You’d be surprised by the number of businesses that don’t have a website even though it’s already 2020.
Nearly 40% of small businesses haven’t really invested in proper online presence.
But this is about to change, as more and more ventures are understanding the need for a website and how it can help them grow their businesses. That said, tackling the project properly and planning out everything is of utmost importance. Back and forth communication with designers and developers only add time, frustration and increase the cost of the project.
Yet, with proper planning and using a website brief template, a project shouldn’t be much of a hassle, even for project managers without experience in this field.
So, first, let’s go over what can happen if you fail to plan properly
Providing unfinished plans and briefs will either result in a failed project, or at the very best missed deadlines and an unsatisfactory product.
All of this comes from improper planning in the first place as developers and designers have to assume what you want. Exchanging numerous emails and chatting and eventually, everything becomes so frustrating that both parties just want to wrap up the project and finish it, thus the unsatisfactory website at the end. And to make sure you minimise any cost overruns we’ve made a short list to help you with your website creation project.
It all starts with deciding what purpose your website will serve
As a small business, it’s highly likely you’d want a portfolio type website. Local coffee shops, for example, don’t need much more than three pages on their website. The same thing goes for most restaurants.
But it’s still important to remember why you’re building the website. Are you looking to expand the website and share content on it? Do you need to show off your team? If you run a restaurant or a coffee shop do you want users to be able to reserve tables and order directly from the website?
All of these will play an important role in the development of the website. While a simple couple of pages can take a week to make, adding functionalities such as booking can take up to a month.
Create a Gantt chart so you can keep track of the development
Okay, you should do this in collaboration with the developers in order to keep track of how the project is going.
A Gantt chart is basically a sheet where you can track how tasks are moving and when to expect the final product. Things like the copywriting of each page and website design finalisation should all be there with relative end dates.
But you shouldn’t forget to create an in-depth brief
What you put in the brief is what the developer and designer will read the first time they start working on your project. The thing is, most people who’re doing this for the first time will miss a thing or two, simply because they aren’t familiar with the way a website is built.
Everything from the functionalities, to logos, to brand colours, and all the way to a few examples of already existing websites should be on that brief. Ideally, you’d use a website brief template. It’s the easiest way to list out everything and make sure you don’t miss out important parts.
However, you decide to run your website creation project it all boils down to properly briefing the people working on it and keeping your expectations realistic.
