By Eric Brownstone, CEO Questa Volta
There are web development companies that offer the “one-stop” method—a proposed partner for your complete benefit. These are all very large-scale operations, most of which are publicly traded companies.
These are the guys dominating the wonderful idea of putting your business online. They make it incredibly easy for the customer to have a simple, beautiful user experience. You name it, they provide you, the business owner, the simplest way possible to launch your own website and sell your goods and services virtually overnight. This is all wonderful in theory.
I have a unique perspective, having worked in this world since the mid-1990s, and I have seen quite a few things. True web development companies build and host sites in mostly open-source technologies. Yes, this can cost more upfront, but in the end, all of it belongs to the customer who paid for it.
That includes the most valuable asset any business owner has: their very coveted and expensive customer database. This could be a massive database collected over years at a storefront or online, or a burgeoning one just starting out on the World Wide Web (a little side note to non-techies: the WWW is different from saying “internet,” but that will be in my next blog 🙂 ).
Web developers are akin to tradesmen, be it electricians, carpenters, or plumbers. No matter what happens on earth, there will always be a need for the trades. As long as there is the internet, there will always be a need for web developers—yes, the true geeks I call friends, though I am not technically a “geek” myself (according to my wife).
Many business owners have told me how they launched their sites with the easy-to-use guys, only to see similar or identical products and services at a lower price point on other massively large-scale sites within six to eight months of launching their unique product.
I have heard the same from friends who create unique goods as artists or skilled craftsmen. After 12 to 18 months, they began to see declines in sales. When they searched for something similar on these large sites, they would find products created elsewhere in the world that were very similar in nature, though lacking in quality and, in a sense, violating the concepts of ownership, copyright, or trademark.
Most consumers on these large sites typically look for price and lead time. They aren’t looking at the global picture I like to refer to as Holistic Business Practice (HBP).
What does that concept mean? Well, it means knowing what the business is and does. Who owns it? Do they pay their employees well? Do they contribute to humankind in a meaningful way? Do we like the way they dispose of their waste? Are they working to provide jobs in a fair labor country?
All of these and many more are part of a holistic business practice. Side note: Questa Volta regularly encourages employees to volunteer, and we often make contributions to various organizations to help globally and holistically.
I know I have talked about the point of not reading the fine print, and that is an issue with these companies that charge nominal pricing to create something that should be far more expensive. My wife always says if you aren’t paying for the service, you are likely the product!
So, while creating a site on an all-in-one platform might look sexy at the top, the reality is that part of your business is being used as currency for another business.
I refuse to name any of these companies outright, as I am just a humble and concerned businessman, and I am not looking to start a losing battle. However, to hear of my contemporaries losing sales to the biggest websites on earth—and some even losing their businesses due to the current situation—is appalling.
So why not find a true geek and have it all done correctly?
