When writing about technology for small businesses, there’s a fine line between reality and fantasy. Talking about the latest and greatest trends is one thing, but finding room for them in the budget is often quite another.
And then there’s “time.” I’ve never, ever met a small business owner who said “Wow, I just have tons of free time to try new strategies.”
A friend (Stuart Lathrop) once gave me one of my favorite truth snippets: “Fast, cheap, correct ... pick two.” He said he got it from a business mentor several years ago, who I assume got it from someone else. It’s probably traced all the way back to Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great or some other brilliant source of wisdom.
In my line of work (building websites and handling digital presences), the client is usually in charge of “correct,” so I changed my last bullet point to “awesome,” which I think does a decent job of getting the point across.
I can’t tell you how many people come to me after they’ve had a bad experience in which someone promised them all three things.
Intuit’s website product comes to mind. They’re only a few bucks a month and the website gets set up quickly, but “awesome” is rarely a word I hear thrown around regarding their product.
It’s not just websites; it’s almost anything. If you are having a new home built, you can get it done fast, but if it’s awesome, I bet it isn’t cheap.
How about auto mechanics? Even if you have a friend who fixes cars and who will fix yours for free, I bet they take forever to get over to your house to look at the problem. You probably have to ask them several times. The result? Cheap. Awesome. Not Fast.
My point in all this is simple expectation management, and it can give you an edge when negotiating with service providers and vendors (on both sides of the negotiating table, by the way). If you’re planning a website, building a home or having someone fix your car, the end result is a function of these three variables: time, cost and quality.
Ultimately, you need to know what you want, and defaulting to “the best” just isn’t specific enough.
“The best” doesn’t take into account all of the variables that come into play when making a big purchase or decision, because there is rarely a clear winner on all fronts.
If you find yourself confronting a decision that falls into this category, be sure to know which of the three you’re sacrificing. This will help you stay on top of the other two factors you’re receiving.
My personal favorite combo is fast and awesome, but only when I’m not the one paying.
Jesse Bushkar is the CEO of Sysconn New Media Inc. He can be contacted at 912-356-9920 or jesse@sysconn.com.