A Parable On Getting Your First Website

I was consulting last weekend for a lady in Ohio who was interested in getting a website, but wasn’t sure what she REALLY needed. You see, she had been bombarded with emails, and quotes from various web designers and firms. She was getting offered packages ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars that seemed to really have nothing to do with her actual needs. She was getting overwhelmed and wanted to hear from someone in the industry what the right course of action.

Now you might ask, Mike aren’t you a web designer? Why didn’t you offer her your services? To be honest, the greedy part of me thought about it for about ten seconds until I really took a look at my schedule. I could have taken the job and really done her a lot more harm than good by delaying the project while I worked on my other priorities.

So I opted to be the voice of reason for someone who knows very little about the services being offered to her. I listened as she read me the quotes, emails, and notes she had gotten. Based on the “advice” she was getting from these sales people, she was leaning heavily towards starting an online store, but had no idea what that really meant.

After hearing all of this, I asked a few simple questions.

• How long have you been in business?
• Do you have the financial stability to afford the design and the monthly charges you would get into with an online store?
• What is your real goal with this website?

She explained that she was just opening her physical store front and she knew she needed a presence on the web to help promote, attract customers, and inform the interested about her business. She acknowledged that starting out her budget was extremely tight, as most start ups are, but she was really impressed with what she was told an online store could do for her. She was getting swayed by the possibilities and ignoring the reality.

That’s where I stopped her and stepped in.

I asked her to go through the three questions I asked her with me.

• How long have you been in business? Not very long.
• Do you have the financial stability to afford the design and the monthly charges you would get into with an online store? No. She was paying for the physical store front, supplies, and stock.
• What is your real goal with this website? Just to inform people about her business.

With the reality of her needs and limitations firmly in place, I went with her through several hosting companies’ websites and showed her the monthly cost of what an online store would bring her if she chose this route. She was floored at the cost and was upset that some of the firms she talked with, that did the most convincing, never informed her of.  I advised her she could use services like PayPal or E-Bay in the interim if she was truly interested in selling products online, but with being a one person operation, and her main focus being on trying to build the physical store front, that it might be overwhelming for her to maintain both.

Knowing she had no client base to start with, the recommendation I had was for her to start with a basic website that could inform people about her business, give directions to her new store front, and, using a simple Content Management System like WordPress, she could keep her customers up to date by updating the website herself.

I armed her with some information to take back to these designers and firms who were offering to potentially give her the wrong product for her needs. She felt empowered and eager to get exactly the right services for her needs.

After we finished talking, she was happier to know that the idea of a store front is still possible, but only after she’s built the customer base and awareness of her store and products. She admitted that the “wow” factor of what a store front could possibly, and that is the key word in all this, do for her blinded her to what she actually needed to start out.

I see this time and time again. Start ups, and large companies, often become Icarus and ignore their wax wings, either made of a small budget or untested audience, to reach for the sun of profit only to be burned by their decision and blame the website, not their decision, for their failure.

As you go into your next web, or marketing, project keep in mind it’s good to dream, but it’s better to support that dream with a plan. You can reach for the sun, but get some sun block of knowledge and some nice shades first.

Maybe, just maybe, there is a post coming up about what the right web project could be good for you. Or maybe there is a post about how much is too much for web design.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment, or share this on twitter, and let me know what you think.

And as all ways, if you’ve read this far…thank you and stay wicked.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Marketing, Resources, small business, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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