live six blocks away, never walk down that street, and have no way of knowing a stationery shop is opening there on Monday. A website for a new business is, simply, the page that answers those questions for you before you ever raise the shutter — what you sell, where, and when — for the people who will never walk past your storefront. If you’re looking into how to build one, you probably feel like you don’t have anything to publish yet. You have more than you think, and less time than you think.

Your business already exists before you raise the shutter

Between the day you sign the lease and the day you open, two weeks or three months go by, and almost all of us spend them the same way: handling loose ends inside the space, thinking the website thing can wait “until it’s all ready.”

It’s the other way around. Those are exactly the weeks when people wonder what’s going in there — a space under renovation with a brand-new sign draws more attention than a business that’s been open for three years. You already have the curiosity, and it’s free. What’s missing is a way to answer it without anyone having to poke their head through the shutter.

How do I build a website for a business that hasn’t opened yet?

By publishing three things you already know, even without photos, prices, or inventory ready: what you are, where you are, and when you open. That’s the whole page, for now.

No photos of the space, the order hasn’t arrived, you haven’t finished deciding on prices. True. But you already know these three things:

What you are. Not the full list of everything you’ll sell — the phrase people will use to describe you. “Stationery and copies.” “Dog grooming.” “Bike shop.”
Where you are. The address plus the landmark people actually use — Av. Insurgentes 214, almost at the corner of Zapata, next to the pharmacy — and a map.
When you open. The date, front and center. It’s the one piece of information nobody can guess, and the one that makes people remember you.

Here’s how Fernanda’s turns out: Papelería Fernanda. Stationery, school supplies, and copies. Av. Insurgentes 214, almost at the corner of Zapata, Tepic. We open Monday, August 24th at 8:00 a.m.

Written out like that, it looks like next to nothing, and it’s still more than half the businesses on that block have — businesses that have been open for years. Once you’re actually open you’ll need more — hours, prices, a detailed rundown of what you sell — but that’s next month’s problem.

What opening date should I put on my website?

The exact date, front and center, with a few days of buffer — never “Coming soon.” It’s the detail people neglect most, and the one that makes you look bad fastest if you miss it.

Two mistakes, both common.

The first: writing “Coming soon.” Whoever reads it has no idea whether you open next week or next year, so they do nothing with it.

The second is worse: posting a date and missing it. “We open in August,” read on September 4th, doesn’t come across as “they got delayed.” It comes across as “these people leave things half-finished” — and that’s the first impression of a business that hasn’t even opened yet.

Two rules, one for each:

Announce later than you think you’ll open. If you feel like you’ll be ready on the 20th, say the 24th. Opening early costs you nothing — people are even happy about it. Opening late does cost you.
Set a reminder the same day you publish, for your opening day. That day, your page’s job changes: it stops announcing an opening and starts stating your hours. It’s a two-minute task that’s easy to forget for weeks.

It’s the same rule as always — never publish information you can’t update the day it changes — with one advantage: this one expires only once, and you already know exactly which day.

What shouldn’t I publish on my business page yet?

Five things are better left until after you open: prices you haven’t finished working out, the full catalog, photos of the half-finished space, a phone number you won’t answer, and grand-opening promises you’re not sure you can keep.

Prices you haven’t finished working out. You’ll end up raising them once you realize what things really cost, and the customer who shows up quoting your old number will have a point. Publish prices once you’ve actually bought the stock.
The full catalog. If you advertise twenty items and only twelve show up, you start out in the hole.
Photos of the half-finished space. Dust, a ladder, stacked boxes — that excitement is yours, not your customer’s. If you’re going to post a photo, make it the one of the sign already up.
A phone number you won’t answer. If the business line doesn’t exist yet, use your cell. A number that just rings and rings does more damage than no number at all.
“Grand opening with giveaways” — only if you’re sure you can deliver. People do remember that one.

Is it worth collecting contacts before I open?

Yes, just one: a field for people to leave their WhatsApp number, so you can tell them the exact day you open. No name, no email, no “how did you hear about us?”

It doesn’t sound like much. Compare Monday the 24th with and without it.

Without it, you raise the shutter at 8:00 and wait to see who walks by.

With it, on Sunday night you send forty messages — “we open tomorrow at 8, here’s the address” — to forty people who already raised their hand, including the moms who asked about the school supply lists.

It’s not a campaign. It’s forty neighbors. And a first day that isn’t empty is the difference between starting out with cash in the register and starting out owing the rent.

Describe it to Proyecta, date included

What Fernanda would write:

I need a page for my stationery shop in Tepic. I haven’t opened yet: I open Monday, August 24th at 8 in the morning. I’m at Av. Insurgentes 214, almost at the corner of Zapata, next to the pharmacy. I sell school supplies, copies, printing, and binding. I want the opening date to be the biggest thing on the page, with a map, a WhatsApp button, and a space for people to leave their number so I can let them know that day.

That gets published, with its own link. And that link has a place almost nobody uses: printed on the shutter itself, which is the best advertising space you’ll ever have — people really do look — and right now it says nothing.

What do I change on my website on opening day?

Three things, fifteen minutes, no rebuilding anything: swap the date for your hours, send messages to everyone who left their number, and post the questions people asked you while the shutter was still half-raised.

Swap the date for your hours. That’s what the reminder was for.
Send the messages to everyone who left their number.
Post the questions people asked you. Nobody sees this one coming: during the half-raised-shutter days, you got asked the same thing ten times over. Do you carry uniforms? Do you do color copies? Do you sell wholesale? Those are your FAQs, written by your customers before you even opened.

This week’s test

If you’re opening soon, today’s task isn’t to design anything.

Write three lines on a sheet of paper — what you’re going to sell, what day you open, and your WhatsApp number — and tape it outside, on the shutter.

In two days you’ll know two things. If people messaged you, you already have your first customers written down and you already know what goes on the page. And if nobody messaged you, you learned something expensive just in time: the people walking that sidewalk aren’t the people who’ll buy from you — better to know that eleven days before you open than three months after.

Once you have your three lines, describe them to Proyecta and publish your page. It takes less time than painting the wall → proyecta.dev