I just had to post, and analyze this recent lead...shame on me.

“I am looking for someone to help me with a company I’m starting… I posted the following on Guru, is this something that you do also?”

“I am starting a #### service company. I need a new site that will effectively get my message out to potential customers.  The site design will need to be excellent and I require someone who can come up with several different excellent homepage designs for me to choose from. The company/website name has not been picked yet but will be shortly...”

[In his next paragraph he details what the site will be able to do: forms, coupons, db interaction, getting financial approval & a quote..etc]

Said entrepreneur then goes on to talk about the Illustration, Design, SEO, more development/functionality that the site will need and even includes several links to sites that are very comprehensive in their scope. So I’m thinking to myself that, ‘hey, it seems he’s done a little homework - this might just be a good lead!’.  Yet, somewhere in the distance, I heard a faint voice, gentle, but stern. This echoe in my mind was...yes, a warning...no...a ‘red alert’, pleading me in a desperate voice to “run luke, run!”. 

At this point, I think I must have blacked-out or passed into a nether-world of sorts and my eyes, as if they were controlled by some force unknown to me, passed right over the point about his budget. 

Back in the world of the living, I skimmed down to the lower part of his message and found some questions, that once again might just reveal that this person is really doing a good job of presenting his project.  Like a good potential customer, he wanted answers to some very reasonable questions like:

* What specific similar experience do you have?
* How many work hours do you expect the project to take? When will you be able to finish it?
* What suggestions do you have to make the site better?
* What programming langauges and elements will be used to make the site?
* How easy will it be for me to update and make changes to the site?

“Yes, good.” I said to myself.  So now, in my head I’m already scoping this project.  So let’s see, there is the planning phase, a corporate identity it seems, a definite need for a wire-frame, functionality review, third-party tools assessment, creative brief...”.  This project, after reviewing the sites he sent over - more importantly the significant functionality of these sites, we’re talking about a fairly large project here indeed, yes?  And this are all pre-project and planning items, not even breaching into the blissful realm of project execution/production!  I’m now having visions of a larger staff, longer vacations, hiring the best of the best - stealing the best minds this industry has to offer with cold hard cash.

I think this was the point that I zeroed back in on that sentence - the one I passed over during my previously mentioned black-out.  I read it to myself trying to understand what it meant.  It said:

“I would like to keep the total budget to under $500-$750 I might go that high if you have top ratings and are in the USA. I will be willing to pay with the following terms: 15% escrowed at project start to be paid after design has been finalized and accepted by me. 85% escrowed at project start to be paid after project is totally complete and running on my server. I do not need any hosting so please do not offer it. I will probably use godaddy.”

Reading this, I moved my right hand delicately over to the numeric portion of my keyboard.  And, as if readying my fingers to embark on a 3-movement, challenging piano sonata, I tapped the key that I’ve grown to love so dearly over time, D-e-l-e-t-e.  This email, and my frustrations for ignorant business-people, where wisked away to the same nether-world that I visited ever so briefly when reading through the email of this great lead.

SP