A little rant (or how the UK Government is shooting itself in the foot)

Those who know me will know that aside from being very passionate about my profession, I am prone to rant (the clue is in my surname Durrant), especially when something that could potentially damage my industry rears its ugly, badly thought out, head.

Most rants tend to be directed at cowboy web design companies or companies who mislead their clients into thinking that flash websites are great, or those who just design and run without educating their client about marketing their new site.

Up until this week, I assumed that it was mainly small companies that were taking advantage of clients who weren’t educated enough in the web to make the correct choice for their business. Many new companies go to a web design company and only realise that their site isn’t what it should be when it is too late and they have spent their marketing budget for that year.

So, if a government backed site were to say “this is how you should do this, because it is cost effective and will benefit your business”, you’d probably trust that as gospel. Right?

Well there is one that does just that; and not only does it offer opinions about what is best for your business both online and offline, it started out telling you to use non-UK companies to do it (they have now added some uk based companies after an onslaught of negativity from UK designers).

Since I believe the purpose of the site was to get businesses in Britain to start businesses and start generating money, thus decreasing unemployment and raising the spending within the UK, would it not make sense to keep the business transactions within the UK? Or even better, instead of pointing new businesses to sites that deal with low-cost low-quality services, would it not make more sense to point them in the direction of another UK startups, thus helping another company succeed?

I honestly don’t understand how these people can refer to themselves as “entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs” when there is nothing entrepreneurial about just passing the startup over to a crowdsourcing site (a site where designers bid for work, being undercut by students desperate for a bit of cash), who care more about just earning a quick £50 for a logo than actually working on a full brand identity for a client.

You may only have a shoestring budget, but speaking to a local startup can be beneficial for both of you, you not only could get a quality design at a lower rate than from a larger more established company, but the design company benefit from a: having something for their portfolio, b: the good words you’ll have to say about them to others that you meet and c: some income. Plus you just built yourself a business relationship, which is a useful thing for a startup.

New startups usually have the bonus of years within their industry so they often know as much as the longer running large companies, but are still finding their feet with regards to getting a reputation, which usually means that their overheads and fees will be significantly lower.

And it works both ways. Many companies have done work in exchange for products or services, especially at startup. You need to earn money, but what is 10 minutes of work creating a quick poster design for a cake shop in return for some very tasty cakes, and a business relationship that could, even if you don’t work together directly, get you a little work from other companies.

You just need to look at the big picture sometimes.