Summer is here and we are seeing business people exploring the opportunities. Some want to re-structure their business to adapt to the current market; others want to start anew and follow their true passion. In today’s marketplace, any business endeavor involves the online world. Whether a website is needed just for informational purposes, or whether the website is the business itself, a website is needed—period.

But… not just a website… a good website. And, what makes a good website? Good planning. A website is a tricky thing to plan for.

• It needs to be flexible so it’s successful today and as the business changes… but do you know what you will need 6 months from now?
• It needs to be kept consistently current… but do you have an internal system to make this happen?
• It needs to have a return on investment… but do you know how to track how the site is used so you can get accurate numbers?

Even simpler yet: do you know what your website should look like, what content it should have, what functions it needs to perform so you can achieve your business goals… and how much is all of this going to cost?

Planning a website is more involved than creating a site map and talking about look and feel. The two most common mistakes we see business people make when it comes to planning for their website are:

1. They try to do it on their own. They know how to write a business plan and decide that planning for a website involves the same process. They wait until the plan is all written up and approved internally before they contact a web developer. Then the surprises start… what they want is not technically feasible; there are better ways to achieve the same goals; budgets don’t match, etc. A lot of time is wasted.

2. They hire web developers who don’t do planning. They make the right move to go to a web developer first, but unfortunately, it’s the wrong type of web developer. This type of web developer wants final specifications and is not interested in brainstorming the business possibilities. Best results are not achieved.

Whether you have an idea for a small business or for a website that will revolutionize the internet, you need the help of the right web developer to make a plan. A plan that takes you through a discovery process where you gather information, explore your audience and industry, develop functional requirements, create a project plan, set a budget and a timeline, and determine overall goals.

What if you don’t know whether you can afford to make your business idea a reality? The, the more you need to invest on a website plan. You don’t want to go to far before knowing whether you can make it happen, but you want to make a decision based on accurate information.

How much does a website plan cost? It will depend on the complexity of your business idea. Plans can be 5% or 30% of the total cost of the final website. They are worth every penny.

You may not know that we develop such plans at MB/I. We can help you create an online business plan you can take to investors with all of the details they need to make a decision. We can help you create a budget and timeline and even break the project into phases to make it possible. And, there are no strings attached. You can decide to not do the project, to do it later, or to do it with another web developer. We are happy to offer you our expertise when you need it most: at the very beginning.