Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Online Marketing, Rantings) 27th Oct, 2006
RTE’s The Mentor undervalues a web developers work
I caught the end of RTE’s “The Mentor” last night. The programme, hosted by Jay Bourke and Dr. Jeanne Bolger aims to help ailing companies turn their businesses around, with a mix of re-branding and businesses strategies.
Usually I’m a big fan of Jay Bourke, he seems to know what he’s talking about, until of course last night!!
The company in question on last nights show was Loughnane Sportswear, now re-branded to Scor Sportswear. As I only caught the end of the programme, I don’t know the full ins and outs of what was happening within their company, but they were aspiring to create a company as big as Nike, but at very worst be the most successful sportswear company in Ireland.
One of their problems, as pointed out by Dr. Jeanne Bolger, was their very poor website. Jay made the point that “No-one knows how big or small a company is on the internet” which is completely true. This is one of the big pluses of having a really good website, it simply puts your company on a different level.
To get an idea of how valuable a website can be to your business, they were sent to see the owner of Schoolbooks.ie. I didn’t catch the name of the guy that runs this company, but he made a couple of points that sent alarm bells ringing in my head. As you can see, it’s not the greatest site in the world, but it obviously serves its function. But he suggested to them, that they register a .ie domain name as Irish people are more likely to purchase items from the website.
This is where I have to disagree with him completely. If Scor are trying to become a global company, a leader in sports fashion throughout the world and want to appeal to the masses, a .com domain name should be be what they look for.
Anyway, that was only the start…. Then came the task of getting costs for developing the website and this is where my respect for Jay Bourke dwindled (no not really, just annoyed me a little).
The main proprietor got 2 quotes from “Irish guys” who were looking for in the region of €6-7k for a web site to be developed. Jay Bourke came out with the brazen statement “You could get it a lot cheaper than that”. Yes I agree, you can get websites cheaper than this, but not a properly developed website that will achieve a return on your investment.
A properly developed website can take at least 4-6 weeks to develop, go ask a builder to do this work for you or maybe ask a solicitor or branding expert, how much would they charge?
In the end they paid only $350 dollars for their main company website >> www.scorsportswear.com.
A company who wants to compete with the likes of Nike and Adidas, can’t be taken seriously with a website like this, can they??
The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is so true when you go to develop a website. If you want quality and substance, talk to a professional web development company that know how to help you best achieve your goals! But it will cost money for a quality service.
Look, would you ask a student just out of college to help you develop your brand? So why do it with your website?
Rant over…… 
Hi Tom
Some good points you make above.
I do have to say though that a number of the reputable web development firms quote really outlandish prices for what amounts to a small catalogue site built on a (oftentimes free) CMS.
In the case of a ‘best of class’ site I agreee that you should be paying high four figures at the very minimum.
I did some work for a crowd recently and they were quoted 8k for a small c. 20 page site on a off-the-shelf CMS. No bells or whistles. If they wanted copy created that was extra.
Now I don’t know the program or the guy you reference, and can’t comment about his business acumen, but if he thinks you can compete on-line in even a non-competitive niche on a budget of $350 he needs to go back to kinder-garden.
Rgds
Richard
BTW can you recommend a good firm for any of the above services?
Yes I completely agree, there are the ones who over charge aswell. But a reputable company will sit down with you and go through your requirements in detail and put all the options available to you in black and white. For example, in most cases when companies approach us for an eCommerce solution, my first suggestion would always be to look at some open source software to see if we can save money. But these aren’t always suitable.
And on your point, yes I can suggest some good firms, on SEO talk to http://www.redcardinal.ie
Tom
And a follow to boot
You really are quite the gent.
Rgds
A lot of business people don’t understand the real value of a website, but have no problem forking out thousands for more tangible and traditional items.
If a company is willing to spend €1000+ for an advert in the Sunday Business Post why can’t they spend at least that (or multiples of it) in getting a website done???
It makes no sense to me.
http://www.scorsportswear.com/ is not a world class website. It looks cheap and nasty - yes, I have seen a lot worse, but that’s hardly the point.
Michele