Should I focus on social media or a website first?

If you're starting from nothing, this is one of the first real decisions you'll face, and most advice on it dodges the question by saying "you need both eventually." True, but not very useful when you're deciding where to put your time this month.

Build the website first. Here's the actual reasoning, not just the answer.

Social media is free to start, which is exactly the problem.
Because there's no barrier, everyone's already there. It's not your gap to fill, it's already full. A proper website, even a simple one, is still something a lot of small businesses skip, which means it's actually where you can stand out.

A website makes your social media worth having.
Every post needs somewhere to send people. Without a website, your best content ends on the platform it was posted on, someone likes a post, maybe follows you, and that's usually where it stops. With a website, that same post can point somewhere that actually explains what you do and gives people a way to get in touch.

You don't own social media, you rent it.
An account can be restricted, a platform can change its algorithm overnight, and your reach depends entirely on rules you don't control. A website is yours. It doesn't disappear because a platform changed something.

You don't need a big website to make this true.
This is the part that puts people off starting. A full multi-page site can feel like a big project, so it gets pushed back indefinitely while social media fills the gap instead. But a focused one-page website, one that clearly says what you do, who it's for, and how to get in touch, does the job perfectly well as a first step. It can always grow later. It just needs to exist now.

Where social media fits in.
Once the website's up, social media becomes genuinely useful, it's how people discover you, and the website is where they go to actually understand you and take the next step. That order matters. Reaching people without somewhere solid to send them means a lot of that effort has nowhere to land.

If you're trying to work out where to start, get in touch and we can figure out what actually makes sense for your business.