Thanks for driving by to read Part Four of "The Bare Minimum to start a Tech Consultancy". Here are the previous posts just in case you missed one. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
I hope you read all of the steps in this series before you dive into your own business. Remember that you can do several tasks at the same time. Feel free to get your phone number (next post!) while your website is being developed.
It's time to talk about your website and logo. How are you going to get them out to the Internet. How good will they look? We need to mention email as well.
There are several choices available to you, depending on your tech skills, creativity and budget.
1) Host your own, design your own. This is the cheapest up front. You only need a static IP address for your server (and hopefully a firewall, would you like to resell them? Contact us!). The IP address will come from your Internet provider, usually for $5 a month. You can download a Linux distro (I like Ubuntu) and install it on a 5 year old computer and it will do your hosting and email. A Linux install isn't impossible, even if you are a windows pogue technician. There is plenty of documentation online.
Hopefully you are also creative. Customers may turn away after seeing your website if it's not attractive. In some cases, a website is built only for customers to know your legitimate. If you have no expectation of using it as a marketing tool, then by all means, build away! Consider Drupal or Joomla.
You need pictures on your website. Look around for free stock photos for what you don't have.
A final note, Jay Berkowitz of www.tengoldenrules.com says that people decide if they like a website within 4 seconds. If the customer doesn't like it, they'll move on.
2) Pay for hosting, design your own. Hosting your website costs around $10 a month and email services will add more to it. I don't recommend using free email account from a provider like Yahoo or Hotmail. It tells your potential customers that you aren't legitimate.
3) Pay for hosting and design. You don't have the time, someone can do it better and you have the money to pay them. You lucky dog!
4) My favorite, Host it yourself and pay for design. Why is it my favorite? The web server just sits there, quietly serving up your website. Back it up every time you make a change and you don't have to anything else. A linux web server is the geranium of the tech world. It takes very little care to keep happy. Why should you pay a hosting fee for that? Plus, you can have more whangdoodles and thingamabobs (spell check didn't like whangdoodles but thingamabobs was just fine) on your website, because you'll make sure PHP, Perl, etc are all running if you need them.
I don't mind paying for web design because it's an efficient use of my time and money. It would take me too long to do a nice website. Actually, I don't have the creative skills to do the website anyway. When your business gets rolling or if you're marketing online, pay somebody to to a nice content management system. The Boise Online Mall is my recommendation. Oh and get some good pictures on your site. The Imagery Lab can't be beat if you're in Idaho. In fact, both the Boise Online Mall and The Imagery Lab had a part in marketing this website which has been a world-wide success.
Still not sure which way to go? As of today, there's a place holder website at www.acmetechworks.com. In a couple weeks, a Content Management system (CMS) will be installed and running on our web server. It will be pretty. It will have been done by professionals. Let me give you a before and after picture of the logo work that's done already.
Before: (what I did)
And you want a good logo. It's going to go on your business cards, on your brochures, on your quotes and on the side of a vehicle eventually.
If you aren't going to host your own website and you want both web and email service, go with Network Solutions. They've taken good care of me and of my customers. You can get your domain name there as well.
You can add a blog, videos and podcasts when you're ready. Make a note to put them on the "to do list".
Next time we'll discuss phone numbers, faxes, addresses and business cards.
As always, please feel free to drop us a note. You can make a comment here or contact us at www.acmetechworks.com!
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