Request for Suggestions ...

Sep 08, 2014 17:59

My little one-person consulting business needs a website to make some potential clients and certification groups happy. Let's not get into the whole ridiculous judgemental "What do you mean you don't have a website/Facebook/Twitter/blog/Skype - how can you possibly call yourself a REAL computing business?" bull and simply say that: after due ( Read more... )

website, business, work

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elisel September 10 2014, 13:16:57 UTC
I don't have the slightest idea how to put together a website, but when I look at someone's site (and whether or not they have one DOES affect whether or not I choose to give an unknown entity my business) I want to know the type of work they do, some idea of pricing (marketing folks may have a different opinion on this, but *I* feel much safer knowing I'm shopping in the right ballpark), examples of things they've completed, a brief statement of work ethic (this doesn't have to be deep and moving, but is a good place to mention how often you usually communicate with clients)... I'm drawing a blank too. I wouldn't necessarily look for a resume on a freelancer's site - I think you could include a link, but more as an appendix than as the main fare that a site visitor is going to digest.

Maybe start by making a few lists: 1) Big things that you'd want to see if you were considering hiring someone. 2) Secondary things that are good supporting data 3) Accessory information that would be nice to see, but isn't critical to your decision-making. Think about it not as your webpage that you're designing for your business, but as a consumer, what do YOU look for on someone's webpage in your field?

Blather, blather. I need more coffee. Those are just my thoughts. :)

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hawklady September 10 2014, 14:41:21 UTC
Thank you for the thoughts!

And yeah, I mostly agree with the "whether or not they have a website" bit when it's an unknown business. If I'm a customer looking for a place to order from, or pay them $20,000 for paving, then I'd like to learn more about them.

The main difference is that - while I'm a business (woohoo! It's a business AND a person AND an Estate Manager AND a kitty-janitor - I contain multitudes!), I'm not soliciting business from the public. The people who may want to find out more about me for legitimate business reasons already have in their hands far more information than a website would provide. I've given them an extremely detailed resume, plus more information, and they have multiple ways to verify that. Going back to my own website would be simply verifying A against A.

I guess part of the grump is how many of the websites I run across are designed not to inform, but to mislead. Mislead about the number of people, the experience they have, the relationships they have with clients, even the cities and countries they are in. And, the advice I saw on small-business-promotion websites is to do just that - omit any mention of this, post *that* and let the viewer assume ... ok grumpity grump grump.

As someone who sometimes audits, and whose findings have resulted in prison time for other people, that bothers me. If admitting I'm a tiny business, just one or two people, is a problem for the client - that's OK with me. If I have to lie about that to get the position then I have to live with a lie during the position, or live with a lied-to customer.

OK, back to other stuff here, thanks a million for your input. And I'm sorry if I ranted at you!

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elisel September 10 2014, 14:44:21 UTC
Rant away! I support your rant and I'm glad you've managed to ping some of the skeezy sites. I wish more people thought like you!

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hawklady September 10 2014, 14:55:55 UTC
Those "skeezy sites" are about 90% of the IT recruiter-headhunting-contractor-middleman sites.

The vast majority are one or two people operating out of an apartment, a MailboxesEtc, and if they are a bigger company, it's because they are the US "presence" for their brother's company in India. In which case their real business goal is to attempt to get companies looking for talent to outsource to their India contacts.

It's sort of weird being the Token American, the one they retained only because the client insisted on me specifically, and then they latch onto it as proof "See we do hire local!"

Personally I have no problem with a business operating out of an apartment and a MBE box. It's when their website is splattered with pictures of a building in an office park and a multicultural staff of dozens (stock photos carefully selected for maximum diversity while being minimally offensive) that I get the twitches.

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