Ten years ago, selling websites was, for all intents and purposes, easy. You needed a royal blue shirt, charcoal grey pants, business cards, and a promise. Everybody needed a website but only a few companies and individuals were providing the service effectively. It was an Economics 101 lesson in supply and demand.
That guy
Almost everyone was self-taught and had barely any experience under their belt. Luckily, expectations for websites were lower back then. A site could be published with merely a home page, five pages of static HTML content, a spinning “e” email icon and some blinking text, and the client would practically jump for joy. It gave us all time to learn and practice.
“Hey, you know anyone who can build a website?”
“Actually, my co-worker’s brother does web design. Want me to get his number?”
I got my first business through a personal connection. No proposal. No sales pitch.
At the time, I didn’t recognize or appreciate the ease of it all. Soon enough, I was snapped up by an entrepreneur with a start-up company (BrowserMedia) and got to work side by side with numerous talented individuals. Being part of an ace team was the way to learn.
It’s a different landscape
Building websites “today” is all but completely different. Between the eCommerce, blogs and wikis, social networking, forums, content management, shopping carts, audio/video, search, and server/hosting, there are many moving parts to integrate into a cohesive presentation. We haven’t even scratched the surface of user interface design, studying analytics, search engine optimization (SEO) or marketing sites post launch. A professional web design firm can provide your company with solutions to all of these challenges.
But, I’m trying to save money
Can you still hire someone to build your website the old way?
Yes. Well technically, yes.
These days, there are more than enough freelance web designers and programmers out there. In a lot of cases, they are willing to drop their hourly rates to fight over work. However, this doesn’t mean you’re going to get a great site. Most freelancers are good at either programming or design. If they are good at programming, they tend to be good at using one or two languages or integrating a handful of software tools. Even designers tend to be better at Photoshop, Illustrator, or Flash. Chances are this isn’t how they will portray themselves to you. Nobody wants to talk about their strengths versus weaknesses. You’ll need to hope their exact talents match your exact needs. Either way, chances are they aren’t an expert in everything.
Quarterbacks and Free Safeties
Finding someone who can do it all isn’t realistic. It’s like trying to lead your baseball team in pitching and hitting; like trying to play quarterback and line backer at the same time. At a certain (low) level of competition, it is done. However, in the big leagues when you’re practicing eight, ten or more hours a day and playing games, there simply isn’t enough time to be great at everything. There simply isn’t enough time to learn all the plays and perfect their execution. Your coach expects you to pick something and be an all-star at it, to specialize.
Having a team is a good thing.
Experience
Nothing can replace industry experience: Books are great. College teaches responsibility and the learning process among other things. But, nothing replaces actual hands-on learning. This especially comes from year after year watching trends, reading and doing, making mistakes and learning from them, and being around colleagues with different specialties.
That is the key difference between hiring a professional company and a friend of a friend. Individually, the people are more experienced, have a broad understanding, and a specialty. Collectively, the team is better prepared to meet the challenges of your site and rise to the occasion.
(note: originally published on my companies blog at http://www.graphics.net/blog/)
