Tim hired his friend’s 16-year old nephew to create a logo for £50. He then knocked together his own website using Wix. Tim was impressed with the money he saved on graphic and website design.

What Tim doesn’t realise is that he’s already begun to lose money.

When people go to Tim’s website, they’re looking at a visual representation of his business. And bear in mind that a website is usually the first impression most people have of a business.

As a result of Tim’s DIY job on his website , he looks like an amateur. So he’s not only losing good business because he looks like an amateur, he’s also not getting clients that are willing to pay what he’s actually worth.

In a nutshell: His cheapskate approach is attracting only cheapskates to his business. i.e. those who want to cut prices and pay (usually less than) the absolute minimum for his time and skills.

By the time the penny drops, Tim has lost a lot of money. He then has to shell out for a decent logo and the website that he should have gotten in the first place. (He probably also has to pay to have all his business stationary and van graphics reprinted too).

This is an example of how buying cheap can affect a small business, but larger businesses make the same mistakes too, and the larger the business, the costlier it is to not get it right the first time.

Let’s be clear. We’re not suggesting you break the bank by spending huge sums of money before you even know if the business will take off. What you should do, though, is take the time to hire an experienced professional that understands what you want to say about your business and can create a website that accurately reflects the quality of the products or services that you offer.