How: Hiring a Developer Versus Developing it Yourself

So one of the questions to ask: Should you hire a developer to do the project or do it yourself? The simple answer is: it depends.

Because of its flexibility, a CMS system might allow you to do a lot with limited resources, so it can be a very sustainable way of pursuing website development. Plus, it can be fun!

Even if you don’t feel like you have the confidence to do it yourself, you might want to try. You might be surprised at how much you can accomplish. If nothing else, it can help you understand how best to work with another person. But you might still be surprised at how much fun it can be—to come up with an idea and be able to put it in motion.

A CMS system is the kind of tool that can help you to make a site yourself, instead of hiring a developer, and one of the recommendations I have for you in reading this book, and as you explore various tools, is to think at what point it would make sense to work with another person. In some cases, you’re fine on your own. In other cases, you could do everything yourself, but you might not want to, and might not need to. In other situations, the requirements of a site may be such that you’d like to do the whole project yourself, except in cases where it might be a bit much for you or over your head.

One of the challenges is money, of course, and one of the hidden challenges can be that in order to save money, or to hold on to more of the money yourself (if you’re doing a project for someone else), you might be tempted to do everything yourself. However, sometimes it makes more sense to concentrate on what you know, and work with others to do the rest—for example, you might make a client happy, and then that client refers you to someone else. And conversely, if you take too much on (I’m speaking from experience here), you might end up completing the work, but there may be frustration on everyone’s part, and you’re less likely to get a referral for more business. The suggestion I’m making here is to think about sustainability.

Overall, as you are learning, what I recommend is to think about website requirements, and to get in the habit of learning how to gather and develop a list of what you want, or what a client wants a website to be able to do. And as a learning experience, develop a few sites. Try out different systems, like Drupal and Google Sites, and learn what they are capable of—their strengths and weaknesses.

Then you’ll be in a better position to know when and if you need to work with a designer or developer. Generally, the more complex the website is, the more custom functions you will need, and the more likely it is you’ll need to work with a website developer.

In my opinion, sustainability = fun, so make a site sustainable.