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So one of my friends want to start a website without planning for it.
His argument:
He says planning and thinking about the idea is just wasting even more time. He says that the expenses of this project won't dent his bank, it will be fun for him, he doesn't mind that he loses time working on it and he will learn a lot.
Well while that might sound good, he doesn't know much about websites at all, he doesn't know anything about Internet Marketing, he has very very little experience with programming, and this is his FIRST time starting a website. He has this idea for a website, just an idea that's it and he wants to get started working on the website right away. He wants to buy a template then start programming it with his very little knowledge of programming.
My argument:
I've been down that road before, I've started websites without plans and without any programming knowledge, got stuck on something and just stopped dead in my tracks. I say that it's not even so much not having the programming experience that will cause the project to fail but also the fact that he has no plan. I'm 100% positive that even though the idea and website is pretty simple, it will still take weeks if not months to complete (and I think months).
He actually has enough money to pay developers to create this website but he wants to do it himself. Which is fine like I said, except he still has no plan. Well what does not having a plan mean? It means he won't know what he wants on the pages, what pages it will need, no idea how to market the site and what he will do about marketing until he finishes the site. On top of that, he won't have any idea where he should start with the development of the site, all of it will be off the top of his head, he won't know if he wants users to register or not need to which means if he does then he also needs to create the profiles and extra features. He also has no plans for scaling the project, wants to find a random template to program all of these features into, and he's afraid that if he starts planning he won't ever stop.
Additionally, he's in his late 20's, he's in college, and he has no idea at all how long this project will take him to develop but he thinks that it won't take that long and that it will be fun.
Conclusion:
I'm not against him learning how to program, but he wants to start making money (and I'm fairly sure that he wants to make it as soon as possible) and is completely underestimating how long it will take him to develop this project and what it will be like getting frustrated with the coding, not knowing what to do, and sometimes templates just don't work out and he won't know that and will just keep trying to fix the problem wasting even more time. He also doesn't even really want to be a programmer he just wants to learn how to make simple sites so that he can make one for his company, but learning how to actually program websites and on top of that manage them, takes a while.
I say that if he makes the site he should make a plan, outsource the development, and if he wants to learn programming then do it with a small project meant just experimenting/learning. I'm actually even against him making this site at all at first, it's a good idea but he's just doing it "for fun" and isn't really taking it serious (hence the not planning part). So I think he should even buy a website that's' already generating profit and learn how to manage/operate it (he has the funds to do so) or create a few niche websites (with something easy like WordPress) that will bring in stable income and either build more on top of that later or use the money from those to buy once again an already profitable niche website. A website is what he wants to have and is what he wants to make money from.
So what do you guys think? Who's right? Who's wrong? Should I just let him learn on his own and try to have fun with this? Am I pressing him too hard to create a plan? Or would he be better off taking some of my advice and steering clear of that road where he wastes valuable time not planning for success and then taking action?
His argument:
He says planning and thinking about the idea is just wasting even more time. He says that the expenses of this project won't dent his bank, it will be fun for him, he doesn't mind that he loses time working on it and he will learn a lot.
Well while that might sound good, he doesn't know much about websites at all, he doesn't know anything about Internet Marketing, he has very very little experience with programming, and this is his FIRST time starting a website. He has this idea for a website, just an idea that's it and he wants to get started working on the website right away. He wants to buy a template then start programming it with his very little knowledge of programming.
My argument:
I've been down that road before, I've started websites without plans and without any programming knowledge, got stuck on something and just stopped dead in my tracks. I say that it's not even so much not having the programming experience that will cause the project to fail but also the fact that he has no plan. I'm 100% positive that even though the idea and website is pretty simple, it will still take weeks if not months to complete (and I think months).
He actually has enough money to pay developers to create this website but he wants to do it himself. Which is fine like I said, except he still has no plan. Well what does not having a plan mean? It means he won't know what he wants on the pages, what pages it will need, no idea how to market the site and what he will do about marketing until he finishes the site. On top of that, he won't have any idea where he should start with the development of the site, all of it will be off the top of his head, he won't know if he wants users to register or not need to which means if he does then he also needs to create the profiles and extra features. He also has no plans for scaling the project, wants to find a random template to program all of these features into, and he's afraid that if he starts planning he won't ever stop.
Additionally, he's in his late 20's, he's in college, and he has no idea at all how long this project will take him to develop but he thinks that it won't take that long and that it will be fun.
Conclusion:
I'm not against him learning how to program, but he wants to start making money (and I'm fairly sure that he wants to make it as soon as possible) and is completely underestimating how long it will take him to develop this project and what it will be like getting frustrated with the coding, not knowing what to do, and sometimes templates just don't work out and he won't know that and will just keep trying to fix the problem wasting even more time. He also doesn't even really want to be a programmer he just wants to learn how to make simple sites so that he can make one for his company, but learning how to actually program websites and on top of that manage them, takes a while.
I say that if he makes the site he should make a plan, outsource the development, and if he wants to learn programming then do it with a small project meant just experimenting/learning. I'm actually even against him making this site at all at first, it's a good idea but he's just doing it "for fun" and isn't really taking it serious (hence the not planning part). So I think he should even buy a website that's' already generating profit and learn how to manage/operate it (he has the funds to do so) or create a few niche websites (with something easy like WordPress) that will bring in stable income and either build more on top of that later or use the money from those to buy once again an already profitable niche website. A website is what he wants to have and is what he wants to make money from.
So what do you guys think? Who's right? Who's wrong? Should I just let him learn on his own and try to have fun with this? Am I pressing him too hard to create a plan? Or would he be better off taking some of my advice and steering clear of that road where he wastes valuable time not planning for success and then taking action?
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