Small business made easy

As someone who builds websites on an almost daily basis I often find myself in a situation where I need to wear multiple hats.

What follows is a simply breakdown of the many hats worn day to day:

The audience listens to the client, sometimes the message is clear, concise and to the point, other times it is passionate but vague, other times it is simply dreary. Everyone needs to have there say, as truly great clients can come out of small beginnings.

The assessor then needs to read the viability of the task at hand, and decide the way forward.  Knowing what it takes to please the customer is a skill the assessor cannot do without.  Sometimes it is better to walk away from a seemingly lucrative deal when the client needs are simply above what is practical or realistic. Trying to please everyone never works.

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End user experience is a key decider when it comes to making a hosting or bandwith choice, but this is the most elusive measurable of all.

With the increased innovation taking place in the ISP hosting and ADSL offerings area it is becoming more difficult for users to make an informed choice.  It is often the extreme points of view, both good and bad, that surface on the web, distorting the real user experience.

I am proposing the creation of an impartial dashboard where everyone can view and compare the real life performance of the product offerings from the various ISPs.

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Afrihost recently introduced their now well publicised R29 / Gig ADSL plan for prepaid bandwidth.  As this is much much lower than the R49/ Gig that prepaid bulk bandwidth costs at WebAfrica, my ADSL provider for the last three years.

As I use lots of bandwith every month (40 – 50 GB) I sat up and took notice when the offer surfaced. It would save a lot of money each month, but then performance is also an important factor. I use and supply lots of local services, so local bandwith performance is as important to me as international performance.

There is thus good news and bad news with the ADSL bandwith that comes from Afrihost (via the IS network). Local traffic is noticibly slower (Click the orange graph) whereas international traffic is noticibly faster (Click the green graph). Read more…