Let's be honest for a second.

Building or revamping your website often feels like a daunting task.

You envision endless pages, fancy animations, comprehensive service breakdowns, a blog, scrolling testimonials, and maybe even a members-only community.

You admire other websites, hear about all the "must-haves," and the scope of the project continues to expand. You spend weeks, maybe months, tinkering. You tweak the colors, wordsmith the ‘About Us’ page into oblivion, add another plugin, and rearrange the portfolio items for the tenth time.

Finally, you launch your website. It looks polished, but is it generating sales? Is it actively bringing in leads? Is it fulfilling its primary purpose for a solopreneur: to drive business growth?

For many, despite the effort, the answer is simply no.

This is the trap of the over-engineered website. You’ve been building a digital brochure, a monument to your own perceived legitimacy, rather than building a sales tool.

The Problem Isn’t Your offer, It’s Your Approach

The common wisdom is that a great website needs to do everything. It needs to inform, entertain, showcase, and build community.

While that might be true for massive corporations with dedicated marketing teams, but for you, the solopreneur wearing all the hats, this approach is not just inefficient, it’s actively harmful.

Why? Because every extra page, every unnecessary feature, every decision a visitor has to make before they get to the core offer is a potential point of friction. It’s a place where they can get lost, confused, or simply bored and leave.

You’re suffering from shiny object syndrome, looking at what large companies or established startups have and thinking you need all of that before you’ve even validated your core sales process online.

You’re building a mansion when all you need is a sturdy, well-placed sales desk.

Stop investing your precious time, energy, and significant money into something that isn’t producing the one result you desperately need: sales.

All that effort put into features and complexity could have been spent talking to potential customers, refining your offer, or, you know, actually selling.

The harsh truth? A beautiful website that doesn’t convert is a failed website. It’s a ghost town.

Enter the Minimum Viable Website (MVW)

Forget everything you think you need in a traditional website. We’re not building a digital museum. We’re building a focused, efficient sales machine. I call this the Minimum Viable Website, or MVW.

Inspired by the “Minimum Viable Product” concept from the startup world, an MVW for a solopreneur is the simplest possible online presence that allows you to achieve a specific, measurable sales objective.

Its purpose is singular: to attract the right kind of visitor and guide them directly towards taking the one specific action you want them to take right now.

That action could be joining your email list to nurture them into a paying customer, booking a consultation call, or making a direct purchase of a product or service.

An MVW isn’t about looking the biggest or the fanciest online.

It’s about being the most effective at converting visitors into leads or sales. It’s lean, focused, and built for speed – both in terms of getting it live and in guiding your visitor to the desired action.

The Non-Negotiable Components of Your MVW

So, what must be on your MVW to make it an effective sales tool? Not much, but what’s there has to be laser-focused and perform its job flawlessly.

Here are the essential components:

• A Crystal-Clear Value Proposition: When someone lands on your site, they need to know immediately what you do, who you do it for, and the main benefit they’ll receive. This is your headline and perhaps a brief sub-headline. If they can’t grasp this in about 5 seconds, they’re gone. This isn’t the place for clever jargon or abstract phrasing. Be direct, be clear, be compelling. Read all about it in a previous article Master the 5-Second Hook.

• Messaging that Speaks Directly to Your Target Customer: Every word on your MVW should resonate with your ideal customer. You know their pains, their frustrations, their aspirations. Your website’s copy should mirror their internal dialogue, acknowledging their problem and presenting your offer as the solution. This is where your deep understanding of your target customer avatar pays off. If your messaging is generic, you’ll attract no one.

• Proof That You Can Actually Deliver: Why should they trust you? In a crowded online world, proof is paramount. This could be a powerful testimonial from a happy client, a brief case study demonstrating results, a number highlighting your experience (e.g., “Helped 50+ clients achieve X”), or even trust badges if you have relevant ones. You don’t need dozens; a few strong pieces of social proof that build authority and credibility are far more effective than a long, unverified list. This is where the Trust Equation comes into play, demonstrating credibility and reliability immediately.

• Minimal Navigation (Guide, Don’t Distract): A traditional website navigation bar is designed for exploration. An MVW is designed for conversion. Ideally, your MVW page might have no navigation at all, forcing the visitor’s eye down the page towards the CTA. If navigation is absolutely necessary (rare for a true MVW), keep it to the minimum, maybe just a link back to the core offer or contact.

• One, Single, Unmistakable Call-to-Action: This is the beating heart of your MVW. What is the most important thing you want a visitor to do when they land on this page? Sign up for your newsletter? Book a consultation call? Buy your product? Whatever it is, there should be ONE primary action you guide them towards. Your button color, placement, and text should scream “Click Me!” Don’t offer three different options above the fold. Too many choices lead to no action.

