Virtual Entrepreneur

How To Avoid Getting Screwed As A Newbie Entrepreneur

BizNik:
5 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.