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All businesses want as professional a web presence as they can create or afford to get built, that works for them. The vast majority of small businesses in the UK don’t have the skills in-house to do this. They have therefore had to either use free tools or put their trust in a website designer/builder, to get this done for them, and then potentially pay them on a regular basis to update it and/or optimize it.
For all the free, discounted and introductory offers out there, there’s still a massive diversity when it comes to seeing various ‘providers’ of website design and hosting services here in the UK. Simply doing a little research using social media tools highlights a huge variance in the price being paid and the functionality being built.
Huge cost variance due to lack of transparency
There’s absolutely no reason why a personalized five-page website without any e-commerce capability should cost you £300 per year. It’s outrageous that some well-known brands in the online marketing and directory space are charging £360 for a one-page website. Mobile-optimization isn’t even included within both of these services on offer, even in 2012. These are just two instances out of thousands of providers we’ve found who either simply throw their bait into the water and have the patience until an unsuspecting businessman bites, or proactively use outbound telesales operations and relying on people trusting their brand not to ‘do a number’ on them. There’s a huge profit margin built in and small business in the UK is getting the raw deal.
In Cardiff last month, we heard another horror story. Discussing this exact issue with a visitor to the South Wales Chamber of Commerce networking event, he told us that he had paid a “web developer” £3,000 for a website. Unfortunately, the developer in question went bust. To compound the issue, the business owner subsequently found out that the developer had registered the domain name in his name and not the business owners, so he ended up with nothing but a £3,000 hole in his budget for the year.
No industry regulation and no clear comparison
The sad fact is, there’s absolutely no transparency in the website-building industry and no regulation or industry ombudsman either, leading to a serious lack of benchmarking when it comes to small businesses understanding the value of the site that’s been built for them or the quality of their supplier. Yet the UK Government is very keen to get everyone online.
How to quantify the issue?
We wonder how many cases have been swept under the carpet when it comes to business owners throwing up their hands and looking at the terrible job someone has done for them building their online presence, and putting it down to experience. We also wonder how much of the time of small claims courts has been taken up with small businesses trying to claw back money spent on a bad job gone wrong. Equally, how much money has been lost by small businesses not getting their own website and missing out on the potential of doing business online because of horror stories they’ve heard from their colleagues.
Time for some light to be shed on the matter
Isn’t it time that someone looked into the issue and the real problems as to why small businesses we’ve spoken to have a half-built, under construction site, or an old, out of date site that does nothing for them, or no site at all under their control? We don’t believe the desire isn’t there, so let’s help those who can fix it understand what the issues are. Why not fill in our survey and pass it on to all your friends and contacts? The sooner this issue is quantified, the sooner perhaps those with the power to legislate and protect the small business owner’s rights can begin to fix it.
Take our survey now - https://www.research.net/s/ZYDCKVM
Source: Telnames
For all the free, discounted and introductory offers out there, there’s still a massive diversity when it comes to seeing various ‘providers’ of website design and hosting services here in the UK. Simply doing a little research using social media tools highlights a huge variance in the price being paid and the functionality being built.
Huge cost variance due to lack of transparency
There’s absolutely no reason why a personalized five-page website without any e-commerce capability should cost you £300 per year. It’s outrageous that some well-known brands in the online marketing and directory space are charging £360 for a one-page website. Mobile-optimization isn’t even included within both of these services on offer, even in 2012. These are just two instances out of thousands of providers we’ve found who either simply throw their bait into the water and have the patience until an unsuspecting businessman bites, or proactively use outbound telesales operations and relying on people trusting their brand not to ‘do a number’ on them. There’s a huge profit margin built in and small business in the UK is getting the raw deal.
In Cardiff last month, we heard another horror story. Discussing this exact issue with a visitor to the South Wales Chamber of Commerce networking event, he told us that he had paid a “web developer” £3,000 for a website. Unfortunately, the developer in question went bust. To compound the issue, the business owner subsequently found out that the developer had registered the domain name in his name and not the business owners, so he ended up with nothing but a £3,000 hole in his budget for the year.
No industry regulation and no clear comparison
The sad fact is, there’s absolutely no transparency in the website-building industry and no regulation or industry ombudsman either, leading to a serious lack of benchmarking when it comes to small businesses understanding the value of the site that’s been built for them or the quality of their supplier. Yet the UK Government is very keen to get everyone online.
How to quantify the issue?
We wonder how many cases have been swept under the carpet when it comes to business owners throwing up their hands and looking at the terrible job someone has done for them building their online presence, and putting it down to experience. We also wonder how much of the time of small claims courts has been taken up with small businesses trying to claw back money spent on a bad job gone wrong. Equally, how much money has been lost by small businesses not getting their own website and missing out on the potential of doing business online because of horror stories they’ve heard from their colleagues.
Time for some light to be shed on the matter
Isn’t it time that someone looked into the issue and the real problems as to why small businesses we’ve spoken to have a half-built, under construction site, or an old, out of date site that does nothing for them, or no site at all under their control? We don’t believe the desire isn’t there, so let’s help those who can fix it understand what the issues are. Why not fill in our survey and pass it on to all your friends and contacts? The sooner this issue is quantified, the sooner perhaps those with the power to legislate and protect the small business owner’s rights can begin to fix it.
Take our survey now - https://www.research.net/s/ZYDCKVM
Source: Telnames
