Good, Fast, Cheap

Rent A Dad has been doing the Dad thing for a long time. He’s also been in business for what seems like forever. And one of your Rent-a-Dad’s favorite business adages has always been Good, Fast, Cheap … pick any two.

While the image here is pretty silly on its face, it kind of illustrates the idea, doesn’t it? Hanging a horse on a banister is fast, and if the figure isn’t expensive it’s certainly cheap. But other than for a chuckle—and without context like the Good, Fast, Cheap image not even then—it certainly comes nowhere close to illustrating any “good”.

But silly horse-hanging-on-banister meme notwithstanding this topic is still worth discussing. It’s all about expectations and compromises, and if there’s ever been a talk-to-Dad subject that’s it.

Good, Fast, Cheap; Pick Any Two

In our brave new (un)social media world it might seem that the whole “Good, Fast, Cheap” thing is outdated; under the right circumstances you can have all three when you find an app online that does what you need, you can hook it up in a matter of minutes, and it only costs a few dollars, a few dollars a month, or just plain makes your life easier for [pick a price that works for you and isn’t eye-popping]. But context matters. For example, you can buy web site hosting from any number of reputable and reliable vendors for just a few dollars a month. Three-for-three. Hooray!

When you stop and think, though, five-dollar hosting may satisfy the fast and the cheap parts of our little triumvirate, but it’s not likely to hit “good” unless you have very simple needs, fairly light traffic, and enough tech skills to both create and protect your site—and we haven’t even touched on marketing and SEO.

Keep this in mind the next time somebody tells you that your prices are too high. Too high for what? Hanging a figurine on an banister, or crafting a custom wooden sculpture that runs up a stairwell?

Good, Fast, Cheap. Go ahead, pick two.