How to Start Your Website Step by Step: What to Prepare Before Hiring Anyone

Most of what goes wrong in a web project is decided before design even starts: an unclear goal, copy that isn’t ready, several people giving opinions, or a budget that shifts halfway through. None of that depends on who you hire; it depends on how you show up to the first conversation.

Preparing a few things before asking for quotes has three effects. The proposals you receive become comparable, the project moves faster, and you’re less likely to pay for changes that could have been avoided.

In short: before hiring, define one main goal, who you’re talking to, which pages you need, what content you already have, which websites you’d use as references, which domain you’ll use, how much you can invest, and who makes the decisions. At the end of the article there’s a brief you can copy and fill in.

Step 1: define one main goal

A website can do many things, but it’s worth choosing one that leads over the rest. It determines which pages it will have, which buttons get highlighted, and how you’ll know it’s working.

If your goal is…	The website needs…	You’ll know it works if…
Getting inquiries	Clear services, real cases, a visible form and contact button	Messages and calls go up month over month
Selling products	Catalog, cart, payment gateway and shipping options	Orders and average order value grow
Taking bookings	Calendar, confirmations and a cancellation policy	Monthly bookings go up
Showing your work	A portfolio with projects and results	Clients contact you saying they saw it
Capturing contacts	A form, a downloadable resource or a newsletter	New subscribers join

If you struggle to pick one, rank your goals by importance. The first one drives the design; the rest fall into place.

Step 2: describe who you’re talking to

Before talking about colors, write down who your ideal client is and what they need to know to decide. A practical exercise is to jot down the five questions you get asked most before someone buys or hires you. They usually look like these:

• Roughly how much does it cost?
• How does the process work?
• How long does it take?
• Do you work in my area or my country?
• Do you have examples of previous work?

If the website answers those questions, it’s already doing a good part of the selling.

Step 3: sketch a page map

You don’t need to design anything. A list of pages and how they connect is enough. For a service business, a typical map looks like this:

Home
├── Services
│   ├── Service 1
│   └── Service 2
├── Cases or portfolio
├── About me / About us
├── FAQ
└── Contact

More pages mean more work and more cost (you can see the effect in the article on how much a website costs). A good rule is to start with the pages that answer the questions from the previous step and add the rest when you need them.

Step 4: gather the content

Content is usually what delays a project most, because it depends on you and not on the developer. A site with excellent design and half-finished copy ships late or ships badly.

Content	What’s worth having	Who usually prepares it
Copy	Who you are, what you offer, how you work, prices or ranges, FAQs	You, or a copywriter if you hire one
Photos and video	Your own images of your work, your team or your products, at good resolution	You, or a photographer
Logo and colors	High-quality logo files and your brand colors	You or whoever designed your brand
Reviews and cases	Real testimonials, with the permission of whoever gave them	You
Contact details	Phone, email, address, hours, links to social profiles	You
Legal pages	Privacy policy, terms and cookie policy under the regulations that apply to your audience	You, a lawyer or a reviewed template

If you don’t have something yet, say so when asking for quotes. Copywriting, photography and legal text may be included or billed separately, and it’s better to know from the start.

Step 5: collect references

Keep three to five websites you like and two you don’t. For each one, note what draws you in or bothers you: the order of information, the tone of the copy, how prices are shown, how easy it is to get in touch.

The goal isn’t to copy a design. It’s to give whoever works with you a concrete starting point, because “modern and clean” means different things to different people. Also add two or three direct competitors so you can see what they say and what sets you apart.

Step 6: sort out domain and accounts

These details seem minor, but they cause problems when neglected.

• Domain. Check whether the name you want is available and register it in your name. It usually costs $10 to $25 a year. If someone else registers it, make sure you can transfer it later.
• Professional email. An address on your domain conveys more trust than a free one.
• Hosting. Ask who contracts it and who pays for it. The account should be in your name.
• Access. Keep the passwords to your social profiles and your Google Business Profile handy, because the website connects to them.

A simple rule: anything that’s yours should be in your name, with an email you can access.

Step 7: decide budget and timeline

Showing up without a clear budget leads to proposals that don’t resemble each other. If you have a range, say so: it helps people suggest realistic solutions instead of the most expensive or the cheapest one.

Three things to keep in mind:

• The one-time payment isn’t the total cost. There are yearly costs for domain, hosting and maintenance. The article on website costs has ranges in dollars and a year 1 versus year 2 example.
• Timelines depend on you too. If content arrives late, the project stretches.
• Rush jobs usually cost more. If you have a deadline, mention it early.

Step 8: decide who decides

When several people give opinions with no one in charge, projects drag on. Define in advance:

• Who has the final say.
• How many rounds of changes are included in the price.
• Which channel you’ll communicate through (email, WhatsApp, video call) and how often.
• How many days you’ll take to reply to questions and deliver materials.

A single point of contact with authority to decide usually saves weeks.

A brief you can copy

A brief is one page that summarizes all of the above. You can paste this template into a document, fill it in and send it along with your quote request:

WEB PROJECT BRIEF

1. Business
   Name, what you do, location or service area.

2. Main goal
   (Getting inquiries / selling / bookings / showing work / capturing contacts)

3. Ideal client
   Who they are and what questions they ask before deciding.

4. Pages
   List of pages I need.

5. Available content
   Copy: yes / partially / no
   Photos: yes / partially / no
   Logo and colors: yes / no
   Reviews or cases: yes / no

6. References
   3 to 5 websites I like and why.
   2 websites I don't like and why.
   2 competitors.

7. Domain and accounts
   Desired or already registered domain. Professional email: yes / no.

8. Budget and timeline
   Initial investment range and yearly spend.
   Deadline, if any.

9. Decisions
   Decision maker, communication channel, rounds of changes.

Questions to ask whoever you’re about to hire

With your brief in hand, these questions help you compare:

• What exactly does the price include, and what’s billed separately?
• Can I see previous projects similar to mine?
• How many rounds of changes are included?
• How long will delivery take, and what do you need from me to meet it?
• Whose name will the domain and hosting be under?
• What happens after launch: support, maintenance, changes?
• Can I take the files and access with me if I ever change providers?

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to have everything ready before asking for quotes?

No. To ask for a proposal, the goal, a rough idea of the pages and an estimate of what content you have are enough. Whatever is missing gets worked out in conversation, but it’s worth mentioning so the quote accounts for it.

What if I don’t have a logo or brand identity yet?

You can still start, but say so. Designing a logo and a color palette is a separate job and affects both price and timeline.

Can whoever builds the website write the copy for me?

Yes, many offer it. It’s usually an additional service and works better if you provide the information: what you do, how you work and what questions you get asked. Nobody knows your business like you do.

How long does it take to prepare all this?

It depends on how much you already have. Defining the goal, pages and references can be done in an afternoon. Gathering copy and photos can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Ask whoever you hire for a phased schedule so you know what’s needed and when.

Wrapping up

Arriving with your ideas in order doesn’t require knowing anything about design or technology. It just lets you ask for what you need, compare proposals with judgment and keep the project from stalling while it waits for decisions or materials. If you’re still unsure whether your business needs a website right now, the article on when it makes sense if you already use social media will help.

In the next article we look at what happens when the website is already live but takes too long to load: how many customers that costs you and how to fix it.

Want to go over your brief together before asking for quotes? Write to me and we’ll tighten it up.