Lesson 7: Hiring a Designer

Hiring a Designer

These days, there are plenty of choices when it comes to web designers. You can hire a big-name firm and probably pay a premium, go with a freelancer in town, find someone overseas who will do it cheaply, or go with someone you’ve worked with in the past.

The key to finding the option that works best for you is crafting a scope of work that will help prospective contractors bid on the project. You don’t need to write a book. It can be fairly brief. But you do want it to be as specific as possible so the bids can be easy to compare.

Scope of Work

Start with an introduction about you and your business. If you have an existing website, let them know the address so they can see what they will be starting with. If you don’t, that’s fine. Sometimes, starting from scratch is easier, especially if your website is woefully outdated.

1. 1. Cover who you are, what you offer or sell, why you stand out in the marketplace, the personality of your business (fun, conservative, professional, etc.), where your customers come from and any marketing you’ve done in the past to attract customers to your business, such as social media (include those addresses, too).
   2. Using your research, outline what you think you need for your site. Start with the top navigation, then work your way down using the org. chart structure we discussed earlier. Don’t worry about having it perfect. The web designer will work with you to refine this during the design process. For now, its purpose is to give the bidder a sense of how much work will be involved.
   3. If you plan to offer online ordering/shopping, let them know how many products will be involved. If you are going to do sales to overseas customers, note that too, as it can affect the mechanics of pricing in multiple currencies, shipping, and in some cases, customs.
   4. Next, let them know if you already have a domain name and server. If you want to use a specific content management system, such as WordPress, note that, too. Finally, let them know if you want them to do site updates for you and what that entails. For instance, you may want them only to do technical updates if you plan to update the information on your sites yourself. If you offer e-commerce, you may want them to quote a price package for ‘X’ number of monthly, quarterly or annual product updates. Finally, you can ask them to quote separately the cost of providing writing services, keeping your social media pages up to date, or providing marketing consulting. Remember, you don’t have to do everything at once. You can create a scope of work that is in stages and ask that they be priced separately so you can start small and add as you go.
   5. Make sure you outline your expectations regarding ownership. Typically, you own everything on your site outside of proprietary features the company provides, such as a custom e-commerce module or other work the company creates. This is important not only for legal reasons, but if you ever become dissatisfied with your current designer or they go out of business, you still own everything you paid for.
   6. Finally, spell out any desired terms you’d like the bidder to consider. Obviously, you don’t want to pay everything upfront. You want to make sure you have a clawback should anything go wrong, i.e., a percentage of the work to be paid only upon satisfactory completion of the work. An industry standard like 50% at start, 50% upon completion or payments in thirds (beginning, delivery of working model, completion of the scope of work) are standard.
   7. If you have a budget range in mind, include this as well. The bidder will ask anyway, so you might as well give them an idea of how much you want to spend. Don’t make the range too narrow. A great company may not even bother bidding if they think you already have your mind set. There are many ways to accomplish your project, and the range is intended only to guide the bidding and negotiation.
   8. That said, always ask for a fixed-cost bid. As noted, a website can become a black hole that money is drained into. A fixed cost for a specific set of deliverables allows you to keep your budget from spinning out of control with project creep. That’s not to say that there won’t be additional charges if you make changes or additions beyond the outlined scope and the parameters of the submitted bid. Have the bid broken out into sections according to what you know you need (the website built), what you may need to be maintained, and what other options or extras you’re thinking of, if there is any budget left over.