When I combine the costs of the offshore development, the bought templates, the file transfer service, the online purchase functionality that I also bought as a plug-in subscription service, my total out of pocket costs were still about 20% of a local quotation. However, I had to dedicate five days of my time, during which I forfeited consulting income, and I lost a week’s sales by running so late. All in all, my total costs ran to about three times the local quote. That doesn’t allow for the champagne and chocolates needed to apologise for being a totally stressed out husband for the last two weeks. If I’m lucky it won’t run to another holiday somewhere. Then again, I probably need one.
Lesson: Real costs are like an iceberg; only the out of pocket costs sit above the surface. Sitting below that are the lost opportunity costs, the absorbed overhead costs, the costs of unpaid overtime for the extra effort you've had to apply. Sometimes, speed-to-market makes a world of difference in a competitive or time-constrained context. A week's delay may cost you far more heavily than a few day's of development costs - it could see you lose the lion's share of your market potential. Be pragmatic when selecting suppliers - but be conscious of the full gamut of your cost base, the factors that could see your true costs suddenly change, and the levers of control that you have over those factors.
