We met the guys from Propertylive when we were launching thebu2iness.com back in 2008. They were enthusiastic promoters of our system as we were offering completely free Portal Uploads. We won a number of clients thanks to an introduction from them.
The idea was an appealing one: offer a low or no-cost alternative to Rightmove for its members.
The execution was doomed before it began for one reason: they were led by their techies.
Never, ever make major strategic business decisions based on what your techies tell you. I see it happening all the time and it always ends badly.
A techie will always advise you to do whatever is in his/her best interests. The problem is, most of us aren’t in a position to challenge their assumptions or decisions. We’ve employed them, so we might as well listen to them because if we ignore them, what’s the point in having them, right?
My first estate agency software business was destroyed by its techies. They are uncontrollable. Outside the office they were all lovely human beings. But working with them made me want to gouge my own eyes out on a regular basis to alleviate the frustration.
Would you let your highly-qualified midwife advise you on your child’s education? No.
Would you let your highly-qualified divorce lawyer advise you on your sex life? No.
Would you let your highly-experienced local builder design your next house? No.
So why, in the name of all that is business, would you let your techies advise you on strategic business decisions?
Before they bought their current, off the shelf software system, Knight Frank spent £2m trying to build their own in house software on the advice of their techies. Abandoned. Money written off.
Same with Hamptons.
Savills, who have had their own in house software department for years have finally decided to go out and buy a standard software package.
Ask Ivor Dickinson of D&G if he would advise you to try and build your own in-house software system after his experiences of the last 10 years.
I know right now of several other high profile (award winning in some cases) estate agents who are desperate to get away from their own in-house software which has become a millstone around their neck, undertaken on the advice of techies, who in doing so have secured their jobs and made themselves indispensable.
Yet NFoPP, with £2m to spend over 5 years and a couple of staff, decided that they could take on Rightmove, a company which makes £50m profit every year and took 10 years to establish itself, with a team of scores of software developers, and have a chance of even being noticed?? After all the other big portals that have gone bust with far more money? Remember Assertahome?
What were they smoking?
Had they NOT listened to techies, had they NOT decided to rewrite software code that already existed (ensuring the safety of their techies jobs), had they licensed existing technology and spent their money on marketing, they may have had a chance.
It’s the reason I don’t employ techies – we outsource – and it works beautifully. Techies will get hold of your business by its short and curlies and you’ll be beholden to them. Don’t allow it, and don’t blindly believe everything they tell you.
If this blog post strikes a chord with any business owners who are questioning the advice of their techies, please get in touch, tweet me, or email me at charlie.wright@thebu2iness.com – I’d be only too happy to help.
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