Bin the DIM
TweetMore and more people are realising that to get ahead in business you need to get online.
This could be simply by having a profile page, (Google, 4Networking etc), a brochure site outlining your services or a full-blown online store.
Over the past few years there has been a proliferation of DIM (Do It Myself) / online builders that take away the expense of hiring a professional to do the work for you.
In these tougher times people are more inclined to go the cheaper route because they see it as ‘saving money’.
So they fire up any of the hundreds of free or cheap online website builders, choose a an over-used template, plonk in some non-spell checked text and then … sit back and wait for the orders to come flooding in.
Any serious businessperson will know that’s simply NOT how it works.
The ‘build it and they will come’ mentality simply doesn’t work. You’ve got to market the product, you’ve got to get the message out there but first you’ve got to create a product that everyone will want to use.
Yes, having a professionally designed and built online presence is fairly expensive, but so is having your car serviced, building a patio or simply going on holiday. In all these cases you can go the DIM route but chances are the end result will either not work properly or actually be dangerous or illegal.
With my 14 years of online experience I can tell instantly when a person is serious about their business. I can tell whether they are even going to bother re-registering their domain in a year. Most times, when the DIM route is taken, the business has failed within a few short months.
Why? No business will come in, you’ll forever be trying to improve on what you’ve created and the excitement, enthusiasm and overall ‘fun’ will be lost.
If you don’t have the funds directly to employ the services of an online development agency right now, there are ways to fund it long term – Stick it on the company credit card, get a business loan or borrow the cash from friends/ family.
So, taking everything into consideration – your website is your shop window to a global audience, you need to make the best impression you can and overall, skimp on costs now, pay harder in the long run.
Bin the DIM – Get the Professionals in.
