Got bags of money you want to throw away?
Yes, silly question isn't it? Of course you haven't but here's some ways you can lose money on a website without wanting to...
Sometimes, we get clients that come to us in a bit of a pickle needing our advice or help after getting their website done at a bargain price by a friend of a friend/uncle/auntie/some bloke of who 'knows a little bit about websites', etc. They've given them the honour of creating their professional business website with the faith that they know what they're doing. Sounds OK so far doesn't it?
They've paid them some money (on occasion more than £5k - and depending on the type of website - this isn't necessarily a bargain!) and then the website doesn't work/has errors/isn't responsive/loses them customers/loses them sales/doesn't get found in search engines - for anything (not even the company name), etc, etc. Things have now gone wrong and they're about to get worse....
Throwing good money after bad
They then pay even more money, for example, around £2600 to get either that same person to learn how to fix it, or employ someone else to try and fix the broken website. If it's an eCommerce website they've built it's 9 times out of 10 an 'entry-level' website like WordPress with WooCommerce plugins or another opensource eCommerce website like Magento or Shopify. If it's a WordPress website the work doesn't stop there - they will need to constantly install the updates and keep the plugins updated too, which unless you do it yourself may cost you more money for the life of the website. (You should ask the developers if they have any ongoing charges before you employ them).
So far, the client has spent a good chunk of money. If we use the example above, they've spent £7600 + hours and hours of frustration + lost sales + lost man/woman hours trying to work out why they're aren't getting results from their website + hours of lost sleep. Ouch! The 'bargain website' doesn't sound like a bargain anymore does it? It still might not work properly either... We really want to help clients in this situation as they shouldn't have to go through this.
Lets put you in their shoes for a moment.... you've worked really hard to build a business of which you are, quite rightly, very proud. Your business is a great idea and you want to tell the world about it. You probably want to make some money from your business too, right? Of course you do.
Here's an analogy - if you wanted to have a house built, you'd probably either build it yourself (if you had the time and patience to learn all the trades) or you'd employ a building company with a proven track record of how a house should be built. You'd most probably ask them to show you real examples of houses they've built that are still standing and being lived in. Assuming that the 'house 'is the 'website' why would you pay someone with no or very little proven experience in building websites to build your business's website? Then, when it goes wrong (yes, that's a 'when' not an 'if') you pay them more money to fix it - that's throwing your money away.
So I guess the moral of this story is "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur."
Professional website designers will save you money
Call aprompt on 01249 448 139 - the website professionals in Wiltshire to create the professional website your business deserves. You don't have to put up with opensource websites that don't work - we'll help you get the professional website you need.
Written by Kirsty Paget
