Different kinds of Cheap

Say you want to create a new logo for your startup. You type “Logo” into your web search engine and Voila! The World Wide Web provides you with 1.8 Billion choices of sites that talk about logos.

You find logo guides, logo generators, logo books, logo clip-art, logo designers and logo strategists! Which one is right for you? In theory, you end up with a logo no matter which one you choose?

Is a cheap guide to logo development the same as a cheap logo developer?

Is a cheap logo developer the same as a cheap logo strategist?

If you examine the value delivered by different “Cheap” resources, you’ll find that there are many different kinds of cheap. These different kinds of cheap provide the entrepreneur with different kinds of power and require different kinds of interactions.

Below, four different kinds of Cheap are described along with a fifth category describing what you may find as you break out of The Cheap Zone in pursuit of value.

1) Digitized Assets (Articles and Templates)– This consists of written stuff for building businesses – things like samples, articles, advice. Examples

2) Digitized and Automated Services and Logic – These are working parts that can be assembled into businesses - eCommerce, hosting, customer relationship suites. They include logical jobs and tools that can be outsourced. These tools are left-brain focused (logical, rational) and demonstrate logical steps that are readily translated into automated services.

The benefit of this type of Cheap is that you can use your creative powers to create novel solutions while using cheap toolkits that embody highly complex processes. Examples include Open source software development platforms or business plan templates. More examples.

3) Universal Freelance Services – This represents commoditized, solo-preneur services to perform different kinds of spot help. It would include freelance designers, coders and writers. Examples.

4) Pre-packaged Business Expertise – A new breed of business services are emerging that represent pre-cooked business services. These services are typically some hybrid of the previous three services including templates and affordable muscle but with a dash of highly specialized, creative people guiding the service. The combination creates a powerful leverage point within the offering and for the company consuming the offering. As such, the efforts can include packages for web design, marketing campaigns, naming and branding or legal assistance. Examples.

5) Specialized Services – This category is not part of the Cheap Revolution. Rather it represents the traditional field of creative specialists who focus on strategy, management consulting and customized marketing strategies

The following diagram illustrates the different kinds of Cheap.




Figure: Different Kinds of Cheap (and beyond)

Within reason, it is appropriate for an entrepreneur to heavily leverage the cheap revolution tools. The marginal value delivered by the Specialized Service category will largely be lost on young companies and will likely demand far more resource and time than a startup can afford.

More advanced companies have more demanding needs and demonstrate a higher level of specialization. As a result, it is more costly for these companies to purchase or outsource their specific needs.