Lazy Man and Money

How Much Does Creating a Website Cost?

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The following is an article from Trent Anderson. It’s especially timely because I’ve spent the last couple of days dealing with a pile of other work. So while this isn’t a typical personal finance article, I think it can be helpful for small business owners. I hope to get together my monthly financial review for tomorrow.

If you run a business, you need to have a website that performs well. After all, a website is your global shop window, so you need to make sure it’s designed effectively. There are options such as WordPress available, which you can use to design and host your own website. This limits the amount of cost involved, but is time and effort intensive; if you want to do a good job.

It makes sense to search for a web design company or a professional SEO agency, to cater for all of your web design needs. They can handle the creation of your website, and the ongoing hosting and maintenance. But, how much does all of this cost?

The cost of a high end website

The costs of creating and maintaining a high end website have risen in recent times. This is due to the use of technology such as responsive web design. You may think that paying an average of around $9000 is a substantial investment, and you would be right. That being said, if you have the budget to invest, it can be worth it.

You get a website that is designed for use by users of all devices, including mobile users. Given that more people browse the Internet using a mobile device than using a desktop, you can see why this is a valuable advantage.

Lower priced websites

The fact is that not every business can afford to invest in a high end website. The good news is that website design priced at the lower end of the market has become more affordable. This is partly due to the fact that there are many more web developers and designers out there, and competition has led to price reductions. There are also more free design tools that are accessible online.

This means that you should be able to have a good basic website designed for an average of around $2000. You need to remember that basic means just that, and your website is unlikely to be optimized for viewing using a mobile device.

[Editor’s Note: I disagree with the author here. If the website is created in WordPress it is easy to choose a theme that is optimized for mobile users. It can be as easy as just clicking a few boxes. If you are paying $2000, you should demand that it is mobile-optimized.]

Ongoing website hosting and maintenance costs

It’s not just about the initial cost of setting up a website; it also has to be maintained and hosted on an ongoing basis. The cost of this varies greatly depending on aspects such as the functionality of your website, the type of maintenance and the choice of hosting option. Generally, you can expect to pay anything between $75 and $1000 per month.

An effective web site is a vital tool for any business. You need to make sure that your website is designed and maintained to have the optimum potential effect. Obviously, the performance of your website can be affected by the amount of money you pay for it; generally speaking you get what you pay for. There are options available for most budgets though. You should seek professional advice about how to make the most of your budget, to create a website that works for you.

Keeping Employees Happy: Navigating the NCAA Pool

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black and white basketball

It’s that time of the year again – the NCAA tournament is about to begin.  If you’re an employer, you may be groaning inwardly – you know that productivity is going to dip a bit in the next couple of weeks.  Nationwide, the NCAA tournament causes a loss of nearly $7 trillion in productivity.  Well, maybe a bit less than that, but it does have a very noticeable impact.

Instead of fighting March Madness, why not turn it into a company event?  You’ll lose some productivity, but you were going to lose some anyway.  Consider it to be an investment in employee satisfaction.  Employees like it when their bosses show an interest in something they enjoy.

Some tips for a successful event:

  • Sponsor a bracket contest for employees.  Make it free to join (to encourage participation, as well as staying on the right side of the law) with a tangible prize at the end (perhaps a $50 Amazon gift card).  Point out some basic facts (9, 10, 11 seeds win with some regularity, 16 seeds literally never win) to help out the folks aren’t fans.
  • Try to accommodate folks that are out of the office, since many people may be on vacation for spring break.  In the past, I have taken bracket entries via fax and phone.

  • Appoint a “basketball ambassador” or two.  They can help develop the rules for the bracket contest and assist non-fans with their picks.  Trust me, you’ll have no shortage of volunteers.
  • Have a lunch cookout on the opening Thursday of the tournament.  It might he too chilly to sit outside and eat, but you can probably find one person who will sacrifice for the good of the team and do the grilling.  Grill some brats, burgers, and even some veggie options if desired (I live in Iowa, where 99% of people are carnivores).  Grab some desserts from the local bakery.
  • Take the time to engage the employees in conversation about their picks (this works best if you have at least a working knowledge of the tournament).  Congratulate them on picks that turn out well, and commiserate when things don’t work out so well.

