Why your friends should never work on your website or online presence

Savings on expenses are far more important in smaller business than they are in larger business.

In larger business a saving is likely to make an incremental difference to what is a sizable budget item. A reasonably large saving on an individual item may in reality only make a small dent in the budget.

Whereas in small business, it may well impact on just how much the operator gets to take home for the week.

It’s all well and good to imagine that our clever smaller business operators have a sound budget and that they stick to it.

But the reality is that it only takes a larger client to delay their payments a week or two to have managers scurrying to their account balances to make sure the week’s outgoings are covered.

So naturally smaller business operators are going to look for all kinds of ways to make a saving on everything from office stationery to their new website.

And when a tech-savvy mate offers to build your website for you at a fraction of the price of that BMW-driving web designer, naturally you are going to be attracted to the prospect.

The false economy of mate’s rates

But while on paper the friend’s offer could mean the difference between a desperately needed new car or putting up with the rusty old one for another 12 months, the reality may be considerably different.

Because almost without fail, your friend is unlikely to have the broad range of skills combined with the understanding of your business, to be able to come up with a truly professional and scalable web presence.

We see it all the time. A new client comes to us not only asking to salvage the wreck of a well meaning web presence but also for advice on how to break the news to their friend that they are no longer required.

And of course you can’t blame the friend who after all, really just wanted to help you out.

Tool proficiency no longer enough

Several years ago, a course in Dreamweaver and understanding of FTP (File Transfer Protocol – getting website files from your hard drive onto the web) may well have been enough to provide a smaller organisation with a passable web presence.

But these days such a qualification is likely to be more of a hindrance than a help.

For starters, it may take considerably longer to build a website using Dreamweaver than simply choosing an off the shelf solution which has more built in bells and whistles than the mate could dream of.

And even if they are proficient at using Dreamweaver, what’s to say that they have the fundamental graphic design, layout, copy editing, search engine optimisation and other skills required to establish a professional website?

Then of course what’s to say that Dreamweaver is the correct tool to build your website in the first place? This lack of independence of technology isn’t restricted to amateur web designers – professionals too make the mistake of choosing technology that suits them and not you.

Then there’s scalability.

When will you outgrow your mate?

It usually takes only a few months for a business operator to want to move their web presence to the next level. That might be integrating email marketing, operating a shopping cart, better optimising the site for search engines or a range of other developments.

And no matter how happy you are with your mates’ handiwork for version one of the website, this is usually where they come unstuck.

Because even if they have managed to come up with a reasonable looking website to launch with, chances are they have no idea how to take your web presence beyond this most basic of capabilities.

Now you are in the unenviable position of having to work out how to progress your web presence while maintaining your friendship in what can often be a torturous process.

Skilling up on the run

It goes something like this. The mate recognises that they have taken the site as far as their skill will allow. But this also provides a great opportunity to research and study the countless blogs and forums on all manner of web tricks and techniques to take you to the next level.

And of course they are continuing to help you out.

The reality of course is that your website stagnates as your mate tries to skill up on the next step in your online journey. Visitors are put off by the lack of currency and capabilities of the website and you lose their business.

In the meantime you are working out how to break the news that you want to bring in a professional to your well meaning mate.

Time, money and friendships become the casualties.

So how do you know if your apparently well credentialed mate is the real deal or not?

How to keep your friendships intact

Really you have to investigate him/her as well as you would an ordinary supplier.

Check out the work they claim they’ve produced and talk to the right people at organisations they have completed the work for. Check that the work came in on time and budget and that the website was able to accommodate new content and functionality easily and affordably.

Most importantly do not just look at websites or screengrabs of the work in question. Make sure you set yourself a common task in perusing the website (eg. finding a contact number or filling in an enquiry form) and make sure that all is as it should be.

Most importantly, play devil’s advocate with the friend and let them know that you are happy to consider working with them as long as they are prepared to be treated like one of your ordinary suppliers.

This will create a useful ‘hat’ to put on when working together and allow you to maintain a respectful arms length of the relationship.

In most cases, your mate simply won’t have either of the broad ranging skills or independence of technology to properly and professionally guide your web presence.

But if in doubt, get an independent second opinion.

Have you suffered from working with a well-meaning friend? Tell us your story below.

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Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.