“Cost of entry” is a concept that has killed millions of potential businesses before they were ever born.

It’s the idea that says starting up a new business — even something as simple as launching a web-based business — simply costs too much. And if you don’t have the initial capital, you can’t get into the game.

But technological advancements, increased competition for web-based services, and significantly lower start-up costs have essentially eliminated “cost of entry” as an obstacle for many potential business owners.

 One-Time Charges

True, you probably will need to pay somebody to create a highly effective website for you. But the cost of designing and launching your own website usually is a one-time charge.

The way many web maintenance businesses keep their clients paying is by requiring a monthly subscription fee for services they don’t need and can’t use. Once your website is up and running, you generally don’t need to keep paying the graphic artist or web designer who created it.

While there are some minor recurring charges, such as web hosting, these can cost as little as $5 per month. So what exactly are you paying for?

Maintaining Your Website – Maintenance Fees

If you ask many unscrupulous web page providers, the answer is often “maintenance fees”.

But think about it: What maintenance does a website actually need? If it was properly designed and fully functional in the first place, it should run flawlessly starting from the very first day.

Even if you do want to upgrade your website, the content management system you use, such as WordPress, often will let you implement updates yourself with the click of a button at little or no cost.

Maintaining Your Website – Ask Questions

If the company you pay to manage your business website tries to sell you a maintenance package, try this experiment: Ask them to provide for you in writing exactly what they will do for the money.

Then search Google for those exact same services. Odds are, you will find easy, simple to use instructions for doing everything they are offering on your own, and for free.

With today’s technology, website maintenance doesn’t need to be complicated or difficult. In many cases, you can do it yourself.