Top 7 Reasons NOT to Hire a Local Website Designer
Generally most people like to work with a local website designer. But what works for one business might not work for another! In this post, we’ll be going through the top 7 reasons why you might not want to work with a local design company.
If any of the following apply to you, you may be better off finding an agency far from you:
1. You live somewhere with extremely high tech prices.
If you live on the west coast, New York, or any number of other highly-educated cities with a robust tech community, you may find that the prices for even basic website services are outrageous. For many businesses, these prices might be quite prohibitive.
In this case, it might make sense to seek out developers from different parts of the country where the cost-of-living and, by extension, the cost of their services aren’t so high. Whether that means finding one from the rural midwest or just a less-expensive city depends on your individual needs or budget.
Some businesses go even further and outsource their website development to Asia or elsewhere. If you can find the right company and don’t mind the language barrier, this can sometimes be a good option for the budget-conscious as well.
2. You have a massive project and are looking for many quotes.
If you are working on a website project of sufficient size (you know who you are), then odds are you are looking to get many quotes from huge web development companies that are well-versed in sites of that caliber. Unless you live in San Francisco, it’s unlikely you’ll find enough of them in your backyard.
This is often the case with Fortune 500 companies, large municipalities, and other organizations whose website projects generally exceed the $250,000 range.
3. You have extremely niche website needs.
You might be looking to do something weird on the internet. More power to you! If that’s the case, you may not be able to find a local designer able and/or willing to create it for you. If you can find it from someone that’s far away, more power to you.
4. You are located somewhere without many talented developers.
I’m going to be generous and assume that this means you are in an area with a low population, as opposed to accusing entire geographies of being low-skilled. If you’re out in the middle of nowhere, you probably have no choice but to search far and wide for someone who can bring your vision to life.
5. You want to keep your business a secret.
We’re not here to judge. There are lots of reasons someone might want to keep their new website a secret. Maybe you’ve told your overbearing parents that you want to medical school and are now a world-class brain surgeon, when really you’re peddling selfie-sticks online. Maybe you don’t want your business partner to find out you moonlight as a party clown.
Either way, if you work with a local website agency, there is always a chance word could get out. Of course, if you’re working with an ethical company, secrecy shouldn’t be a problem as long as you’ve shared your concerns with them.
6. You work on a different timezone than the local one.
If you live in Columbus, Ohio, but you’re operating a pizza delivery business in Hong Kong, it might not make sense to work with a local company. Especially if you yourself are sleeping all day and working all night. I’ve worked on projects where you can basically only get one email in per day with clients, and believe me when I say it’s quite frustrating and can add a huge amount of time to the project.
If you have a weird schedule or work in a different timezone, definitely consider finding someone that will match up more closely with your schedule.
7. You’ve already found the perfect designer elsewhere.
If you’ve already found the perfect website designer, by all means, work with them. It shouldn’t matter if they are on the other side of the country if you know they are the right fit. Everything is online, after all!
So whether you’ve moved elsewhere and want to keep using your favorite developers, or you’ve seen the work of one and just fell in love, don’t worry about finding someone local. You’ve got your match.
Local website designers have their advantages, but in the end, you need to pick one that suits your needs.
If having shared community and ideals, the ability to see each other in person, and a similar language and culture is important to you, then you’ll probably want to find someone that lives near you.
But if any of the seven statements above apply to you, then you may want to consider looking elsewhere.