As I mentioned at the beginning, you’ll definitely incur a cost in doing this.  The lost productivity, the contest prizes, and the cost of the food.  However, you’ll gain employee loyalty.  You’d be surprised how much employee happiness you can get by buying an employee a couple of brats and letting them have a long lunch to watch a game.

Editor’s Thoughts

I have never been a fan of college sports. I think it’s because I grew up in Boston and we weren’t really very competitive. Maybe UConn basketball and some of the hockey stuff, but it was really boring stuff to me. I think it might have also been that I’d rather watch a higher level of play considering no real local rooting interest.

About ten years ago, my work had something similar to this with horse racing’s triple crown. I had about the same level of interest as I did college basketball (zero!), but with everyone involved, I started to research the horses a bit. It became a lot of fun. It certainly bought a lot of loyalty for me with that manager.

Arguably, I lost some productivity that I wouldn’t have otherwise lost being that I wasn’t interested in horse racing in the first place. It was minimal productivity though, since the races were on the weekends and mostly during that Friday afternoon time where productivity was low to begin with.

A Salad of Business Thinking (Part 1)

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I have a bunch of ideas to share today. There’s thread tying them together, other than them being about business, so I’m just referring to it as a “business thinking salad.” Hopefully, it’s good and you don’t spend your time picking out the metaphorical red onions.

The first two headings are about personal/family stuff… along with some blog direction. Feel to skip them if they are not your thing. I, personally, love to learn more about the people behind the blogs I follow.

Freedom?

My 3 year old has his first day of camp today. This ends a 10-week string where I was a stay-at-home dad. As Retire By 40 put it, “Any stay at home parent wants a little more time to do what they want. RB40Jr was out of school for two weeks and it was rough… By the end of the two week break, I was getting easily irritable and I didn’t like that.”

I don’t know how other stay at home parents do it, but I’m guessing they aren’t trying to balance 3 other businesses and most of the household chores as well.

The grandparents chipped in with a several days of help, but it was often 2-3 days of overnights. The needle moved sharply in the other direction and I missed him. It’s almost like starving a person for weeks and then giving them all-you-can-eat lard. There’s no balance… it is simply not healthy.

All the time, there was a looming feeling of Cat’s Cradle (Chapin, not Vonnegut)… I’m sure I’ll want to have all this time back with him in a few years.

Expect action on this blog to pick up. I’m going to start by looking for a new writer (my old one got a new job). If you think you’re a good fit reach out to me here.

Father’s Day and the 2-year old Competitive Eating Champion

I had a great Father’s Day… two of them actually. My wife took me and the kids out for lunch… the best BBQ in town (there’s not much competition). The 2-year old slept through it, so he had lunch when we got home. Three hours later, we all went out again for my father-in-law’s celebration. Because I had just eaten, I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, a half-pound burger, to split with the 2-year old. (The 3-year old had fallen asleep this time.)

When the burger arrived, I almost got sick as it was so big and I was still so full. Fortunately, my 2-year old is the next Joey Chestnut as he ate 90% of the burger, not to mention quite a few chips and fries. The running joke for the next couple of hours was, “So how was your burger?”

Enough family stuff… let’s move on to the business ideas.

Ever Wonder? Is This Business Idea Any Good?

I wonder that all the time. In fact, I’m often so paralized by the question that I can’t move forward. Well, I may have found the answer.

Pat Flynn had his Will it Fly book on Kindle available for 99 cents this weekend. That price is no longer available as I write this, but there’s arguably a better deal.

The Audible book is still $1.99. (I hope that’s still the case as you read this as it seems an oversight.)

