How to Get a Proper Quote from a Web Designer
With the current business environment and for the foreseeable future, website development is a required capital investment for any business large or small. However, finding a qualified web designer can be a daunting task for businesses.
The Wrong Approach
In my business I often receive inquiries from well-intentioned businesses who unfortunately have no idea what they are doing.
First of all, realize that calling up professional service providers and asking such undefined general questions will get you nowhere with a real pro. Amateurs will happily give you a price without any details because they are trying to get any business they can. If your idea is to produce the cheapest possible website with the first warm-body that offers you a low-ball price, then hiring an amateur posing as a pro is what you can expect. If your business is important to you at all, this is an insane approach.
Scam-artists who are only interested in taking your money will also be very willing to provide quotes over the phone without any documentation or formality. This is a sure way of taking on extreme risk and potentially losing big.
The Right Approach
When dealing with real professional web designers the right approach may require a bit more work on your end, but will save you a lot of time and head-aches in the long term. A real professional web designer will require a written Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP). Why is this important? Web design, even for relatively simple projects, involves a complicated set of tasks. In any sector of IT services, details are very important and professional service providers want all the details they can get before offering a price.
Additionally, having a properly written RFQ document gives all providers you are dealing with the same set of details in which to formulate a bid. If you don’t have this written down, the quotes you might get will be all over the map, and most of them will be difficult to compare and evaluate.
The basic format for an RFQ or RFP is ‘outline’ format. Starting with the general overview of the whole project including what functionality is required to accomplish your objectives. Then you define the design requirements for the over all design including expected quality level and what graphics you already have to use such as a logo. For this section you can include some other websites which have design elements that you like and you can list them with some comments about what you like about each one. From there you detail how you expect certain functions to work such a as Blog or CMS. If you need a shopping cart, how do you expect it to work? Give examples.
In general, you need to take some time to define your vision and detail out as much as you can in an organized written format. Don’t have time to write all of this out? That’s ok, there are some low-cost consulting solutions that can help you get this first step accomplished. If you have the budget, its is even better to hire a web development consultant to handle the whole procurement process this way you have an advocate who will take care of the details and documentation as well as handle the discovery and proposal process with your best interest in mind, letting you get back to running your business.
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