Re: Need at least an Online Marketing Consultant

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Wed 17 Sep 2003 10:20:21 -0500

"Jeremy Stetson" <oa-only_at_mensimageconsultant.com> wrote:

>Am I a nuisance yet?

Yes, but you are OUR nuisance, and we love ya, so the thread continues.

Besides, I'm certain that a lot of good suggestions have been
generated in this discussion that will be useful to many other
list members.

>I'll tell you that I'm no good as the person in charge of marketing for
>mensimageconsultant.com .

This is the first step and most necessary step to solving your
problem. Most people that are clueless are also clueless to
the fact that they are clueless. By understanding and admitting
that this is something largely outside of your areas of expertise,
you have just put yourself ahead of 98% of the rest of the world.

>The poor traffic is ample proof. Since the site
>is supposed to generate plenty of income and marketing it obviously is
>beyond my abilities (and isn't even helped that much by the many
>good-sounding pieces of advice given here), it's time to try to find a
>professional online marketing consultant who can help us come up with a
>long-term plan that involves many different websites and other means of
>reaching thousands of potential customers.

You got that right!

>We have a small budget, though, and all indications are that most marketing
>individuals charge lawyer-like rates. Know anyone good who is relatively
>inexpensive and specializes in smaller companies? The person probably would
>work for himself and not for a company. How much involvement (dollars and
>hours, really) do you think this will involve?

Be careful here. You have a real legitimate interest in being as
frugal as possible with your dollars. There is nothing wrong with
that kind of an attitude. But at the same time, be respectful of
those that you might want to do consider doing business with.

Start out by recognizing that most businesses and consultants that
offer services (this goes far beyond web design services) are
honest people that are trying to earn an honest living by
delivering good value in return for your dollar. (There certainly
are some that don't meet this description, so you need to
conduct due diligence on anyone you hire to put yourself in a
comfort zone that they are legitimate.)

There are also a broad range of skills and capabilities available
to you, and you need to recognize that on the whole, while a
bargain may be found here and there, there is no free lunch and
the greater the skills and capabilities and resources, the
greater the price will be.

There is no point in your hiring someone cheap that is going to
deliver something to you that is no more effective than what
you have now. There are real costs involved in running a web
design business, even for someone that does it as an individual
consultant. They have the right to earn a living, pay their
bills, and feed their families just like you do. If they don't
charge enough to make ends meet, and they end up having to flip
burgers instead of build web pages for a living, they won't
be there the next time you need their help. Remember that you
have a vested interest in the success of your vendors, just as
they have a vested interest in assuring the success of their
client.

While you clearly need to keep cost in mind, in the initial
stages of finding a vendor, your interests will be best served
by focusing on finding someone with ideas and abilities that
can help you solve your problem. Your position is strongest
if any discussion of costs is reserved until after the vendor
is qualified as someone you want to do the job -- hopefully
you will have more then one that fits in that category.
Then you can ask them to detail for you what they plan to
do for you and how they will price it, and make comparisons
between offers that allow you to fully assess the expected
costs and benefits of each one.

My suggestion to you on a project like this is that whatever
you have done, you agree with your consultant to do it fixed
price, and develop a clear understanding of exactly what is
to be included in that fixed price. For someone on a very
tight budget, hiring services by the hours nearly always
causes problems. But remember, it is not a game to see how
much you can get out of your vendor for the fixed price...
if you go outside of the agreed upon scope, expect to pay
extra for each and every thing you ask for.

I had an experience with a vendor recently where the
vendor took on a project for us on a fixed priced basis.
Because of complications that neither of us could have
ever have anticipated in advance, one part of the project
took the vendor considerably more labor to complete
than had been built into the fixed price that we had
paid. The vendor did an outstanding job on the project,
so when they were done, we sat down and agreed it was
fair to provide additional compensation, even if there
was technically no legal requirement to do so under
the terms of the contract. It was not nearly as much
as they would have charged us if they had billed the
overage at their regular hourly rate, but still we
all agreed the solution was fair and equitable to
both parties given the situation, and at the end of the
day, you can't ask for more than that.

To summarize: rather than trying to find someone cheap,
try to find someone that can really solve your problem and
do so in a fair and equitable manner. Don't put the cart
before the horse -- there is so wide a range on the services
that someone could potentially provide to you that it is
impossible to specify how much this should cost you until a
lot more details are specified.

Finally, a few more things to keep in mind... all of this
presupposes that your business is viable. Not every business
idea succeeds, even if you "do everything right." Ultimately,
if the costs of acquiring and servicing your clients (including
the cost of your time) exceeds what you are able to charge for
your services, then the business won't be viable, no matter
how good your web site is, or how clever your online marketing
is. It takes appropriate market research, along with some solid
business planning and financial projections, to have confidence
that you will have sufficient cash flow to make it (and even
then, it is just a degree of confidence, not a certainty).

Alternatively, you can through business planning to the wind
and just go and do it until you either make a fortune or run
out of money.

Some people like surprises.

--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman
CEO
ADASTRO Incorporated
http://www.adastro.com/
281.480.6300

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Received on Wed Sep 17 2003 - 10:20:21 CDT