Episode 37: Website Development Company Brisbane

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[00:00:00]  Saul: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Web Design Brisbane Podcast. This is episode number 37. And today's episode is entitled Website Development Company Brisbane. My name is Saul Edmonds, and as usual, I'm joined by the lovely Gillian Smith.

[00:00:13]  Gillian: Good morning, Saul! How are you? How is everybody out there?

[00:00:16]  Saul: Oh, fantastic, and I'm sure everyone's great. We are the co-founders and creative directors of fantastic creative agency, a local business with a passion for helping our clients grow. Over to you, Gil.

[00:00:27]  Gillian: Okay, thanks, Saul.  Well, today, we'll be talking about website development and our key question is, which is best? Is it better to work with an individual web developer, or with an established web development company?  What benefits does each approach offer to you the small business owner? Now our goal here is to help small business owners, of course, start-ups and entrepreneurs in the city of Brisbane, Australia, take their opportunities to the next level with brilliant website design, and if you're from another location, or city, welcome. Thanks for joining us today. And we hope that we can help you grow your business in the online space.

[00:01:05]  Saul: So what today's topics, Joe?

[00:01:06]  Gillian: Well, today, it's basically a comparison between web developers who work freelance and web developers who work for established companies. So what are the pros and cons of each approach?

[00:01:19]  Saul: Yeah, so let's actually get started on that.

[00:01:21]  Gillian: Okay, well, whether you choose to work with a freelance web developer or a professional website development company, you always want to achieve the best outcome for your project, of course, you want a quality website, you want it delivered on time, you want to get value for money, and you want to make sure that it's a robust solution that will deliver long term in regards to support and maintenance solutions that will be there when you need it. Okay, so Saul, web developers, so let's get right to it. What are some of the positives that a freelance website developer will offer to a small business?

[00:01:58]  Saul: Okay, so some of those, I guess, some of those points, just the three, three key points and will elaborate then on is that they're the most part highly economical. The availability as well, especially if they're doing freelance and they're just going to be working on one project, which may be hypothetically, like a larger project, that might be their sole job so they've got the phones for the sole attention of that particular person, especially then if it's a more long term sort of job, flexible working hours, sometimes that actually works in quite nicely with the requirements for the client. Okay, so what else? So on the flip side of that, some of the cons, so, and once again, all these points really should be matched our guests with the recording minutes of the coin, and this is where they can kind of weigh up what's more important so freelancers have that lack of infrastructure and support, as well. So it's, it's just them. Usually, insufficient knowledge to handle your project can sometimes be an issue, which flows in from that lack of support with other people to bounce ideas off, or to problem solve, and similar thing, don't have a team to split up work, parts of the project into more manageable sort of areas. 

[00:03:41]  Gillian: Bigger work. 

[00:03:42]  Saul: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so that, that would be more be more applicable in a larger project that's got more parts, unless the person is  hugely skilled across a range of areas, which there might be lack of reliability, maybe unable to meet. Deadlines is just because it's, it's on them. 

[00:04:08]  Gillian: Okay, well, that was a bit of a look of freelancers. But now let's talk about website development companies. So what are some of the pros if you choose to work with a larger company?

[00:04:18]  Saul: Okay, so I guess there's the key points will run over first is our customer satisfaction, there's a different because of the structure of a company to you also have people who have roles within to manage the project so about keeping people up to date, and sort of satisfied that the process is actually running on time, the people doing the tasks within the company, including keeping the client aware of what's happening, and because whilst that's not the actual work itself, that is a key part. Having a day is about industry set standards, about things you can benefit, you can also have a lot of advantages from a team approach in terms of brainstorming, and the skill sets within a team up to speed things up, and to improve everything, offer a greater range of technical services and support and support probably, for some people, a bigger one, too, especially if they haven't had in the past with other projects that they've been involved in having a company, a long term partnership, that even inside that company, if, if other people who work within the company happened to leave the company still always there, as opposed to a freelancer, which can change more, more readily. a wider portfolio and also depth of experience, they may have been around for longer, and they've got a broader experience overall.

[00:06:16]  Gillian: So are there any cons here that we can mentioned?

[00:06:19]  Saul: Okay, so cons, may them be a higher high price point, would be one of the key ones, potentially, is why some people may choose a freelancer that will freelancers over that is often driven by price, non-necessarily a bad thing, and it might be what people need to do as well. Um, yeah, which is fine. But, ultimately, you don't always find out the results until you're in the thick of it. Yeah.

[00:06:50]  Gillian: Well, to help you, they navigate through the thick of it, so to speak, we've put a simple I point checklist together, which will help you find the right web developer for you, whether you work with a freelancer or with a website company. So I guess the first tip is to know your budget, how much you're going to spend on your project?

