Don’t do it yourself, hire a developer!

by TM Maria Be a king in your own kingdom

You’re a business owner with the next big idea. But, you’re lacking the expertise of a developer to make your vision a reality. Maybe you have design ready, but your personal knowledge of code is limited to watching ‘The Matrix'.

Returning to reality, it’s important you understand that developers are the foundation of your online business and will play a vital role in SEO ranking, functionality, user experience, and originality.

The above information probably comes at no surprise. The answer to whether you need a developer is a resounding yes! However, what you may be wondering is whether you can take care of development yourself?

To convince you why you need a developer, the following will discuss the time, financial and skill variables involved.

Time is Money

Developing takes time, the majority of junior developers nowadays have formal qualifications at least and you want to be hiring those with twice, thrice the experience! Therefore, if you don’t have an IT background and are thinking of making changes to code on your own, know that the consequences can be disastrous. Even if a task is simple, it’s going to take you a lot more time than necessary, which could’ve been time you invested in your product or service itself, what your customers are paying you for!

Basically, doing it yourself is going to cost you more money than what you’d have spent employing a developer anyway. Even business owners with developer backgrounds will hire external help, as they find themselves spread too thin as their business grows.

A misconception with developer hiring is that it’s going to cost you an unimaginable amount, especially if you’re a startup. This is probably how you feel if you reside in a Western country or city known to have a high living cost, the cost of reputable local developers is sky high. This is why more and more businesses look to outsource development, as they can find exceptional talent abroad. India is the most popular country for hiring offshore developers as they boast the highest population of developers with a formal qualification.

One cost effective web development company I’ve come across is CodeClouds. They have offices in India, USA and New Zealand. Their business has a rare mix of expert developers with superb communication skills, nullifying a concern many business owners have when wanting to outsource. They have specialty programmers for a range of services, including Shopify Experts for those business owners too nervous to edit store CSS.

Developing Requires Constant Updates

Part of being a developer involves keeping up with the latest updates. This doesn’t necessarily mean learning every new piece of technology suggested on a dev blog, but will mean learning some and being aware of the majority. This is further time spent that a business owner doesn’t have and will quickly burnout anyone who has other priorities.

Therefore, you should acknowledge that developing tasks don’t have a clear end. Each line of code is subject to change and will be once it is deemed worthwhile. If you have tried your hand at developing, you are locked into a race with time; which for anyone who’s inexperienced or cannot commit adequate time towards upskilling will find themselves falling behind their competitors.

User Experience

A pleasing user experience is essential for the success of your business. You could have the best product/service on the market, feature the best content, yet if the functionality of your website isn’t up to par you’ll never receive the exposure you deserve.

Site speed is huge for SEO ranking, if it takes more than 3 seconds for your website to load your customer is likely gone and already pathing towards your competitors. Developers always keep speed in mind and will optimize all aspects of your site to ensure so. When first hiring a developer, quick optimizations they make will be to do with:

●       Compressing image files

●       Removing unnecessary plugins or apps

●       Cleaning up excess or dormant code

User experience should be consistent amongst all devices, in today’s market a huge chunk of your revenue will be generated through mobile conversions. Mobile users will be even less forgiving if your site is clunky, awkwardly structured and slow to load. The responsiveness and consistency of your site is the difference between your site and the next. Professional developers are thorough in their work and understand that each lead needs an exceptional experience from landing page to checkout.

Site Innovation

When customers see the same old recycled template used in your site, you’re instantly written off as just another part of the crowd. Standing out with custom design adds credibility to your site and greatly increases the chances of a conversion.

Developers can customize a suite to meet the needs of your target audience. Ask yourself

●       What are my target audiences biggest problems?

●       Which areas of your website are most useful to your customers?

●       How can I clearly display a problem that is solved by our products/services?

●       Where should I include a call to action?

Finally, the uniqueness of your website is a big part of your brand identity. Most business owners will have a certain way they imagine their site looks and the best developers can make their vision a reality, whilst providing feedback and balancing aesthetics with practicality. The more attractive your site is the more memorable you are and the greater likelihood you have of securing a long term relationship with your customers.

Conclusion

The only time where a developer is not necessary is probably if you’re a developer yourself who has just become a business owner. This scenario is time sensitive, once you begin to grow you’ll need to hand the development reigns to someone else. It’s cost effective and time efficient to hire a developer, if the initial cost is scaring you, consider recruiting offshore!

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Created on May 25th 2019 17:42. Viewed 725 times.

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