Friday, January 1, 2010

web design business plan

A small business is often run on a shoestring budget with one person multi-tasking and wearing many hats. As such everything you do needs to be effective.

In this situation it is vital that you are as effective as possible. Same goes for your website. This cannot just be some fancy branding exercise. It needs to produce measurable results

The primary purpose of a small business web site is to generate more business

You need a web site that will do this, or its just not worth the bother

So going to a very big web design company might not be such a good idea. Not only will they be expensive, they might not understand the needs of a small business.

A better solution is to go to a web designer who runs their own, small business. They are more likely to understand your needs and limits

Regardless of who you pick, there are a six things a web quote must cover

1.Keep it within an affordable budget. watch out for and try to avoid monthly charges and fees. There is nothing worse than getting hit with hidden expenses

2. It must look professional. It doesn't need to be an award winning work of art though, so skip the expensive graphic designer stuff for now

3. It should include all the extras needed to get online. Things such as hosting and domain name. This saves you time and saving time saves you money

4. Know how much it will cost before signing anything. It might even be best to avoid web design companies that don't even put indicative prices for their services on their own web sites.

5. You website should be well optimized for the various search engines. Specifically you want page one listings in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Remember if you don't understand - ask questions. You might feel silly doing so but any web designer worth dealing with will be able to explain it all in lay terms

And lastly

if you want some free help and some more advice about what makes for a successful website I'd recommend this -
web design business plan