The problem of developers.
Those of you who read this blog often, or know me know I am not a web developer, not a programmer, and not especially technical. I’m an entrepreneur, and a photographer. I rely on paid developers to translate my vision into the code that is a functioning website.
Here is a dirty little secret. Finding competent developers is the hardest part! Oh the stories I could tell. I started mistrustful of outsourcing, and went with a developer near me. He ripped me off for $60,000. He didn’t pay his employees, didn’t produce anything, and declared chapter 11. I’d tell you his name, but he’s lawyered up, and I am sure he would like nothing better than to sue me for looking his way cross-eyed. If we ever meet at a party, I’ll tell you all about it.
So, 1/2 my money gone, I was forced to go the outsourced rout. I found these guys in India who spent two months just getting my shopping cart to interface with Authorize.net. They were shocked when I was unimpressed and did not trust the development of the rest of the site to them.
I found these coders in the Ukraine who seemed like they knew what they were doing, and even agreed to a fee schedule that included bonuses for getting the job done early, and penalties for getting it done late. One week before they were supposed to be done, they diapered. Poof, gone. At least by now I had learned to not pay upfront!
Then, I found some developers in India, these guys were the best yet, but they still built a site that had so many bugs that I could find 20 a day for months, with no end in site. They just quit because I would not submit a “final” bug list. How could I if I keep finding new bugs? Am I wrong to think that if they build a site with bugs in it, and I find a bug, they should fix it? Maybe I am. I was even ready to pay them for new features and improvements on the site, provided they kept fixing the bugs in the work they had already done.
So, now once again I strike out in search of a new developer.
I am comforted to know that every entrepreneur I meet has the same problems. I even met one who also got ripped off for $60,000 by someone else besides my criminal. Amazing!
