buznutt

There is a good post at Information Architects Japan called "A Word on Design Value". (See Information Architects Japan http://informationarchitects.jp/a-word-on-design-value/)

It makes a good read, and may provide a clue for the clueless. Pass it on.

I had a similar experience, though it didn’t go as far as a face to face meeting. There was no point.

One day I got an email. It was from a guy who said that he was starting an online Christian clothing company. OK, I don’t know about you, but to me that sounded more than a little strange. Too many ideas, mixed together too closely, fighting with one another. But it was his life and his business, and it may be going great guns by now, so who am I to judge?

But you can already guess that I did not become part of it, and here is why.

Besides the above he said that he had been looking around and had found a web site template that he wanted to use, but it cost $120, more than he could afford, though he had captured a picture of it and thought that maybe he could go ahead and use that as his design anyway.

Immediate copyright violation. Federal law and all, prison, etc. Not a great opening gambit.

Next, he couldn’t afford to pay anyone to design and build his e-commerce site, but imagined that he would be able to come up with the money, a bit at a time, over the following year, as his business caught on and his clothing sold.

Deafening sound of screeching klaxons, sight of red flags waving hither and yon. Frightened web designers and developers diving for cover.

And up front, before he would even consider talking to anyone, he needed (1) links to half a dozen or so sites that his prospective developer had built and (2) at least three business references.

Sounds of hysterical laughter. Sounds of clothing rustling as I reached toward the delete key.

But no, wait a moment. First I answered him. Yes I did. He needed help, and I was polite.

I didn’t bother explaining that he wanted for free something that might have been worth half a year’s pay (depending of course on what he wanted and what his day job was). I didn’t explain all the technical details and issues (there are about 10,000). I didn’t go into his business model (if any).

I just said that with his constraints he’d have a problem getting an actual professional of any kind to work with him, then suggested a couple of places he might try if he wanted to do some pointing and clicking and set up a sort of generic, template based e-commerce site.

Yahoo has some options for that sort of thing, and so does Amazon. He could just as well have used eBay. I sent him links to a couple of places including Shopify, which might have served him. (See Shopify http://shopify.com/)

It could be that by now, a couple of years later, he may know more, if he’s in business. He may never have started. It is hard to imagine that he could be in business.

Try this on for size though. Turn the tables. Say that I emailed him. Pretend that I heard he had a clothing store and I wanted to sell things online. So I’m asking him to send me a year’s worth of product. Say something like $50,000 at manufacturer’s cost. Let’s assume that I think I can sell it for $150,000. Pretty easy, no?

So here’s the deal I offer him.

He sends me the goods, and pays for shipping and storage, and I’ll pay him from my profits, as they roll in. I’m sure that I’ll be able to do it within a year. It just has to work. It will be easy. But first, of course, he has to prove that his product is a quality one.

So I want to see at least three samples of everything he has, and also his bank statements and tax returns, and a handful of business references. And I’ll check with the Attorney General’s office too, to be sure he’s trustworthy.

Think he’d have gone for it?

And one more thought: If for some reason I didn’t pay him, he could always sue me. If he had screwed up and never been able to pay me, then no matter what happened I would never, ever have gotten my time back.

Copyright © 2008 - 2011 by Dave Sailer

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