How to Prepare a BUDGET For a Web and NOT Make a Mistake

When you get ready to design a website the first thing you think about is the design, the possibilities it can have, you think about how beautiful or how functional it will be, but we forget something fundamental: What are they going to ask me later that I had not counted to calculate the price? And above all, how many hours is this going to take me?

Do you have an initial web project? Find out what they want, not what they need.

When you face a new web project the first thing is to know who the owner is, what it is going to be for, but above all what they want. Because in most cases the needs are adapted to what they are discovering little by little. Imagine a consultancy, they want a website for it. They have no idea of the possibilities that Internet can have for your business and raise the need for a corporate website with 4 or 5 pages plus contact and budgets. But as they see the web and think about what they could have, needing, for example, a personalized access for their clients, is as simple as discovering it and wanting it. The problem is that you didn’t have it budgeted in your project and when you tell them that you have to charge them something more it doesn’t sit well with them.

What aspects should I take into account to prepare a budget?

Initial idea of the client.

• We must ask and do not get tired of asking what they want the website for, what they want to achieve, the purpose of it.
• What did they like about other websites they have seen. This way you can get an idea of what they want.

Company structure.

• We must know the fiscal situation of the company. If it is an SL or a self-employed. The idea of this point is to know how your turnover will be in case you want to make an online store.
• Number of employees, workplaces. We must know how many people are going to be involved in the project and above all which people are going to have the power to give their opinion about the project.

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Time in which they want to develop the project.

• Deadlines. It is important to know the deadlines that have been set. Especially if you have other projects apart from this one.
• Long term or short term project. We must know if the website will be for a one-off campaign, such as a housing development, that as soon as the homes are sold the function of the website or a show ends, with the same function, or it will be a long-term project such as the corporate image of a company or an online store.

In the case that the project to develop is an Online Store we will have to know some more details in particular:

• Messaging. How they are going to manage shipments. The shipping cost for each province and for the different countries.
• Are you going to sell only in United States or in another country? You must know the countries in which you are going to sell, as some countries have restrictions on the sale of some products such as food or health …
• The forms of payment that you are going to have. Also know if they are going to add a surcharge to charge by PayPal or cash on delivery, and also with whom they will manage the Virtual POS.
• Data protection. Know your company adapted to the LOPD, especially to write the privacy policy and legal notice.
• What products are they going to sell?
• Are they going to write the description of the products?
• Will they provide the corporate image of the company?
• Will they provide the slider design images?
• Are they going to do the invoicing of the company through the web or will they do it with an alternative program?
• Do they have to connect the web to some ERP that they have in which they manage the invoicing, stock of products and others?
• Do they have computer knowledge?

With all these questions we already have an idea of what the client needs, but above all, as we said before, we have an idea of what they want. Now we just have to put it down on paper so that there are no misunderstandings about what is included and what is not included in the budget.

Therefore a budget of a Web can not be:

1. Web design
2. Hosting
3. Domain
4. Maintenance

These can be the starting points. But the first point must be developed properly:

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Web Design

• Website design under (WordPress, Joomla, Prestashop, Magento….) with the following characteristics:Logo to be provided by the clientHeader that will appear on each and every page (specify if it is provided or not by the client)A Slider with slideshow (Specify where the slider will be seen, if only in the index or also in the categories and how the slider is automated)Structure of the web. (Describe if it has one column, or two, or three).Content development. (Specify if the client is going to provide them or if they are included in the budget). payment gateways. Paypal, Virtual POS gateway (Servired or whatever), cash on delivery and bank transfer, without surcharge or commission on any of them.Modules or special plugin. (In this section describe the special modules that are going to put, such as a module ebay or a calendar plugin or whatever or make it clear that does not enter).in case of being E-commerce: Configuration of the sale: Countries where it will sell, product to be sold. Shipping costs in each province or in each country, invoicing through the page (make clear if the system generates an invoice or not, if it is included or not in the budget and the type of invoice, if the design is provided by the customer, as, or standard invoice), if you will have login with Facebook or Twitter or linkedin or any of the social networks.
• It should be made clear that after the first contact a sketch will be made, and after the sketch a first design will be made, which has to be approved by the client, if after the approval of the design, the client wants to change something, a modification of scope will be presented to the budget.
• The design will be delivered on the agreed day and after that day there will be a number of days or months to discover possible bugs or failures of the web.

Hosting

• Hosting Capacity
• Type of hosting (dedicated or shared)
• Number of Email Accounts
• Number of FTP Accounts
• Number of MySQL Databases
• Server Technology and Version (Apache Version)
• Monthly Transfer

Domain

• Describe if the domain is provided by the client or is included in the budget.
• In case it is provided by the client, specify that it will be on the client’s account to point (dns’s) the domain to the hosting, for which the client must be provided with the primary and secondary dns’s servers at least to perform this task.

Maintenance

• State whether or not maintenance is included in the budget. If it is included, it should be highlighted:If the maintenance is annual or monthlyWork to be done in the maintenanceResponse timeSolution timeAttention time.if it includes any product or only labor.make it clear that the maintenance is to maintain what has already been done. It does not include any additions or modifications to the website that were working properly before.

Positioning

• You must specify if you are going to do SEO and if you are going to do it, how you are going to do it. (This is the subject of another post).

This way we make sure that the client knows how far he can go with the money he is going to pay, and above all to set some limits. Obviously in all this you can be more or less flexible, but if you don’t follow some guidelines at the beginning, the project can be a real disaster in every way.