I think this term is the most overlooked aspect in business. This to me is why marketing is so important and why I hate DIY websites. FREE is not FREE. WIX and WordPress start out with a free product for you to use, but there’s nothing free about it. In fact, it probably costs more than having a professional do your site. These costs come as “Opportunity Costs”

Opportunity costs are calculated by the amount of money you lost. Did a piece of machinery break down because you didn’t put in the $10 widget that kept you from doing that two week job that would have netted $2,000. Your opportunity cost here would have been $1,990.

If you do a WordPress site, how many hours did you take for you to read and learn how to install it? Or set up your hosting and domain? How long did it take for you to figure out how to add a navigation and create a page. Did those images go in perfectly the first time? Now take all those hours and times it by how much you could have been making if you spent it on paying customers.

How long did it take you to get it live? 2 weeks? 2 months? How many customers did you lose in that time? All that lost money are opportunity costs. No longer free is it.

Now your sites up. Does it reflect you and look professional? Probably not. I have yet to see one that does. How many potential clients are you losing because your site looks horrible?

Do you have engaging content on your pages? How long did it take to write? Add that cost in.

Add that all up and tell me how FREE those DIY sites are. Work backwards to see what your ROI is. Would a simple yet customized site for around $1,500 now seem feasible? How about a more engaging site for $2,500, or even a highly customized site for $3,500 all while you’re getting paying customers and doing what your great at?