Because it will not be done correctly, waste time, and waste money.
Most people who seek business web/data providers on cl expect to pay fast food wages. They are shocked to discover that the college student is not, in fact, as good as a seasoned professional.
We usually offer to be the “second company” they hire after the college student/$10-per-hour-Indian-outsourcing-company botches the job.
- Brian Begy, Founder, Chicago Data Solutions
You may remember Brian from the earlier post about should your company use Craigslist? We had gotten to talking and he had a great anecdote about a client who hired a college kid that progressed something like this:
- Kid made a crappy site.
- Chicago Data Systems was hired to supervise the student.
- Brian uncovered basic, yet very serious security flaws in the e-commerce section of the site.
- Chicago Data Systems was hired to replace the kid.
My anecdote runs similarly:
- A business owner hires his nephew to build a website.
- Nephew builds a site that was technically flawed and received no visitors.
- The uncle realizes that the only reason to have a website is positive ROI and hires Charlotte Web development to attract.
- I create an Adwords campaign attracting hundreds of visitors and propose that a website redesign be done to convert all of the new visitors to paying customers.
- The uncle asks Charlotte Web Development to tutor his nephew.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Not really. Most of my business comes from companies asking untrained designers to build a site. I don’t blame college kids from coding as a way to earn beer money – I did it myself through undergraduate and graduate school. It is just unrealistic to expect college kids to be able to build a website that will have a positive return on investment – they just don’t have the experience in trying to be professionals. If anything, I am grateful for when small business owners contract non-professionals. They soon come to realize the value of having a site done right.
jealous that people with out degrees can do your job, go to school full time, and have two more part time jobs? that’s cool.