Does it make sense to update your own company website, or to outsource support to a web design firm?  It's a question that most small businesses ask, but what's the right answer?

As with all business decisions, the right answer is ultimately what makes the most sense for your unique services and organization.  That said, eliminating myths and having all the facts always allows you to make the best possible decision. Many small businesses feel that outsourcing is just something for the 'big boys'.  This is simply not true.  In fact, no matter how small your company is, you're already outsourcing in small ways.  If you're using FedEx/UPS, you're outsourcing.  And if you didn't physically print your business cards in house, you outsourced that as well.  And what about the monthly internet access you're paying for to read this blog...yet another example of outsourcing.

Of course you might be saying "well, we pay for those things because we can't do them ourselves", and that's where we get into the meat of the issue, because that's where you might be mistaken.  It's not that you can't do those things, it's simply that the costs required - time and money - to figure out how to do those things on your own would be so high vs. outsourcing.  You would use up precious resources that are better spent running and improving your core business.  And that's the key.  Instead of simply saying "how much will we save by doing it ourselves?", the question really should be "how much is it costing us by doing it ourselves?". Faster than a web professional who builds and updates websites for a living?  Unlikely.  Of course, that's only true if your support is being provided by a professional company with a reputation for responsiveness and customer service.  Be careful not to base your assumptions on the lowest common denominator.  Your last 'web guy' might have been a nightmare, or you may have heard stories about website updates taking days or weeks, but that's not the case with a professional firm.  For example, our firm typically turns around website updates same-day, with critical updates being made within an hour. Simple solution here - you don't have to agree to one.  Most professional web design and support firms offer as much flexibility as you need - from annual contracts to as needed support, billed per hour, at a rate you've both agreed upon up front. Again, this is a myth that arose mostly from experiences with worst-case scenarios.  Early in the days of the web, when HTML and SEO were terms that nobody heard of or cared about, many web firms took advantage of, well, their advantage.  It wasn't odd to see rates for simple web changes in the hundreds, because 'hey who else is gonna do it?  you??'.  That has changed, as the accessibility of the web has improved dramatically, and options along with it.  Of course you'll still find firms charging a wide range of prices for support, but just as with any service, there are providers that overcharge and others that provide great value.  We tailor our support to each client's needs, which varies from critical updates daily, to a few updates every few months.  Our standard support ranges from $50-$200 per month.  Not per hour, per month.  That's a tough number to beat, no matter what the pay grade of the person you have updating web pages in-house. Here's the biggie.  This is actually not true.  Your time (or an employee's time) is money, and the best use of that time/money is in performing or contributing to the core functions of your business.  When you elect to use yourself or an employee as a part-time web person, you're not only paying for that time, but for the lost opportunity cost that comes from spending that time on a function that isn't what your business does.  On the other hand, hiring a professional web design firm to support your website for $1k/year is orders of magnitude cheaper than paying an employee to do it.  And we don't need health insurance, use your electricity, drink your coffee, or charge you to learn how to do it.

That brings us to the real hidden cost of supporting a website in-house.  Professionalism, or more precisely the professionalism that you give up by doing it yourself.  Your website is first and foremost a reflection of your business.  A professional website is an investment that deserves to be taken seriously and maintained in a professional way.  If not, you're risking hurting that investment, and your business image.  Don't fool yourself into thinking a website is less important than any other part of your business - certainly in this age of technology and instant lookup.  You won't see the lost business resulting from a customer who clicks on your home page, encounters misaligned text or broken links, and moves on to your competitor, but it happens - daily.  That's a cost that can be very damaging, and quickly build on itself, completely undetected over time.

So be aware that as you might be congratulating yourself on your business savvy for pocketing the short term savings from doing things yourself, you might be losing 100x that amount in lost business by showing potential customers an unprofessional or outdated website.

It might be time to revisit your perspective on outsourcing.  You may see why experts say that outsourcing generally saves businesses 25-30% in costs.  Perhaps it's not that the 'big boys' are the only ones who can afford to outsource...maybe that's the reason they became big boys in the first place - they learned the value of outsourcing.