You could can pay around $15 to read a paperback or have your Amazon Echo read it to you for $2.

Good Marketing, Bad Marketing, and False Marketing

I’m often annoyed by marketing. I can understand a company explaining why people should their products. That’s good marketing. Sometimes the companies use misleading information and a bunch of psychological tricks. This morning I was reading Root of Good’s article on focus groups and some examples of these were brought up. I considering this bad marketing.

There’s sometimes a very thin line between the two.

Then there’s simply false marketing. There are probably at least 20 marketing statements I hear a day where I think, “That can’t be right.” When I have the time to look into them, I find that 90% they simply aren’t right.

To give you an example of what I mean, I watched John Oliver on Brexit (warning: very adult language) this morning. He pointed out a commercial that appears to have blatantly lied, stating that there are 109 European Union regulations to making a pillow. He shows that’s simply not true.

This stuff probably seems like common sense, but it’s odd that the first two articles I read today had significant mentions of bad and false marketing.

Should You Get an MBA?

I looked into this question over a decade ago. The more I looked into it, the more it seemed that the value was mostly in networking with others, not the education itself. I feel like you can get much of the education through books like The Personal MBA.

It was kind of gut feel from all my reading, but there was never one specific thing that I felt I could point to. This weekend I found an article on The Atlantic that is the closest thing to it: The Management Myth. The article should open your eyes about how weird “management” is.

Sometimes my wife brings up the idea of getting an MBA to pair with her pharmacy degree. I cringe a little bit, because it doesn’t feel like the time/money investment is worth it.

Financial Case Study: Effectively Wild

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[The following is an article that I requested from Kosmo after reading about a similar topic in this GREAT NY Times article. This article goes behind the scenes to before the nerds ran a baseball team on statistics.]

A few years ago, I began listening to a baseball podcast called Effectively Wild.  The hosts are Ben Lindbergh (formerly of Baseball Prospectus and the now-defunct Grantland and now of FiveThirtyEight) and Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus.  It’s a show that is ostensibly about baseball, but is as much about the behind the scenes aspects as the on-field action.  A few topics that have been covered:

  • Why isn’t the increase in defensive shifts lowering BABIP?
  • Catcher framing (Lindbergh is an acknowledged expert on the topic)
  • A cold call to a 90 year old former pitcher (Ned Garver) in search of an answer to a question about a specific game.  (Episode 722 – it’s a classic.  Ned is tremendous.)
  • A discussion about an effort to recruit former minor league players to play cricket (Switch Hit 20)

Ben and Sam have a tendency to look at many different perspectives before settling on an answer.  Instead of just seeing the finished result, you also see why other possibilities are disregarded – and that can often be even more informative.  Over the years, the show has grown to over 10,000 listeners and a Facebook group of more than 3,000.  It slows down a bit in the winter, but there are still multiple episodes every week.

Show me the money!

For years, the sole source of revenue was a single sponsor, the Play Index from Baseball Reference.

After volunteering their time for about 850 episodes – about 400 hours of air time, to say nothing of the additional work required to put the show together – Ben and Sam asked for money.  They used Patreon to solicit donations, quite clearly stating that this was voluntary and that those who didn’t have the money to spare should not contribute.

At the moment, 788 people have pledged a total of $6,434 per month.  It’s quite likely that will drop somewhat.  There are some rewards for being at various levels for a period of time, and some people will drop to a lower level after getting that reward.  Other people will find themselves in financial situations where they need to stop contributing or lower their contribution level so that they can keep food on the table.  For the sake of argument, let’s assume it stabilizes at around $4000 per month.  The podcast has about 20 episodes per month, so that is about $200 revenue per episode.  That’s overstating their hourly rate in a couple of ways.  First of all, they often do research before the show (well, Ben does, anyway).  Second, some of this money will go to hosting costs.  However, at the end of the day, these guys are going to be able to take home a decent chunk of change for their podcast.  A very fair reward for the entertainment value they provide for thousands of people.

