Navigating a New Chapter: Inheriting a Business and Its Website

Inheriting a small business can be a mixed bag of emotions, especially when you’ve lost a mentor along the way. Recently, I found myself in this situation when my boss passed away and left his company in my care. The challenge ahead is not just about managing the business; it also includes navigating the complex digital landscape of the company’s website. For someone who isn’t particularly tech-savvy, this has proven to be quite an undertaking.

Discovering the Back-End of the Website

One of the first hurdles I’ve encountered is accessing the back end of the company’s website. Armed with a few passwords and leads, I quickly realized that I need to first determine which content management system (CMS) the site is built on. Unfortunately, my attempts at using online tools to trace the CMS so far have been unsuccessful.

What has become apparent to me is that the website is not visually appealing, which leads me to suspect that it wasn’t built on popular platforms like WordPress or Wix. Instead, it appears to be a product of his own HTML coding skills. While I’m comfortable working with HTML, I find myself at a loss with how to actually access the editing interface.

Identifying the Right Access Points

In a typical scenario where platforms like Wix or WordPress are used, logging in is straightforward: you simply go to their respective websites and use your credentials. However, with this particular website, I’m struggling to determine the right path to make necessary updates.

If you find yourself in a similar boat, here are a few strategies that could help you navigate this unfamiliar territory:

1. Check for Documentation
Before diving in further, see if there are any documents or notes left behind by your predecessor. Often, small business owners keep track of vital information, including website hosting details, admin credentials, and instructions for accessing their CMS.

2. Contact Hosting Providers
If you can identify where the website is hosted, reaching out to the hosting provider can be fruitful. They may help you recover or reset passwords, allowing you access to the website’s control panel.

3. Use Browser Developer Tools
Inspect the website using browser developer tools to gather clues about the technology stack it uses. Look for specific tags in the source code that might indicate which language or framework was used for development.

4. Look for FTP Access
If the website was built using custom HTML, there’s a good