How to avoid getting screwed as a newbie entrepreneur

Five months ago, I launched my first business; an online bag company called Durtbagz.com. Today, I’ve hardly sold 30 bagz, my web traffic is atrocious, and my website is about to be shutdown due to breach of contract by the web designer. Want to know how you can avoid this situation? Yeah, I thought so. On paper, I should never have been put in this position. I’m smart, I have experience locking down vendors, I have a mentor who was in business for himself for 25 years, and I have more financial backing than the typical first-time entrepreneur. So, with all this going for me, how can I be struggling like this? BAD DECISION MAKING. The end. The biggest reason I’m in this situation is the fact that I chose poorly when it came to picking a web design firm. And this has impacted everything. Could I have known things were going to go this bad with this firm? Hell no. But, where there a few warning signs that I now realize I looked past? Yep. 1. I never really liked these people. You may think this a no-brainer, but keep in mind, this is my first business. It didn’t bother me that much that I didn’t like them; they came across as very capable of getting the job done and that is what I was wanted. I wasn’t looking for new friends. 2. The communication among them was obviously terrible from the get-go. I thought this was due to some turnover that was going on (legit turnover; my project manager left due to a family illness in another state, not because she was unhappy at this firm). 3. Here’s the biggest one: there were no corrections suggested to me during the entire process of designing my site. This is my first site, let alone my first e-commerce site, do you really think I nailed it on the first try? No. Was it their job to edit the content/design to improve the SEO and functionality of the site? Yes, these are actually listed in the contract.  Because I ignored these warning signs, as I’d like to think most newbies would, my site took 7 months to launch,  was built about as good as a soapbox derby car, and is now about to be shut down. Why? Because I’m suing my web firm for breach of contract on about 25 different issues. If I get my money back, they get their piece of crap website back. Other than the threat of shutting down my site, how has this affected my site? Pathetic traffic due to pathetic keywords and terrible code. I’ll explain. 1. Fake company blog.Turns out, my “blog” on Durtbagz.com isn’t really a blog; there is no code on that page that says “Hey Google, here’s a blog, check it out!” It’s actually just another webpage that they modified for me to write on. 2. Keywords. The keywords on each page are not the same. A couple of pages have the keywords I gave them, a couple have the craptastic ones they came up with. Oh, and the contract called for 50-70 keywords per page; they gave me 5. A. The page titles don’t contain the correct keywords. B. The meta tags don’t contain the correct keywords. C. The images have no alt-tags. I have MANY images on my site and this could really help with search. Instead, it’s a gaping hole. What would I do differently if I were starting over, which as it happens, I am? 1. LIKE THE PEOPLE YOU DECIDE TO WORK WITH. Make sure they have a vested interest in your business being successful. 2. OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION. Put it in the contract that you have the right to physically visit their offices to see progress at any time, during business hours. Also, ask for the links to watch the progress online. Any decent firm will want to show you what your money is going towards. 3. AGREE ON A REASONABLE DEADLINE TO LAUNCH. My deadline was blown without a word from these people. Everyone knows that web design takes time and that deadlines tend to get pushed back. Three months is reasonable; much longer and things aren’t going right. 4. THEY SHOULD BE GUIDING/HELPING YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS. If they simply do everything you say, with no feedback, bad sign. If they are aware that this is your first rodeo, they should be actively trying to help you design it in the best possible way for traffic, sales, and function. At this point, things suck. And when our site gets shut down, things will suck even more. HOWEVER, things will be amazing after that. We’ll set up a temporary shopping site and we’ll re-design the site, with new features, better, bigger photos, videos, the works. I’ve found a couple of firms that are run by people that I have become friends with in the last year. The money that I get back from the botched site will go towards the new-improved Durtbagz.com. And hopefully, this new found education I have on dealing with this will prevent some other first time entrepreneurs out there from going through the same ordeal. 2008-04-11T22:57:35Z

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how-to-avoid-getting-screwed-as-a-newbie-entrepreneur

2008-04-14T23:18:28Z

Hellen Keller could have built my site better. How I got myself into an online business nightmare and how you can avoid it.

How to avoid getting screwed as a newbie entrepreneur

2009-02-24T09:43:54Z