Squarespace, one of the best website builders on the market, has been used to build millions of websites across the internet. These websites range from behemoth ecommerce stores to one-person freelancer portfolios, and everything in between.
With countless websites being built on Squarespace, it is no surprise that many service-based businesses also use the platform. Last month, the company launched a new set of tools targeted specifically at helping these services businesses win more work and manage that work more smoothly.
Following the launch, we had a chance to talk to Nikki Kuritsky, Head of Commerce at Squarespace to find out more about what these new tools are, how they can help service-based businesses, and what else might be in the pipeline when it comes to supporting serviced-based entrepreneurs.
If you are interested in using Squarespace to build your website, you can check out our full Squarespace review here.
Nikki Kuritsky is the Head of Commerce at Squarespace. She brings over 15 years of experience building consumer products within a variety of industries including entertainment, creator commerce, education, online auction and e-commerce, and has held leadership roles at Shutterstock, Christie’s Auction House, LTK / Rewardstyle and Chief.
In brief, tell us about the new tools that Squarespace are rolling out for service-based sellers.
We are excited to introduce a new suite of tools designed to support entrepreneurs who sell client services at every stage of their workflow – from marketing and capturing leads, to pitching their services and getting hired, to collecting payments.
Included in the recent launch are: branded invoices, proposals, contracts, estimates, updated client intake forms, and projects.
- Invoices allows customers to easily create and send design-forward, low-fee invoices customized to match their branding and website style.
- With these new features, customers can win more business by getting back to leads quickly with a branded, design-centered proposal. Contracts provide a seamless way to share terms and fees, and capture client agreement before starting work.
- Updated client intake forms now support documents, images, presentations, and other file uploads to expedite the intake process and get projects off the ground faster.
- Customers can now manage client information, proposals and contracts, and invoices, in one central place with projects. Projects allow customers to track the status of their invoices, project notes and milestones, and recent activity.
- With all of this functionality on one platform, entrepreneurs can save time and money that would otherwise be spent cobbling together several different tools.
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Why has Squarespace chosen now to build on its service-based business offering?
More and more entrepreneurs are choosing Squarespace as the platform to promote their service-based offerings and manage their businesses. We are uniquely suited to support them because, unlike other platforms, Squarespace offers multiple ways to monetize your skills and expertise. We are committed to building tools to help these small businesses in every stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
What are some of the biggest challenges faced by modern service sellers?
Entrepreneurs are spending more time managing their business than doing the work that inspired them to be their own boss.
As the market for services grows, so does the tech stack needed to manage business operations. It can be frustrating when tools don’t speak to one another and entrepreneurs are spending more time managing their business than doing the work that inspired them to be their own boss.
Squarespace’s new suite of tools makes it easy for business owners to support clients’ needs, accept payments professionally to increase revenue, and expand their product offerings. Squarespace can help entrepreneurs save time on business management tasks, freeing them up to focus on doing the work they love.
Which types of service-based businesses will benefit most from these new tools?
Any business that sells services can benefit from this new suite of tools, such as photographers, event planners, and graphic designers. Squarespace’s tools support sellers at every stage of their business, whether they’re just getting started, are actively growing, or operating at scale.
These tools are also great for new businesses because creating a beautiful website and getting set up to invoice clients is simple, intuitive, and easy – branding and styling from the website design are applied through to proposals and invoices with just a few clicks. And, as businesses scale, the depth of the platform can support that stage as well with marketing tools like Email Campaigns, for example.
What role does AI play in the new tools being rolled out on Squarespace?
We are continuously making progress with thoughtful AI integrations into our platform where we see additive value for our customers. We believe that AI should be helpful in aiding our entrepreneurs to save time on administrative tasks. With that in mind, we want to enable customers to be able to leverage AI to generate relevant text for their proposals, saving time as they describe their services, packages, and pricing, then edit important details unique to each client or project.
Check out our list of the best AI website builders.
What advice can you offer service-based entrepreneurs when it comes to growing their business using Squarespace tools?
A professional, branded proposal or estimate can go a long way in getting hired.
It’s always inspiring to see the kinds of amazing businesses that are built on Squarespace. I recommend exploring the full depth of what our platform has to offer, so you can avoid spending extra time and money on subscriptions for other systems that have their own learning curves and don’t integrate well together. When I think of successful service businesses on Squarespace, a few common best practices come to mind:
- Leverage client intake forms to streamline your lead generation process and capture important info like budget, key dates, or relevant files.
- Create a portfolio to showcase past work on your website, and be sure to include client testimonials.
- A professional, branded proposal or estimate can go a long way in getting hired, and including an acceptance section means clients can agree to work with you right away, reducing back-and-forth and hopefully getting you hired faster.
- Email campaigns are a great way to contact past clients and leads to offer promotional pricing or a referral discount.
No matter what stage, Squarespace can help you scale your business. I recommend leveraging our tools for every stage of your entrepreneurial journey, knowing Squarespace’s tools will scale with your business.
Are there any additional features or improvements in the pipeline that service-based entrepreneurs can look forward to?
We are always looking for new ways to improve the experience for entrepreneurs on our platform. While I don’t have any specific launches I can mention at this time, stay tuned for our annual product moment, Squarespace Refresh, this fall.
