“I Can’t Spend ‘Hundreds’!”

I hear this several times each week when asking potential new clients about their budget. If they fill out my site inquiry form more times than not the budget noted is $200-300.00.

Not for some tweaks, not for some advice — for an entire online business program. That’s what a “Web site” really is — your online business program, right?

They want it all. The great looking site, eCommerce functionality that basically does everything but cook your breakfast, and the massive amounts of dollars funneling into their bank accounts.

But they can’t spend hundreds…

Where did they get the impression that to start any business was only a couple hundred bucks? What makes them even contact a professional and make a statement like that?

Misinformation, hype, wishful thinking…

In the old days online was much less expensive than having a brick and mortar. Not so much any more. What you save in rent and property insurance, you’ll eat up in building and marketing your Web site.

And, no — you don’t have to pay professionals like myself what you perceive to be high hourly rates. You can do it yourself. However, unless you are going to learn about FTP, CGI, creating quality graphics for the Web, HTML, XHTML, PHP, Perl with a dash of good design sense, your site will lack credibility.

Yes, you can DIY — but you had better have a TMP (Tech Muse Pro) on call or available to bail you out when you are frustrated or your site doesn’t produce the unrealistic expectations you choose to believe in.

You know where to find me…

At your service,
Judith