Get A Freakin’ Clue
I’ve got this friend who’s been begging me to help him for awhile. His company needs a business website. He is a co-owner of the company, and currently they don’t have a business website simply because he hasn’t wanted to shell out the cash to build one.
He’s gotten quotes from different graphic designers, and all of them have given him a price he believes is way too expensive. Then again, all those quotes have been at least $750, and I can understand why for what he wants. He also doesn’t know very much about websites, how much effort it takes to build something like he wants, stuff like that. It took me almost 2 weeks just to teach the man how to insert a photo into an email.
I’m not going into details about what type of site it would be, but he wants a lot including an e-commerce site with all of the company’s products. I will tell you he’s in furniture, and everything is high end. The design of the site would have to match the overall appearance of the business. He wants to hire a professional photographer to take photos of displays he wants showcased on the site. He wants that included in the price of the design, not someone he has to hire on his own. Basically he wants the designer to go out of their way to hire a photographer out of the fee they’d be earning. They’ve all flat out turned down that request because it’s ludicrous.
He also doesn’t understand setup costs and hosting costs, why he has to pay an extra fee monthly for his website to be online, why he has to pay extra for a domain name. The man is clueless.
What he does know is that he has a friend who does website design, even if she only does it as a hobby/part time on the side. He knows his friend has always been willing to go out of her way to help him for free when one of his computers needs repaired. So what does he do? He calls said friend, who would be me in this case, and asks her to create this site for him so he can save himself $750.
I’m sorry, it’s not going to happen. First of all, I can’t do a lot of the stuff he wants done. I’ve told him over and over again I’m not a full fledged graphic designer. I dabble here and there, and I know enough to do what I need to do. He’s asking me to do things I would have to learn, and those things make my head spin. That’s why I haven’t taken the time to learn them yet. He’s asking me to hunt down a photographer that’s willing to work for free (or basically for a plug on his website) because he “must have these shots”!
He doesn’t understand. He tells me he knows I can learn how to do the stuff if I don’t know how because he knows how much I love computers. I tell him it would take me weeks to learn how to do this stuff on a minimal level. I would have to take time out of my day…away from my own business…to study and learn how to do these things. Building what he wants would be extremely complicated. I told him there’s no way I’m going to find a photographer who’s going to work for him for free, and that shouldn’t be my place. I don’t even have the knowledge to build what he wants.
He doesn’t want to take no for an answer. He keeps calling, leaving me voicemails, sending me emails, calling my husband and asking him to talk some sense into me…he just doesn’t get it.
Friend or not why should I go out of my way to take time out of my schedule to learn how to do all this stuff just so HE can save money. I’ve tried to explain to him that it’s a tax write off. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t think he should have to shell out the cash in the first place if his friend is good with computers.
He just can’t grasp the concept that I don’t have a freakin’ clue how to build a website like he wants, and even if I did I wouldn’t do it for free anyway. Yes I would take into consideration our friendship, and I would discount him greatly on it, but I couldn’t do it for free.
I’m so fed up with arguing with him about it. Now I’m to the point of completely ignoring him. Dude, get a freakin’ clue already. I said no. I said I won’t do it. I said I can’t do it. What more do I have to say?
By the way, for a friend who wants me to do so much for free, he wouldn’t even give me a small discount on a bed frame last year. What would he think if I walked in and demanded he give me the bed for free?
