I tend to listen to podcasts about Marketing, SEO and other web stuff. I find I can always learn something new which I can then use to better assist my website clients. However, yesterday I was listening to a podcast about web development and design. The guy sounded intelligent enough and then he got to his main point.
He advised people not to allow payment by check.
Huh?
Then he made his points:
As someone who builds and manages websites for small business, the first bullet is not always true. Just because they get a link to pay doesn’t mean they pay right away. I have clients who send a check immediately and others that take a longer time to pay. But, I have others who pay online and take a long time to pay.
The second bullet is just plain wrong. Companies (in the US) have to by law send you a tax form for payments over $600. So you can’t make the statement you won’t have to give them your information. I found a great article in Entrepreneur.com entitled: 1099 Rules That Can Make or Break You This Year where they say: The “general rule” is that business owners must issue a Form 1099-MISC to each person to whom you have paid at least $600 in rents, services (including parts and materials), prizes and awards or other income payments.
As for the third bullet, as I said in previous paragraph, companies are required to send you a tax form and it doesn’t matter your method of payment.
One thing he didn’t mention was that credit cards also have a cost associated. So from a purely profit and loss standpoint you are better off with a check. Also, why make it more difficult for clients and customers to pay? Give them options. Some companies only pay by check, so I for one will not turn them away!
Bottom Line: We have so many sources of information these days, podcasts, social media, blogs, TV, etc. While a lot of the information is good, you have to be careful. Not all advice is good advice. If you hear things that don’t sound right, check with professionals. In this case a call to your accountant or business attorney will quickly set you straight.
This is because our clients enjoy working with us and like to spread the word. I appreciate this more than they will ever know as my business is referral driven. While we get business from other sources, there is no better lead than a referral from a happy customer. Recently the question came to me directly: So, why are you the best website management company?
As I always tell people you need to have your Elevator Speech ready to go. Now this doesn’t have to be lengthy and should just be around 30 seconds, I break down mine into 5 main points. So here’s how I answer:
So that is it in a nutshell. This is our main selling point. The way the industry has grown, a lot of people wanted to design and build websites as they felt this was fun, sexy. But after the sites were built, these companies want to move onto the next project and not interested at all website management. I get more business from companies whose previous web developer has disappeared off the face of the earth. Now, they need help with their website and are stuck. Fortunately most of the time we can help.
The problem is that today’s web technology, especially with CMS’s* like WordPress require constant attention. Plug-ins are updated all the time, as is WordPress and theme files. If you ignore them eventually your site will break and/or get hacked. Now while it’s sold as something you can manage yourself, unless you know how to get a site back after it breaks from a bad plug-in version, you need to have a professional and manage your site. This of course is where RooSites shines. We will make all the updates on your behalf and come up with a support plan to keep you up to date and secure. Our support plans are tailered to fit your companies needs. While some companies only need an hour or two each month some need as many as 10, 20 hours a month, and some even require unlimited support.
As an example, recently I took over for a nonprofit who had over 20 plug-in/theme/WordPress updates. Now to safely do this, I had to set up a staging site where I test all these updates properly as their site was so woefully out of date. Now it is up to date, and secure. Prior to that, they tried to manage everything themselves, but it became overwhelming as they are all working on their main jobs, which of course is the nonprofit agency they work for.
So please, if you need help managing your website or designing and building one, please contact us, we are happy to help you. Being the best website management company is something we are extremely proud of and work hard every single day to live up to. We don’t live off of our laurels, and try and improve each and every day. But don’t take our word for it, check out our testimonials, and if you need to speak to some of our clients, we are happy to connect you.
