The Irish government will release the budget for the next 12 months shortly, so the journos are dedicating plenty of column inches to the preliminary figures.
It may be economic mumbo-jumbo, but once the actual budget is released we’ll all know whether we stand to gain or lose.
Over the last few months there has been quite a bit of media coverage given to pricing in the Irish market. Some of the coverage has been quite amusing:
“Ireland is expensive” – yes, we know.
Writing a further 500 to 1000 words about it won’t change that fact.
“The cost of business in Ireland is X” – you can change the value of X depending on your audience. If you want to attract or retain foreign companies, such as Dell, then you have to emphasise the low corporate tax rate – try to avoid mentioning any of the other costs please – you wouldn’t want to upset anyone, now would you?
Of course if you are trying to drum up support for the next general election or feather your political bed it might be better to take the negative route – emphasise how expensive it is now, but reassure people about how you or your party is going to change all that.
Speak to some of the recent graduates of Irish 3rd level institutes and you will get a very warped view. Most of them are too young to remember a time when unemployment was reaching staggering new heights and we were all leaving the country.
In the Irish internet business world it seems to be a small bit different.
The new Irish internet entrepeneurs were out in force last week at the IIA awards and there will probably be as many at next week’s Golden Spiders.
From my point of view I think it’s fantastic to see so many companies and individuals both making money from the industry and pouring it back in again ie. supporting Irish jobs and business. Of course I would say that, wouldn’t I?
It’s interesting, however, to look at who is actually using who in terms of service providers.
If you were to look around the room last Thursday night you would have found that the majority of the successful online ventures represented were all using Irish hosting companies.
When I say “Irish”, I don’t mean Irish with a small “i”, but those Irish companies who actually manage their own equipment and provide real technical services in Ireland.
I don’t mean the resellers of the resellers or the resellers of the cheap US providers.
Do I want to take a dig at some of those providers?
In some ways I’d love to, however I can’t see any point in doing so.
Why not?
Well, last week’s event is a prime reason for not doing so.
Whatever animosity may exist between the different Irish providers (and there is quite a bit at times) those of us Irish providers (with a capital “I”) whose clients are succeeding can feel a certain degree of pride.
We may have helped in our own way to build some of the business success stories that were being celebrated.
But, as a number of things in the last few days have reminded me, there is still this misconception about Irish hosting providers and pricing.
A recent discussion on boards.ie did bring up some very interesting points in this regard. Price and service comparisons, technical ability (or lack thereof) etc., were cause of an interesting debate. Unfortunately some people’s childish behaviour led to the thread being deleted.
What amused me was that there were at least three other discussions being held on other parts of boards.ie in relation to shoddy service from foreign hosting providers.
Are people that price sensitive that they would prefer to do their utmost to save a couple of euros while risking to lose thousands more in lost business?
I don’t think so.
Some people obviously are, but those who take the online arm of their business seriously know better.
Is harping on about price the way to build your business?
I honestly don’t think so.
I used to think that offering low pricing was the only way to build up business. I was naive.
When I first started offering hosting services to Irish business about 5 years ago I was reselling for a since defunct Canadian company. At the time the Irish market was very different. Some of the names that are practically synonymous with internet services in the Irish market today simply did not exist. Others were considered to be great successes, but have since vanished. I didn’t have any money to spend on marketing or PR, so relied exclusively on Google et al to send business my way.
What happened?
Well, initially I priced everything too low. I thought it was a fair price, as I only wanted to make back my cost + margin ie. I wasn’t really interested in marking up the price.
Result – no buyers.
I increased the price. I didn’t want to, but I thought I’d give it a go.
Result – clients!!
What does this have to do with anything you may ask?
Well it goes to show that price isn’t everything. It can be, but sometimes for the opposite reason to what you may have thought.
These days, by the way, my philosophy is very different. I’ve long since realised that you need to combine. Price doesn’t matter a damn if you cannot deliver on service. If you constantly worry about the price of the products you sell but don’t actually look after the clients you sell to you will fail.
If you can’t pay your bills, you will fail.
Coming back to the first part of this meandering rant.. Running a business in Ireland is far from cheap at the best of times. Running a business well, which means providing your clientele with the service they deserve requires investment, not only in pure monetary terms, but also in time, dedication and people.
My recent comments on IBB are a prime example of this.
If we hadn’t been trying to cut our costs we would never have considered moving provider. We found a cheaper solution, but unfortunately, as is all too often the case, “cheap” is coupled with “nasty”, and that is not good for anybody.
When you are dealing with comparable goods or service it may make sense to “shop around” and I can fully understand why people buy certain goods and services from overseas providers.
I know that I am as likely to buy a DVD from cdwow as I am from Golden Discs.
It all comes down to value.
Value is the ultimate decider. If you can get real value for your money then the amount of money you are spending is not going to be as important.
Good post. Service is a point I attach particular importance to.
I have found that you are also taken far more seriously as a business if you charge a proper rate. A company is less likely to think you are a “cowboy” and try to mess you about.