Business roadmap

Indicative year-one budget

Planning ranges, not quotes. Actual South African prices vary by provider, promotions, VAT, renewal pricing and exchange rates.

Item	Lean DIY	Comfortable DIY
Domain	R150–R250/year	R150–R350/year
Hosting/platform	R1,000–R2,000/year	R2,000–R4,000/year
Theme/design	R0–R500	R500–R1,500
Email	R0 initially	R0–R1,500/year
Other tools	R0–R500	R500–R1,500
Approximate total	R1,150–R3,750	R3,150–R8,850

90-day launch plan

1. Weeks 1–2, foundation. Finalise the name, check social and domain availability, define the brand promise, choose the platform, buy the domain, set up basic branding.
2. Weeks 3–4, website. Build Home, About, Blog, Resources and Contact. Create the free Weekly Household Reset. Connect Instagram and the email signup.
3. Month 2, content. Publish 8–12 genuinely useful articles. Build Instagram content from the same topics. Start the weekly newsletter.
4. Month 3, monetisation. Launch the first low-cost digital product. Test what people click, download, save and buy before building a large range.

Platform

WordPress.com is the simplest start; self-hosted WordPress gives more long-term control for slightly more setup; Wix and Squarespace are easier to build visually but less flexible for a content-heavy business and get more expensive as features are added. The recommendation in the brief is WordPress, with a simple design and the effort spent on content and audience.

Guardrails

• Don't spend heavily on a custom website before proving the audience.
• Don't launch 20 digital products at once.
• Don't turn the site into a lifestyle magazine with no clear utility.
• Don't rely on Instagram followers alone — build the email list early.
• Don't recommend products because they pay.

First milestone

1,000 engaged email subscribers, rather than a particular Instagram follower count. Repeat downloads, replies, shares and purchases are the evidence that it's working.