Throughout my venture into this wedding online business for the past 3 years, I have been asked many times by people who have visited my business website, especially all the business associates and friends about how to do their own business website. As a matter of fact, before I really embarked into the wedding business now, I have set up an IT company that caters to website design, web hosting for SOHO business owners and technical consultancy. Of course when it comes to web hosting, what my company provides is more to reseller hosting since our initial plan is to help those who are running small business to get online presence.
The only setback when you are helping all these SOHO business owners to have their own business website is that majority of them have no technical skills and very limited budget. It is such a hassle to make them understand why we charge certain amount and what they should expect from the budget package.
After some times I just couldn’t bear the burden of entertaining too many ignorant clients and decided I should only help those who are willing to learn and understand about this website design, maintenance and hosting on their own (well, at least the basic will do rather than expect us to give all the support and do all the menial task). It would be OK to expect such services if you pay a premium charge but with MYR200 a year for online presence – email, disk space, website design and hosting, I don’t think it is reasonable to expect too much.
Recently I have been approached by 2 shop owners who have been in the business for quite some time but still don’t have any online presence. The other one is more interested to get e-commerce site because he is planning to sell his products to outside Malaysia market. The funny thing when I asked him whether he has any IT staff to handle the e-commerce site, his answer is none. He was hoping that a clerical guy who is also doing some minor product shooting would be able to handle all. I was wondering how he is going to handle the customer support, email and all sort of queries from potential clients and other related matter like handling the control panel, mailing list etc that you must know if you want to run an e-commerce site.
In the end, I decided to turn down his request because I know it will only ruin my business reputation if what he expects and gets from my IT service go below par. I hope by now he would be able to find out what he really needs and understand what he should have on his side of the business to maintain the e-commerce site as he wishes.
I strongly suggest to all business owners who have no technical knowledge but are interested to build their own e-commerce site and host their own business website to read the articles on http://www.webhostinginformation.net. I find the guide they provide and the information specifically about all kind of web hosting very useful. It will surely help people like me do our job easier.
emmm….bagus jugak awak tulis artikel mcm ni sekurang2nya kt tahu sama ada kt dah cukup bersedia utk memski dunia e-commerce ni.
The part about implementation without thoroughly thinking of the requirements is a very common thing in Malaysia. However, many ask now can you make money selling online in Malaysia now.
Half the time, I’ll answer yes but it’s determined by the product(s) and target market.
Yes Danny, that’s very true. You have to know your niche market and what kind of product is suitable and convenient for people to buy online. Plus you have to make sure the picture and the description of the products sold online are accurate. Otherwise buyers will feel cheated.
I always ask more information from my potential clients so that I know what they really need and expect from my handcrafted products.