Why You Should Work With a Local Graphic Designer

Why You Should Work With a Local Graphic Designer

Some of my clients have had a hard time when it came to their business’ website in the past. I will always help out any local business as best I can so when I hear that they’ve been taken advantage of, it genuinely annoys me.

There has been a major increase in domains and website advertising as of late and because it’s thrown at us with expensive marketing and production values, as a business we subconsciously think “oh that’s what we need!” The majority of the time, you are setting yourself up to spend more than you really need to.

If you haven’t read my article Why Wix isn’t Really Free and you are looking for a website for your business then please do because it’s an eye-opening read. If you have (thank you) then you know that I greatly dislike these massive companies that offer “free” services!

More and more businesses are working with local designers for a variety of reasons, the main reason it seems is the handiness of being able to just ring your designer and have a conversation without being on hold for 25 minutes for an “Account Manager” to talk absolute nonsense to you and then bill you for your correspondence.

It’s all Smoke and Mirrors it seems!

I know the processes and the time it takes when undertaking a wide range of graphic design projects, so needless to say my blood boils when people are charged for services that simply have been mis-sold. Some of my clients have told me about invoices they have been sent for getting an email address set up! This is after they’ve been on hold for nearly 40 mins. By far, the worst I’ve heard was one of my clients queried a quote for work to be carried out as he found it to be excessive. The response he received was “we don’t really know how it works so it will take a lot longer to sort it out”. Now I’m sorry, but that is not a feasible excuse for charging someone an extortionate rate for doing something. In fact, you have no right to charge such an hourly rate for something where you actually have no idea what you’re doing. That’s why designers have their hourly rate, they know what they are doing!

Fair Service with McCabe Graphics

I have a plan and a vision for the future with McCabe Graphics and when I see these companies shady advertising, not only do they annoy me but they give me the drive to offer something they simply don’t, and that is a “fair service”. What I mean by that is, when you end up with a company like Yell for your business, they will sell you a Website for a one off price and then charge you a monthly fee to keep your website up and running. This is not a problem, in fact that is normal. BUT, what’s not normal or fair is their price. Prices for a website start from £65 per month, that’s £780 a year just to keep your website live. Now add the up front fee for the build of the website, which for a standard website is in the region of £500-£1000! So already you will have spent nearly £2000 for the first year of hosting your business website. This does not sit well with me at all, one of the main aspects of my business is to save my clients money. I work with businesses with all budgets and needs and there isn’t an agency that gives the aftercare that I provide for my clients.

How do they get away with this?!

I actually asked for a quote from Yell for a certain package that I offer just to compare and it was nearly 4 times the price in comparison! The guy was giving me the usual sales speak and talking nonsense “oh my uncle has the same business so it will definitely benefit you having a website with us”. I made the business up, I was just being awkward, looking for a figure and he threw a lie back at me because he couldn’t tell me the name of his uncle’s business!

A massive thing which I have noticed about these websites is that they look awful, they are so dated and completely unprofessional looking. I would not be happy to produce that sort of work for a client, in actual fact I refuse to produce that sort of work. As a general rule of thumb, if you look at a Yell website and think I’d be happy with that just remember that McCabe Graphics will create something much more visually appealing, easier on your budget and you will be able to actually speak with the guy who’s building your website.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article (rant), if you’d like to keep up to date with McCabe Graphics, then head on over to the Facebook page to follow me and don’t forget to share with your friends and family 🙂