You could just trust us to walk you through the process. Or trust some other company. More likely you will talk to several companies, get referrals from people you trust, compare different prices and features. You may decide to learn as much as you can on your own, doing whatever you can in-house, leaving the web development company out until the final stage.

While we’d be perfectly happy with the first option, the recommendation we make to people we like is that you do some research on your own first. Ask around. Try your local bookstore. If you know your way around discussion boards, you can ask the question there.

Hopefully you will come up with the right questions. Questions to ask yourself, and questions to ask a potential web development company.

Examples of questions to ask yourself include:
What purpose or purposes will my website serve? Is it a marketing tool? Information resource? Does it serve my clients, potential customers, employees, or others? Do I want it to impress people visually or just be in the background while they get information?

Who will have a say in the final look and operation of the website? How will those decisions be made? At what stage of development will these decision makers become involved?

Who is paying for it, and what is the budget? Will it come out of advertising or marketing?

Who will be providing the content and how often will it be updated? Is there a news section? Events? Is the information permanent or does it date quickly?

How much expertise do we have in-house? Do we have people who cane work with html, or should we have some other means for making changes?

Your research will probably reveal many other questions and checklists you can use to prepare yourself. The more you have prepared in advance, the easier the process will be when you start identifying a company to do the job.

Here are examples of questions you might want to ask when you are looking for a company:
How much control will we have over the development process? How will we be able to monitor the progress of the website? Who will be our project manager?

Who has control over the finished project? Is the coding proprietary, or could we have another designer make changes?

What is the follow-up support? Do you have a maintenance service? Is there content management available?

Is the price quoted fixed, or does it dependent on any factors? What the approximate price could be?

We recommend keeping the number of firms you actually interview down to two or three because it takes a lot of time on their part and your part to explore your needs. If you aren’t happy, of course keep looking. But nobody wants to spend several hours dealing with a potential client if they are only one of ten companies being interviewed.

Once you have selected a company, hopefully ITterra, then things really start happening. You’ll work with the firm to come up with a proposal. You may provide them with a detailed Request For Proposal, or perhaps they have discerned your needs through a process of interviews and follow-up questions. They should provide you with a proposal that includes an estimate, a detailed scope of work telling you what is included in the estimate, a timeline, and some description of the process.