DIY or (Wo)Man who can?

Updating this website has been an ongoing back-burner project for most of this year, but finally was moved to the front ring of the cooker this month.  I had a fairly clear idea about what I wanted, but none on how to achieve it.  So I started looking around.

The first person I spoke to, a sole-trader freelancer, wouldn’t even quote an hourly, daily or fixed cost rate, muttering darkly that no-one was ever willing to pay him to do the job properly.  I moved on.  The second people I spoke to were a local web-design company, with a funky website of their own that caught my eye.  At the meeting, they first flattered me by telling me how special my business was, and how they were willing to do a really good deal in order to have me on their portfolio – and then tried to sell me their standard five-page package at their standard price.  I moved on. I then emailed a selection of locally-based firms whose own websites didn’t seem too deathly dull.  I was quoted everything from £500 to £10,000.  None of them filled me with reassurance that they would give me what I needed.

I was facing the dilemma that every small- or one-man business faces.  Do it yourself, or pay a “(wo)man who can”?  I’m willing to tackle pretty much everything involved in running Let’s Talk – accounts, marketing, tax, budgeting, purchasing, in fact just about anything but Graphic Design – but it’s always a balance between speed, quality, cost and best use of time.   

Finally I bit the bullet, and decided to build this site myself.  It’s been a lot of work and a sharp learning curve, but I’m loving the control it is giving me.   I opted for WordPress as my platform,  for its ease of use, it’s infinite customisability, and its popularity.  Popularity is particularly important, because it means every time I hit a problem, Google could find countless others who had run into the same problem and found a solution.  

What I am really enjoying is the total control, and the flexibility.  It’s taken a fair old chunk of time, and some wee-hour-candle-burning, but I hope you are enjoying the browsing as much I enjoyed the building.   Feedback always welcome by comments below.