I need a new website and have no idea what to do. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I need a new website and have no idea what to do. My original website is five years old and a large reputable web company built it. It has been a nightmare from start to finish.

In fact, we hate our web developers so much we drew up voodoo dolls of them and whenever we had a costly nightmarish stuff up, which cost us an arm and leg to fix, after telling us we were tenth in the bloody queue, we stuck a pin in them to relieve our frustrations. Of course the dolls now looks like pincushions and we have to hide the dolls whenever they visit.

Anyway, our web developers recommend we upgrade to another proprietary system while my sister-in-law who works in open source software says we are mad if we follow their advice. So I did some research and everyone is biased! People are either slavish open sourced converts or believe the world is going to end if we go down that path.

Aunty, what do I do? Who do we trust?

Stuck in the middle,
Melbourne

Dear Stuck in the middle,

I am flattered you thought to ask me. Honestly. Just recently I learnt to right click. But I do know this. Using a proprietary system if you are a small business can lead to psychosis.

Indeed you with your voodoo dolls are a case in point. The way we got around all this nonsense in our company was to quit outsourcing our IT. Instead we found this great bloke who wanted to run his own business. We gave him a seat at our table (well, a desk in the corner if you must be literal) and we pay him some money and in return he helps mastermind and guide our IT needs. Some stuff he does himself. Others he farms out to experts. He knows what we need and in return we help him to build his business.

What should you do? Who knows. If you go open source, make sure you have someone in the office who absolutely, totally knows the ins and outs, the upgrades, the security holes and so on. If you go proprietary, take up meditation or extreme sports. If you want to know more and I am sorry not to be more helpful but I am still mastering paragraph breaks, go and join the argument, here.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

To read more Aunty B advice, click here.

Email your questions, problems and issues to auntyb@smartcompany.com.au right now!