http://boagworld.com/business-strategy/marcus-on-loss-leaders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marcus-on-loss-leaders Advice on web design and digital strategy from Paul Boag Fri, 10 May 2013 03:27:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://boagworld.com/business-strategy/marcus-on-loss-leaders/#comment-3375 Andrew Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:35:51 +0000 http://wpboagworld:83/uncategorized/marcus-on-loss-leaders#comment-3375 I agree with your ‘rules’ Marcus but making decisions on such projects is rarely black and white.
While I’m all for making profit, I think to be able to develop your skills, either as a business or on an individual level, there will often be an element of ‘loss leading’ (perhaps we should call this R&D). The trick will be to know when to call time on something new or experimental and fall back on a tried and tested option that won’t suck out the profit from a project. And of course, everyone would like to think that taking on a project with a particular client will lead to more work or at least a referrals.
For me running a small web business 18 months old, almost every project could be seen as a loss leader- whether in a bid to enhance my portfolio or provide added business benefit to the client.
There’s an argument that clients are paying for a service and not for their web designer to educate themselves. But there has to be an R&D element and I feel this is how running such projects should be seen – just keep an eye on the clock.

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