What to Cut (Ruthlessly) When Building Your MVW

For a pragmatic solopreneur focused on sales, here’s a list of common website elements that are often distractions and can be safely cut from your initial MVW so you can launch as soon as possible:

• An extensive “About Us” page: Unless your personal story is the absolute core of your offer and directly drives the desired conversion, a brief mention of who you are and why you’re qualified within the main sales copy is sufficient.

• Detailed individual service pages: If your primary conversion is booking a consultation to discuss services, you don’t need a dedicated page for every single nuanced offering right away. Focus the main page on the overarching problem you solve.

• A blog: While valuable for long-term SEO and authority, a blog is a content marketing tool, not typically essential for the initial sales conversion on an MVW. Not to mention, maintaining an active blog is a ton of work. Add it later once the sales engine is running.

• Complex animations or excessive visuals: If they don’t directly support the message and conversion, they are likely slowing down your site and distracting visitors. Keep it clean, fast, and focused.

• Social media feeds embedded directly on the page: Sending people off your sales-focused page to a platform where they’ll be immediately distracted by cat videos and news headlines is the opposite of what you want. Link to social in the footer maybe, but don’t showcase your feed prominently.

• Pop-ups asking them to join your email list as soon as they arrive: Your main CTA is the priority. Don’t interrupt their first impression with a secondary ask. Lead magnets are powerful when used correctly, but save them for later.

Think of every element you add. Does it directly contribute to convincing the right visitor to take the one specific action you want them to take? If the answer isn’t a resounding yes, cut it. Seriously. Be brutal.

Building Your MVW: Action Over Perfection

The beauty of the MVW approach for solopreneurs is that it kills procrastination.

You’re not aiming for a perfect, finished product. You’re aiming for the simplest possible setup that allows you to start testing your offer and making sales.

Here’s a simplified approach:

• Identify Your ONE Conversion Goal: What is the single most important action you want someone to take on your site right now? (e.g., Sign up for a free guide, book a 15-min call, buy your mini-course).

• Determine the Minimum Information Needed: Based on THAT goal, what absolutely essential information does a visitor need to see and understand to feel confident taking that action? (Value proposition, problem/solution, proof, CTA).

• Choose the Simplest Tool: Use whatever website builder you are most comfortable with, or can learn quickly, to build just that one page. Don't worry about how future-proof your website is at this point.

• Write Lean, Targeted Copy: Focus relentlessly on clarity, addressing your target customer's pain points, and driving them towards the CTA.

• Launch It: Get it live. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be functional and clearly convey your offer and CTA.

• Drive Traffic & Measure: Start sending traffic to this page and see what happens. Are people converting? If not, where are they dropping off?

• Iterate Based on Data: Only add complexity or additional pages when you have data that suggests it will directly improve your conversion rate for your primary goal. For example, if people keep asking a specific question before converting, maybe add a small FAQ section. If they want to see more results, add another testimonial.

This iterative process is key. You’re building your website with your market, based on real interactions and data, rather than guessing upfront what you might need.

Eating My Own Dog Food

I’m not just preaching theory here; I’m actively practicing this approach myself right now.

I’m collaborating with a friend, an expert copywriter, to build a micro-brand focused on helping startups build better websites that actually grow their business.

As we build our own online presence for this new venture, we are intentionally taking the Minimum Viable Website route.

We’re identifying the absolute core message, defining the single most important action we want early visitors to take, and building only the pages and elements necessary to achieve that.

We’re resisting the urge to build out every single detail before we’ve even had conversations with potential first clients.

It feels counterintuitive at times, especially with the pressure to appear “established,” but we know that getting a focused message and a clear call to action live quickly is the most pragmatic way to start getting feedback, generating leads, and ultimately, making sales.

We’ll listen to what the market tells us and iterate from there.

This isn’t just advice I give, it’s the strategy I’m personally implementing because I believe in its effectiveness for those who need to see results fast.

The Power of a Single Focus

In a world of infinite options and digital noise, giving your potential customer one clear path forward is a powerful act of service. You’re simplifying their decision, reducing their cognitive load, and making it incredibly easy for them to understand if you’re right for them and what to do next.

Your Minimum Viable Website isn’t a sign that you’re not “ready” or not professional. It’s a sign that you are pragmatic, focused, and smart. You understand that the goal isn’t to have a website; the goal is to make sales and build your business.

So, stop building a website. Start building your first, focused, sales-generating Minimum Viable Website. Identify that single goal, strip away everything else, and get it live. Your future self (and your bank account) will thank you.

What’s the one conversion goal your Minimum Viable Website needs to achieve this week?

Identify it, and start building that. Everything else can wait.