If you’re a business or an entrepreneur, and you’re finally looking to invest in a website designer, then not only are congrats in order, but we’ve also put together a list of benefits for you as well as what to expect from working with a designer!

Benefits of Hiring a Website Designer

The best website designers will learn what your vision and mission is, because this is YOUR site and you’re the driver of the dream for it. They will take the time to listen to your website goals, and what you want to gain from your new website!

The best designers will also have a niche that they fit into (steer clear of those that try to work with and please everyone), and where they feel most comfortable. For example, here at Original Box we love clean, slick and minimalist design, and we want to work with those entrepreneurs and businesses that love that too! There's a great saying - “when you speak to everyone, you speak to no-one”, by Meredith Hill. So, when you identify a niched web designer, that's a good thing! 

YOU CAN FOCUS ON YOUR THING!

If you think about the amount of time you might spend on designing your own website, you can consider the amount of time that takes away from your own business; the thing that brings in the money!

This is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of handing this project over to a pro designer (after all, it’s our job 🤗).

A DIY website not only needs all the planning that goes with the design, but also learning to use and getting used to your chosen website platform. All of this required time, adds up! And, thats if you actually completely dedicate time to designing your own site, and not have to put it off because that thing in your business needs your attention first.

What to expect

Contracts

The least exciting thing but one of the most necessary for both designers and the client. Your designer will issue a contract once you’re both happy to go ahead and work together! The contract will often just detail the terms of working together, including any payment terms that are agreed.

A contract is the best way to protect both the designer and the client! It will stop any uncertain situations during the design process, but also for afterwards. For example, having the designer’s accreditation on the website footer, e.g.  ‘site designed by XYZ’. 

Payment Plan

Your designer will outline their payment terms which is usually something like 50% upfront, and this will enable you to book a place in their design calendar. This is the best way to secure your place into what may be a pretty in-demand calendar!

Putting a deposit down will mean that your allocated design start date won’t be assigned to anyone else. Many designers will often put some indication of their availability on their site. So do bear in mind that a web designer with a heavier workload may not be ready to go next week!

The remainder of the payment will often be due at the end of the project, and once the site is ready to be launched. 

Also note, that custom websites are 99.9% of the time, non-refundable. 

Project Timeline

Now this can vary depending on the designer or agency. It can depend on the complexity of the project, and also what platform is being used to get the finished site. At Original Box, we use Squarespace and Shopify (for ecommerce clients), and these platforms are relatively less complex than a platform like WordPress. 

The best web designers will always assign a deadline within the contract, however of course this depends on how quickly you, as a client, can get back to the designer with your feedback. A deadline is a GREAAT way of making sure that the site gets launched on time! But why is this a benefit to the client? Well, your site is launched and ready to go live for the rest of the world to see! A Squarespace or Shopify site can be designed and launched within 3 weeks! This means a faster generation of new leads and sales for you!

Website Revisions

At Original Box, we detail that within our 3 week design process, we offer the WHOLE of week 2 as the website tweaking stage. Most designers will offer 2-4 drafts of the site, until you’re happy!

But of course, if it goes beyond this, and it's still within the timeline of the project, then most designers will keep going with revisions until you’re happy!

Website Content

One of the best ways of having the project stay within the timeline, is to have all of your site content ready. This will be elements like the following:

• Copy

• Imagery or photography

• Branding assets (logo & colour palette)

If these aspects aren’t ready, then the designer will use placeholder content for the meantime.

But, to have all of this ready before the design start date will ensure that when it comes to the revision stage, the designer isn’t swapping out all of the content and you as the client, have to review it all again. Meaning the site is MUCH closer to being finished and ready for you to use!

Technical Handover

Most packages will have a technical handover (platform tutorial) built in. Meaning that the designer will walk you through all of the ‘how tos’ of your website, before officially passing it over to you. Things like:

• How to edit the photos (main pages, logo, favicon, etc)

• How to edit the copy

• How to edit and add new blog posts

• How to add videos

• SEO keyword data

• Additional edits

When we do this, we hold a 1 hour, recorded tutorial on Zoom, so that the client has this to keep going forward. Other designers may have a slightly different version of a tutorial, but nevertheless its very beneficial to have one!

So friend, if you are ready to take this amazing step forward for your business, then just give us a shout, and we can hold a free 30 minute website strategy Zoom call!