The Cheapest Solution is for the Non-professional...
You ever see those commercials where some tax lawyer who caters to people who owe money on their taxes always has the pitch, “I’ve worked for the IRS for 10 years and I know how to handle your case!” Or something to that effect, right? It’s a good pitch, I like it. It inspires confidence to some degree, that the person is actually going to get you out of trouble.
I was thinking about it the other day. I’ve been in the tech industry 20 years now, actually getting paid for it beginning in 1999. I’ve essentially run the gamut of places you can work in these technical positions. Started out doing the basic PC tech support minutia (most over-saturated market ever), massive deployments at multi million dollar properties, working insane hours at random start-ups, insane hours at data centers, network operation centers (NOC), deploying wireless mobile networks for entire cities, to actually working for some of the carriers and vendors whose products and services I sell here today. Due to those experiences I’ve even been called by random venture capital firms in New York whose clients want to get information on new wireless networks being deployed and what technology they should consider investing in. All of which is well documented here on various pages.
Even after all that knowledge and experience, I always find it funny that business owners, large and small alike, try to implement some of the most ridiculous solutions possible just to save money on something that will ultimately fail and result in massive loss of revenue. If you scroll down through this blog you might find the post I made about a guy whose business was a call center and this man bought an “As Seen on TV” solution called the Magic Jack for his phone lines. In all my years of doing this I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so stupid in a business that’s set to make ridiculous amounts of money on the customer service side of things……until those customers all get disconnected and the business implodes. As predicted, that guy’s business no longer exists because he just knew too much. (Note: Magic Jack has since taken their profits and purchased solutions like ‘BroadSmart’ which actually will let you implement workable cloud solutions via multiple datacenters. However the story here took place many years ago when it was literally an ‘As seen on TV’ product.)
If you as a business owner aren’t willing to spend the money to implement the right solutions, you’re not going to be in business long. Period. People who Mickey Mouse their way around what could’ve been done right the first time always, always, ALWAYS spend more money trying to fix the asinine shortcuts they paid nothing for. This is NEVER not the case. Instead of getting a scalable solution they can add onto later, they get the cheapest thing available to conduct commerce. These same people consistently call themselves experts in business. You’re not an expert if you’re implementing things you don’t understand to save a buck while also telling someone who IS an expert how to get it done the right way. I call this the Superman complex. It’s when someone tries to do everything themselves because they think they can get away with it by saving money not hiring a professional. There’s a difference between something that’s inexpensive or cost effective (what Gilded Pendulum does) versus downright cheap and broken.
How many SIP trunks does your business require?
How much bandwidth do you typically need for adequate voice quality?
Do you need HD quality video streaming as well for satellite meetings and/or webinars?
Can you “ride for free” on your current data network?
Have you factored in these costs to your budget so you know how much you should be spending?
What companies can integrate the apps your business uses into a reliable UCaaS solution?
If I asked you these questions right now would you know the answers? If you do know the answers do you even know where to begin to get the best prices for your solution? If not, that’s why you have professionals at your disposal to take care of the tech side for you. I’ve lost count of how many entrepreneurs who are experts in everything and are out of business in less than 5 years. Stick to what you know and outsource professionals to do the rest. When you started your business and gave up your 9 to 5 to be your own boss and forge your own path in life, did you say to yourself “I’m going to half-ass this thing all the way to success!” I doubt it. Sometimes as a solutions expert you need to drag some folks over the finish line so they can attain the success they’ve given up everything to achieve. Like it or not, this is what I do.