Creating or redesigning a website is a major project and if you’re not careful the costs can quickly spin out of control. While your web designer or marketing agency should work with you on a project budget, many small business owners don’t realize the ways they are driving up their own costs.
The secret to success is taking the time to plan ahead so that you can have a great design and stay on budget.
Here are a few money saving tips to help control your budget.
Money Saving Tip #1 Do Your Research
Let’s imagine you are a business owner that’s just had their one-year anniversary – congrats!
When you opened your business you put up a website just to have something up there, but now you’re ready to upgrade.
You can’t wait to replace your current website, but when you’re asked about what you have in mind you have no idea what to say.
You want something better. Something that gives your business an edge, but what does that actually mean?
This scenario happens more than you’d think, and I often have business owners able to tell me everything they don’t want, but they struggle to tell me what they do want because they simply don’t know.
At Social Light, we love putting together strategies, so we won’t complain if you need help in this area. But if you want to save money take the time to do your research and understand what you really want out of a website before you kick of a project.
That means looking around the web to get an idea of what elements of a website draw you in, as well as checking out your competitors to see what their websites include.
Money Saving Tip #2 Communicate
Let me start by saying that when you hire a designer or marketing agency, part of what you’re paying for is ideas, so if you don’t have a crystal clear vision of what you want, that’s okay.
We’re here to help. But we are not mind-readers, so the more information you can give us, the better off you’ll be from a budget standpoint.
An example: I once worked with a client that told me, “I like purple and royal images.” That was the sum total of design direction I got, which had me wondering if she wanted crowns, castles or crests.
If that’s all you’ve got, I’ll take it (and truthfully my designers love it when they have some creative freedom). But when we have limited direction we’re going to give you wildly different drafts that pull in a variety of styles to try to find something that resonates with you. We might hit the mark on our first draft or we might have to go through several revisions until we get it right.
All those revisions and drafts cost money, so if you want to keep your cost down be as descriptive as possible and share examples of things you’ve seen on the web that you like.
Money Saving Tip #3 Have Cash Available
We’ve worked with a number of clients that give us a monthly budget and ask to stretch a larger project out over several months. While this is a budget-conscious effort, the problem is that these projects always seem to cost to more in the end.
Why? Over-analysis.
I’ve found projects that go slower give clients long periods to review, and they start second-guessing themselves. Then they bring in their family and friends to get second, third and fourth opinions.
It becomes a matter of pleasing the masses, which often dilutes the original brand goals.
The truth is, something like a website will never be absolutely perfect. There will always be things to tweak and additions down the road. However, I find that my clients who allocated cash for the project not only save money but are ultimately happier with the end result.
If you want to do something NOW but can’t afford to do everything, break it up into phases. Get your new design in phase one, and then add some bells and whistles in future phases.
These may seem like no-brainers, but these are the top three reasons I’ve seen projects go over budget in the last year. Use these money saving tips when you’re planning your next website design and I hope you find success!
