Drip, drip, drip. The early morning rain was usually very calming, but this morning the sound was coming from inside my bedroom. For the last three days the water had been leaking through the ceiling and the continuous dripping was starting to drive me insane.

I tried to go back to sleep when I heard an even more unpleasant sound, my mother’s wake up call, “Andrew, get your butt out of bed, you’re going to be late for school!”

Before I went downstairs, I looked over my Dad’s handy work: Some duct tape to patch up the water spot along with a bucket on the floor to catch the persistent leak. It wasn’t holding up so well.

“Dad, when is the roofing company going to come over and fix this?”

“Andy, I ain’t having no roofing people come over here to charge me for somethin’ that I can do myself. If it gets any worse, I’ll just have Uncle Bob come over and fix us up.”

My uncle Bob was a self-proclaimed handy man. He had no roofing experience whatsoever, but he didn’t charge much. With a few screws and some plywood, it looked like he finally managed to fix the leak. It certainly wasn’t pretty!

Years later I was home visiting from college and was sleeping downstairs on the pull out couch. A storm was raging outside. I could barely fall asleep. It sounded as if the storm was coming right in through the house. In fact, IT WAS! My Uncle’s cheap fixer upper had finally given up. Water was pouring in right in through the ceiling.

Now my Dad was not only finally forced to call a professional to come and fix the roof, but was also hit with a hefty bill for the extensive water damage to most of the house.

The moral of this story is pretty simple:

When you want a job done right, just hire a professional to do it. It will most likely save you at lot of time, effort, aggravation and possibly embarrassment in the long run.

This has become more apparent than ever on the web. There are plenty of web “handymen” – we all know those self-proclaimed web designers who will provide a cheap solution to your needs.

Please think twice before you have Uncle Bob “fix it up”. Cheap or even “freebie” websites may seem like a good choice in the moment, but a cheap solution could possibly result in expensive consequences.

It’s nearly impossible to measure how much business you might lose over time as a result of Uncle Bob saving you a few dollars.

CharlesWorks is a web development business that has been locally owned and operated for over a decade. Please call us at 603-924-9867. We will work hard to provide an affordable, professional web solution that will not only work – but it will look great, too! And without the duct tape and plywood.

We have designers on staff. Yes, we do charge – but we will make every attempt to work within your budget.

For a professional solution to all your web design and web hosting needs, just call us at CharlesWorks or email Nathan@CharlesWorks.com.