The Stompers Experiment

Last season, Ben and Sam tried their hand at applying the principles of baseball analytics and took over the baseball operations department of the Sonoma Stompers, an independent league team.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with how baseball works, the independent leagues are where players go when they can’t find a home in the minor leagues.  The players make almost nothing as they chase the dream of catching the eye of a scout for a big league team.  The teams themselves are often run on a shoestring budget, and it’s unfortunately to see teams or entire leagues go bankrupt.  If you want to see baseball at it’s most pure level, indy ball is the place to go.  There are no millionaire players.

The GM and the announcer of the Stompers become members of the Facebook group and were welcomed with open arms.  Facebook members bought merchandise, attended games, donated their voices for commercials, and even contributed cash toward a full page ad in the Stompers program.  The group adopted the team as their own, following the broadcast on the internet when possible.

Ben and Sam wrote a book about their experiences.  Perhaps the best thing about the book is the fact that I am one of the people they thank – extending a somewhat odd streak of being listed in the acknowledgments of a baseball book for the third straight year.  The official release date of “The Only Rule Is It Has to Work” is May 3rd (yes, that’s today).

The spin-off

The podcast is a sideline for Ben and Sam – they both have “real” jobs – but they have turned it into something that will actually generate revenue for them.  That’s great for them, but does the buck stop there?

Of course not.  All good things need a spin-off.  For Effectively Wild, that spin-off is Banished to the Pen.  An innocent discussion about where one reader could host his content quickly turned into a discussion of having the Facebook group operate their own site.  I’m proud to be one of the founding members of the group that created the site. We have dozens of people creating and editing content, and the work of many of the writers has been acknowledged by some of the leading writers in the business.  We’ve had a half dozen writers snatched away by other sites.  Since the site was intended to be a non-profit (in fact, zero revenue) incubator for aspiring writers, this makes us quite happy.

Thus, Effectively Wild isn’t just making money for Ben and Sam – it has helped launch the writing careers of people who are now being paid for their work as well.

Are Quick Loan Companies Bad?

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There’s a lot of negative talk in the personal finance space about quick loans, often called payday loans. I think most of this talk is justified, as many people get trapped in loans with high interest rates. The rates are so high that sometimes people can only pay the interest on the loans. They can’t pay the principle and get themselves out of the loan. It can be like trying to dig yourself out of quicksand.

If there’s so much money to be made by charging people high interest rates, why wouldn’t everyone open up a payday loan company and get rick quick? Let’s ignore the ethics of the high interest rates for a thing for a second. There are a lot of less than honest people willing to take shortcuts to get rich quick.

I’ve had a little experience lending money on Prosper. From that experience, it is necessary to charge an outstandingly high price to the high risk people with very low credit grades. Even when I was getting 29% interest, I lost money because so many people defaulted on their loans. I can’t imagine the rate I’d have to charge to make money on what Prosper deems high risk or no credit borrowers. Well I can, and it’s about the rate that payday loans charge.

If it was really easy to make money in the payday loan fields, there would be tons of entrepreneurs entering the field and undercutting them by a few percentage points to grab all the business for themselves.

That doesn’t happen because numerous payday loan companies exist still charging tremendously high rates. I believe they need to charge these rates because a large number of their clients never repay their debt or interest at all. It may sound like conjecture on my part and in some ways it is. However, I can’t recommend that people get payday loans. When you compare payday loans, it’s too easy to get trapped into a hole you can’t dig out of. Still, I think that payday loan companies aren’t nearly as predatory as they are made out to be. I think they are just charging what needs to be charged to make an honest profit. If people were more responsible and didn’t default on their loans, companies that provide cash loans wouldn’t need to charge such high rates.

I think it’s up to the consumer to educate themselves about credit before they find themselves in such a situation.