Bought the Website Template. Still Haven’t Launched?
You found the template. You clicked through the demo, pictured your logo at the top, and started imagining how good it would feel to send someone a website link you actually loved. An unfinished Showit website wasn’t exactly what you had in mind.
So you bought it. Yay! This was going to be the beginning of your new website.
Except now it’s been a little while, and the website situation looks suspiciously similar to how it looked before you bought it.
Maybe you haven’t opened the template. Maybe you started customizing it, but got stuck somewhere between choosing your colors and figuring out what to write. Or maybe you were making progress until client work picked up, and you haven’t touched it since.
That’s super annoying, especially when you were genuinely excited about the investment. You want to use it. You want the finished website. You just haven’t quite figured out how to get from the template you bought to the site you’re ready to share.
If you’re a travel advisor with an unfinished Showit website, start by identifying where you stopped and choosing one manageable next step. Then decide whether you want to make space to finish it yourself or bring in support.
Because when you’re looking at everything the website needs at once, it can feel like a mountain. And “climb the whole mountain” is a pretty intimidating thing to put on your calendar!
The template is still in your inbox…oops.
I know how exciting it feels to invest in something meaningful for your business. You can already see the possibilities, and you’re ready for your online presence to catch up with the work you’re doing.
Then the purchase email arrives while you’re in the middle of something else. You save it for later, because you want to give the website your full attention.
A client needs a proposal. You have calls booked. There’s a trip coming up that needs a few final details. Somehow, “later” keeps getting pushed back.
And the longer it sits, the bigger getting started can feel. Now you need to find the email, remember what you purchased, figure out where to access it, and get your head back into the project.
Honestly, your next step can be pretty basic: open the purchase information and see where you are.
You don’t have to turn that into a four-hour website session! Give yourself a chance to look at what you already have and decide what comes next. Getting familiar with the project makes it easier to give it a real place in your schedule.
You started, but every decision led to another decision
Maybe you did open it. You changed a few colors, added your business name, and thought, Okay, this is happening!
Then you uploaded your logo and remembered you wanted to update your branding.
Or you got to the homepage headline and realized you weren’t sure how to explain what makes your travel business different.
Or you started looking for photos, which somehow turned into an entire evening of browsing beautiful hotels. Excellent inspiration for your next trip. Slightly less helpful for finishing the website.
This is where a project can start feeling much bigger than you expected. One decision opens up three more, and suddenly you’re wondering whether you need to figure out your branding, your messaging, your photos, and your entire business direction before you can continue.
Some of those decisions do need attention.
But they don’t all need your attention at the same time.
Try naming the thing that’s actually holding you up. “My website isn’t finished” is broad enough to feel overwhelming. “I need to decide whether I’m keeping my current branding” gives you a specific decision to make.
Once you make that decision, you can move to the next one. You’re giving yourself a way through the project instead of asking yourself to solve all of it at once.
You already have a guide for what to do next
If you purchased an In Flow website template, here’s something I really want you to remember: your template comes with our Template Customization Course.
Those tutorials walk you through the process step by step, in the order we would approach it ourselves.
You don’t have to open the template and somehow know how to turn every page into your finished website!
We’ve received so much amazing feedback about how detailed the tutorials are and how helpful it is to have that guidance. But they can only help if you actually use them. If they’re still sitting alongside your unopened template, consider this your friendly reminder to go have a look.
A lot of the overwhelm comes from the unknown.
How much work is this going to take? What should you do first? What happens if you get stuck?
Following the course gives you a sequence to work through. You can watch the relevant lesson, work on that part, and pick up the next step when you’re ready.
You don’t need to watch everything and finish the entire site in one sitting. That sounds exhausting, and you probably have other things to do.
Let the next lesson tell you what deserves your attention now.
Your unfinished Showit website needs some actual space in your schedule
This is probably the part that needs the most honesty.
If the website only gets worked on when everything else is finished, it may be waiting a while (or forever). There is always another client email, another proposal, another thing you could improve in your business.
And when you finally have a little free time, you might want to spend it doing something other than writing your About page. Fair enough.
But think back to why you bought the template.
What did you want the finished website to make possible?
Maybe you wanted your online presence to reflect the level of service you’re already delivering. Maybe you wanted people to understand your specialties before getting on a call. Maybe you were tired of sending your current link with a little disclaimer about how it needed updating.
Those reasons still matter.
If finishing the website is a priority, it needs time you’ve deliberately set aside. That doesn’t mean clearing your calendar for a week. It means looking at your actual schedule and choosing a commitment you can keep.
A focused hour with a clear next step can move the project forward. An occasional evening spent opening the site, feeling overwhelmed, and closing it again probably won’t feel nearly as satisfying.
Before you finish each session, leave yourself a note about where to pick up. Make it easy to return without spending the first twenty minutes trying to remember what you were doing.
Make a plan to finish your Showit website, one step at a time
You can start with three questions:
- Where am I in the process?
- What needs to happen next?
- When am I going to make space for it?
Keep your answers specific. If you’re waiting on branding, decide how you’ll resolve it. If the copy has stalled, choose one page to work on. If you haven’t started, find your access information and begin with the course.
Our free Before You Build Website Planning Workbook can help you organize your strategy, pages, branding, photography, and content. It’s also useful if you’ve already started and need to get everything out of your head and into one place.
There’s something reassuring about seeing a defined next step instead of a vague, unfinished project. You can finish that step, see the progress, and choose the next one.
That’s how the website starts becoming something you’re actively building again.
Should you keep going with DIY or hire someone to help?
If you want to build the website yourself, enjoy the creative process, and can protect some time for it, the DIY route may still be a great fit. Use the Template Customization Course, work through the steps, and give yourself a realistic plan.
You don’t need to abandon that approach just because it’s taken longer than you expected.
But you’re also allowed to look at your schedule and decide you’d rather have our team take the lead on the design.
Maybe client work consistently takes the time you meant to spend on the website. Maybe you’re second-guessing every visual decision. Or maybe you’ve learned that customizing a website is something you can do, but don’t especially want to keep doing.
Our website design services for travel advisors include Template Customization for businesses ready to have us bring their website together. You’ll still provide the information and feedback we need, with our team leading the design work.
And if you’ve already purchased an In Flow template, the amount you paid is credited toward DIY Pro or our website services. Let us know what you purchased and where you are in the process so we can help you choose the right option.
Think about how you want to move forward:
- Do you want to make room to build it yourself with the guidance you already have?
- Would a more supported DIY option help?
- Or are you ready to hand over the design?
You bought the template because you could see what was possible for your business. Now you get to choose how to bring that possibility to life.
Start with the next step. You don’t have to tackle the whole mountain today!