[00:07:11]  Saul: Yeah, that's right. That's going to save everyone, a lot of time and energy, if what that is, even if that's a range because if your scope, once kind of expressed, doesn't meet the reality of what that is likely to cost, then if that in advance, if everyone knows that, it can save a lot of time, and then you can at least work around that, too.

[00:07:40]  Gillian: And that brings us to number two, is that it's very important to get a fixed price quote.

[00:07:45]  Saul: Yeah, and getting a fixed price quote, isn't really that hard. You just have to have a good clear scope. 

[00:07:52]  Gillian: so with freelancers as well, they may charge per hour.

[00:07:54]  Saul: Yeah, they may. That's right. They might give a fixed price quote today, but depending on their level of expertise, they may not. They don't have the level of experience with previous projects and how to actually, quote on them in order to be able to give an accurate quote, okay, well,

[00:08:18]  Gillian: Our number three tip is to make sure that you ask about any additional fees and charges, and this could include hosting solutions,

[00:08:26]  Saul: That includes things like hosting security certificates, if there's any actual fees, then after the fact, like what level of support do people actually give afterwards, if any, with or without a fee. If there is a retainer that has been agreed upon and so forth.

[00:08:48]  Gillian: Okay. Well, a fourth tip is to look at their past clients, check out their portfolio, checkout their reviews, testimonials, and so on.

[00:08:56]  Saul: Yeah, that's right, what they've done, talk to people, even those who have worked with them in the past, and reading the reviews and seeing and seeing obviously the work that they've done, but the level of client, or if it's similar to what you want as well, that may be wholly appropriate.

[00:09:21]  Gillian: Okay. Well, the fifth tip is that you should ask who will be personally responsible for your site and seeing it through the development process?

[00:09:29]  Saul: Yeah, so if that's with a company, that might be the project manager, and sometimes that person is also actually working on your site, then to me, it depends on the size of the agency, and that's certainly with the freelancer, that's going to be a freelancer. So you're going to know that, but actually, it's still good to ask.

[00:09:54]  Gillian: Okay, well, our six key tip is to ask about ongoing customer support, so what checks and balances are going to be in place when your website goes live?

[00:10:06]  Saul: Yeah,  some people will offer a certain amount in the weeks or some sort of timeframe of support that as is at no extra cost, after your site, and that support will just be the testing of the initial side, or helping you out with the with educating you on using the content management system after that, and there may not be any at all, and not just be ad hoc as required, but at least to establish what that is,

[00:10:44]  Gillian: okay, um, as seventh tip will be to ask about maintenance and any future updates, and what are the what are some strategies around future proofing your website?

[00:10:56]  Saul: Well, econ 100% of future proof your website, what you can do, is you can at least as you saw, as your site, or should say, the more your business changes, and you thinking of making some changes or having it evolve over time, it's great to be able to have someone that you can talk to about that, and that flows through to those feature updates that you may be likely to have, if that means that it's a feature you don't already have on your website, at least you can plan for. And if you need to make more or less of significant changes to your website, at least you've got somebody to talk to about that. And if you want people to do regular maintenance for you, whatever that might be on your website on a monthly basis, or however often that is but once again, comes back to everyone being aware of that, ideally at the beginning of the project,

[00:12:03]  Gillian: Like how will [inaudible] final tip here, and it's really important one, isn't it, Saul? It is to set a grade deadlines with achievable criteria.

[00:12:13]  Saul: Yeah, yeah, that's right. So again.

[00:12:15]  Gillian: Very important there.

[00:12:16]  Saul: Yeah, yeah, of course, because people want to know when it'll be finished, for some people that if you say it's within four to six weeks, and I don't have to have it on a particular day, people still want to know them, and if that has to change for any reason, just so long as people keep you in the loop. However, that is different. If there is a specific time that is tied into something else specific day launch that campaign launch or some specific event, and you don't have any flexibility on it, then you need to put in a very much more strict, set of milestones that everyone needs to be 100% agreed on, and you need to be able to know 100% that that can be achieved, and that,  good scope equals good results. I just made that up, by the way. Okay, guys. Thanks. That's it for today again and thank you so much for listening to our podcast before we go. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe to this podcast would love to hear your feedback . 

[00:13:33]  Gillian: Very much appreciated,

[00:13:34]  Saul: We should do. Also if you'd like to read the transcript of this episode, please visit our website at roundhouse.cc/web-design. We are on a journey to help local Brisbane businesses grow their opportunities online and exceed their goals. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Bye, everybody.