I have heard this story a thousand times. Heck, I have even been a part of this story.  What story you ask? Let me set the scenario for you:

Two business owners are having coffee. They have successful businesses that they are ready to expand on to the internet.

“Have you chosen a web developer yet?”

“Web developer? Are you serious? I am having my son build the website. He is on the internet all the time and knows everything about websites and stuff like that.”

“Your son, really? Does he build websites for a living?”

“No. He is still in school. He will build it for free though!”

All too often, I come across this scenario. It is one of the obstacles of being in the web development industry. The internet is unlike any other business medium. It is open to all, information is abundant and there is a SIGNIFICANT learning curve between generations. Toss around some terminology like web development, social media, cascading style sheets and search engine optimization and chances are the average web user will think you are working for the NSA. But don’t call Washington just yet. The casual web user may use the same language as a professional web developer. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can speak it.

Whether it is your son, daughter or nephew’s cousins uncle twice removed, you must gaze a skeptical eye on the services they claim to be able to provide. Let me modify the scenario a bit to explain my point:

• Would you let your son fix your company’s toilet because he watches the DIY Network?
• Would you let your daughter operate on an injured employee because she watches “Grey’s Anatomy”?
• Would you let your neighbor replace your company delivery truck’s engine because they have a subscription to “Car and Driver”?

You may think these scenarios are completely different from building a website but when broken down to the most basic form, they are identical. Each scenario above describes using a person with a casual interest in something performing a job that requires a professional. Web development is no different. In fact, using a professional web developer may be even MORE important (except the doctor example…that would be pretty dangerous).

Take the toilet example. Even if you own a storefront, chances are you might get 10-15 customers that need to “evacuate” daily. If your toilet is broken, you most likely will not lose their business. Your website on the other hand may receive 100-50,000+ visitors a day. If it is broken, or not functioning properly, your customer’s have no access to your business. We have all navigated to a website that was down or slow to load. I am sure you, just like me, closed the website in less than 10 seconds.

The fact is, web development may look easy on paper. There are hundreds of programs that claim to make it simple for anyone to use. My hope is that you will be wary when you evaluate this option. If your business is on the internet, it is part of a huge online marketplace that reaches millions of potential customers. Facing those customers with a virtual storefront that is templated, slow and functions poorly is your COMPETITOR’S best sales tool.

Use a professional! There are numerous professional web development agencies. Most focus on specific customer bases (i.e. small businesses, personal websites, e-Commerce websites etc.) so finding one that meets your needs should not be hard. You can even find a web developer near your business, and often meet with them face to face.

It may not be free, but it will be well worth the investment. A professionally developed website should pay for itself before that leaky toilet breaks down again.

The old adage goes “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” however whoever said that never worked web consulting services. Any web business, regardless of size, usually has the following internet tools:

• web hosting
• email addresses
• website development
• customer ordering/inquiry forms
• website maintenance

Now most small businesses do not have (nor need) a full IT department dedicated to maintaining and developing these solutions. In all honesty, in many small businesses, the job may usually just fall into the lap of the  employee most comfortable with a computer . Without a dedicated IT department, building web solutions from scratch (which can be incredibly costly), businesses must seek the help of third party providers to obtain their desired web presence.

Like any open market for products and services, the web development industry is very competitive. Lacking experience in this field, just like being a first time car buyer, is  to your disadvantage. At least when buying a car, you can see your purchase. Often, the untrained eye does not fully understand what they are buying for their web presence.

I cannot tell you how many times we come across this issue at Dreamscape Marketing. We often discover issues with customers because their web situation is extremely complicated, and often completely unknown to them. I will give you an example of a recent project we worked on in our Maryland office:

A customer requested a new form be developed for his website. This seemed like a relatively simple request until we peeked into the IT environment. This customer had all five services listed above performed by different organizations. In fact, when using multiple web developers, the customer also began hosting their website in TWO places! We estimated that the customer had utilized ten businesses to develop their web presence over about four years. After centralizing this customer’s IT solutions, we were able to save them over TWO TIMES the cost of the order form we built for them. In addition, by canceling their unnecessary hosting and focusing everything else they had in a single location, we also significantly reduced the time it would take for this customer to solve future issues with their website.

Centralizing your web services can save you time and money. Understanding what you are actually using may sound rudimentary, but is often overlooked and could cost you when a problem occurs.