In the 15 years we have been building websites. I have met a lot of clients that want a website built for a couple of hundred dollars. Yes, you read correctly; a few hundred dollars. Unlike other agencies out there we don’t forget the the small business owners and entrepreneurs. In some cases, this means we get lowballed pretty hard. We are pretty thick skinned about it as we know website development businesses are not taken as seriously as say a trade job. Would a plumber do 8 hours work for $200?
Almost all the clients that come to me to build a website with a few hundred dollars end up spending at least 10 times as much going with another agency or freelancer.
Website budget reality check
I regularly meet with clients that want a website built and hosted for $200 or less. When I tell them that I cannot do that they go to a freelancer almost always based overseas. At the end of their website build they receive invoices for over $3000. In most cases the fee is for a website that wasn’t built to the clients specifications.
When Kookie Digital started the majority of clients that we have attempted to serviced have been friends of friends. I usually find out about these horror stories when I check in with them. Most regret not paying our initial quote to have the work done but there’s also a number of clients that beg me to take over where these freelance web developers left off.
My policy at Kookie Digital is to never take on work like this as it is almost impossible to quote a definitive figure to fix the site. In most cases after a code review, it is better to start a fresh build.
Building a website cheap trap
You might think I am being overly biassed as we are a Digital Agency; the aim of this article can’t be further from this. The vision at Kookie Digital is to provide all our clients value whether it is getting the website build done by us or advising them to go with another agency. We want the best possible outcome for our clients. Unfortunately some of the clients don’t listen to our advice and get burnt.
To best highlight one of the traps of going cheap I have a story I’d like to share with you from personal experience with a client that came to us.
A client started a travel website and was keen on making that their full time job. An up and coming entrepreneur so to speak. When she approached me for help she had spent well over $3000 on Indian developers to have her website built. This website was nowhere near what she wanted in regards to her briefed scope. I looked at all her specifications and the delivery was well short. Put simply, the site was a mess!
The same developers quoted my friend $30,000 to build the website to the specifications she requested and clean up the poor work they did in the first place.
Therein lies the lesson. Before she went to the cheaper Indian developers she had someone in Australia quote her $6000 with a guarantee that the build will be to her specification. The quest to save money has cost this client more money to get her site built. Instead of going with the local developer she went with the cheaper option and got herself stuck.
I see this time and time again. The cheaper route is often the most painful with the high probability of cost blowouts. It is highly recommended when you are planning to build your website you do a lot of research and try to understand the basics of a website build.
Quick business plug!
Shameless business plug at Kookie Digital services. As I mentioned in this article Kookie Digital does things very different to other agencies. If a client doesn’t want to use our developers that’s cool! We regularly work with our clients freelancers.
Kookie Digital offers consultation services where we can work with your freelancers. We have a discovery package where we run a discovery session to capture your requirements and produce a Functional Requirements Document which can be given to any competent developer to do the work.
The Functional Requirements Document lists out in detail what the functionality needing to be achieved as well as a detailed instruction on how to do it. This removed any need for your freelancer to act as a solution architect and figure out how to build for the required functionality.
If you would like to more about this and other services please use the contact us form to speak to our friendly sales team.