Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

If you ever decide to our source your web development to India or any other country, make sure you don`t out source everything.

First of all, let me say as a business owner it`s always good to "find out for yourself" what works for your company and what doesn`t. Especially if you`re going to be offering Web Design and development.

From my previous experiences if you decide to out source your projects to India or any other country, make sure you don`t out source the whole project. You can still have total control of your customer`s project if you stay in the picture.

For example: You can do all the Design (XHTML) and if you need serious Database Programming, you can have them develop that side of the work for you. But again you have to stay in the picture just as if you they were working for you in the USA as if they were in your office. "YOUR THE BOSS"
By staying in the picture and of course knowing how to read code can help you move things around and make any edits if needed [grammar and spelling]. You can benefit from it.

Now if you decide to out source the whole project, then good "LUCK". I have heard some horror stories out there about them not giving you the source code or files after you paid in full.
But then again, out sourcing can be as good as how involved you stay in your projects.




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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

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[Bold]Scott Morrison[/Bold] | Solutions Architect, MCTS

GS2 Web Solutions
http://www.gs2websolutions.com
163 Ormond St., Suite 194
Brockville, ON,
Canada
K6V 7E6

Odesk, Is a good place to find developers... and also to get referrals.... But your web site / web development will only be as good as the people you hire over seas. I once used a developer in India to be exact and the Gentleman had good communication skills and not to mention, very polite that it made me sick.... He would call me... Mind you.... He would call me.... IN THE STATES... to assure that we were meeting my scope of the project. Would I ever use him again... ANY TIME.... Not to mention his work is out-standing... we never had any communication problems... "Since he spoke perfect English [english accent].. but never the less.... I got my moneys worth.... And we met the customer`s budget.




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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I think it varies with the people and management of overseas outsourcing companies, why dont you give this website a try, and this might just handle your affairs better.

Good luck!

First it`s overseas (perceived as cheap), then it`s college kids (again, perceived as cheap).

`throwing down the bare bones` - meaning defining the foundations, based on kiddie script knowledge? You hire college kids to build your house, too?

Why do so many folks view website design and development as such a commodity, that anyone can do it, that good coding practices, usability, search engine friendliness, great design, etc don`t really matter, or can be had for a few pizzas and a six-pack?

It`s sad, but yet, the web design industry is also to blame, since there is no barrier to entry (anyone with an old PC and a bootleg copy of Frontpage can `do this web stuff`), and customers, not having any basis (in reality) seem to always shop the lowest price - and then wind up being burnt, or getting horrible website critiques in another forum (grin).

Folks: check portfolios, check references, check results when you hire someone to do your website. And please don`t try to get by with minimum wage rates. It`s so much more than slapping a few pages onto a host and calling it a day.

Sorry for the rant, but this thread just struck a raw note with me.

Hey MTC, Im with you on the Pizza and Beer... Although, I hate Pizza, so I will settle for some Wing Stop Hot Wings... and a cold... Slushy Corona...

I totally agree with you on teens and college students with an OLD copy of Front Page... developing web sites... Have you taken a look at the Myspace classifieds.... 16 and 18 year old`s with lack of Experience posting "Affordable Web Design - $299.00 for a full site.

Last month, I posted a Classified on MYSPACE just to see what type response I would get..
To my surprise... I was being contacted by Kids...KIDS PEOPLE!!! what made me laugh was one kid left me a message telling me how he owned a reputable web design company, and as he continued to rant about how he`s reputable, I can hear in his voice cracking... [I guess puverty was kicking in]... But I did check his portfolio and to my surprise.... he had about 60 clients.... I guess one can build 60 clients if you`re charging $299.00. After checking his work... 56 out of all 60 web sites didn`t validate nor they had the proper meta tags for search engines to even consider indexing the web sites... BUT IN HIS SITE HE OFFERED "SEO"...

Reality Check! What`s wrong with Businesses? Cheap is not always Good. But again, people fall into the "Just Slap something quick for me, and lets call it a day".... They treat their online presence as if it doesn`t matter... But yet they want to spend 1,000 dollars on a Neon Sign that says "We are open" ?



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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I`ve built my entire website jippidy.com from developers over seas. There`s a little bit of a language barrier and I have to be very technical and concise in my communications but in my opinion for a start up it`s worth it. The quotes I`ve gotten from US programmers are 4 times more than what i currently pay. One piece of advice, make sure you speak to them over the phone first, just to make sure you guys can understand each other. Most communications will probably be via email but for the occassional phone calls. For a start up with financial constraints I think it`s totally worth it.

Hey Neuvo and MT I can understand that you dislike foreign/kiddy developers because the customers don`t really know what they want or what they`re in for.

Firstly, you need to calm down, you know clients that want to pay $300 for a website isn`t worth your time.  So you don`t have to worry about them.

Secondly, age doesn`t make someone a good or a bad designer, that`s just ageism.  After this, being an indian doesn`t make you a bad designer, if you ask $12 an hour because you`re in india doesn`t make you a bad designer.  Sorry but this is just naive.

One comment for neuvo, having meta tags doesn`t mean that you`ll get indexed.  Search engines don`t crawl your site, see that you don`t have tags, and pass over.  That`s just insanity.  "56 out of all 60 web sites didn`t validate nor they had the proper meta tags for search engines to even consider indexing the web sites.".

Search engines don`t "consider a site to index it", they index.

And guess what, most sites don`t validate, that still doesn`t make someone a "bad" designer, just maybe a subpar designer.

Sorry to be all serious, but you guys need to chillax.  Don`t worry about the people going for $300 websites.  You know what you can deliver and you do.  I know it`s hard to live around uneducated (about web development) people, but it`s what we have to do!

FreshUP T,
From the tone of your writing , the repetitiveness, and the "Hey" breaking statement" just makes me believe that you`re one of the kiddies that I was talking about. It seems as if this positing hit the wrong spot. I want to say that you felt like we were putting you down. But let me explain to you why I would never let a 15 or 19 year old touch any of my projects.

1. How much of an expert can a 15 year old have? when they can even get a drivers license? They might have an insight on how links work, and how to upload a web site to FTP.
2. What is their credibility? What if I want to meet with him in 1 hour? Do I have to wait for him to get out of High School? What if he has soccer or football practice? or decides he wants to hang out with his buddies at star bucks after school? Now what? do I sit just sit around and wait till 6:00 pm? or is he going to ditch me till 9:00 after he is done with his homework (if he`s even responsible to turn it in on time)

FreshTup, please understand that everyone on this forum was a youngster too. To me it seems like it was yesturday, and to be honest with you! At 16 years old, the least I was worried about was starting a business or looking for an after school job. I was more concerned about hanging out with my buddies, with girls, and playing Super Mario 3 [It took me 4 months of trial and errors to go through all the worlds].
So my outlook on this is" Kids will do Kid things, and they are all age accordingly" Adults on the other hand know best to act like adults "its called maturity" and this is who I prefer to do business with.




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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net