I get quite a good number of calls from startup companies asking my company to create a website. When I begin to start with my usual set of questions, I am often very surprised as to how the potential client actually plans to utilize the webiste, much less, how the website will even benefit the business.

I often ask the question, “How will your new website benefit your business?”. The response is generally the same: “I need a website because I don’t have one [or my existing one is old and stupid].” So I, of course, repeat the question, and the response is generally the same. More often than not, I have to decline the potential client and end it at that.

How exactly can a web desing/development company be expected to develop a website for a business that can’t even describe the goals of the site? Objectives? Not to mention the content… oh man, the content.

Any of you web developers out there I’m sure know the difficulty involved in having your client deliver content. Sure a dedicated copywriter would be nice, but a copywriter is far too often out budget for the project. Check out this article from A List Apart on Content Delay.

If the client needs a website because he doesn’t have one, then maybe he doesn’t need one! It’s pretty much as simple as that. Sure I could use the sale and the income, but to be honest, this client will end up causing me more work than it’s worth. Not to mention the scope creep that inevitably emerges.

In order to run a successful website, you must be prepared. You define and plan the purpose of your site, figure out how it will benefit your business and yourself, and especially, how it will benefit your customer segment.

Sure often times a small business really only needs a one page website, with a bit of content about the company, some contact info, and maybe a portfolio of images to highlight the offering. This brochure site has become a necessity for most businesses; consider it an online business card and brochure wrapped up as an electronic copy. However, this information can probably exist on one page. Add a logo, a bit of color in line with branding, and BAM you’ve got yourself a nice brochure site.

But how does this site actually benefit the company? Does it double their business? The answer – nope. The only main benefit is that now the company’s business cards can have a www on it. That’ll bring in the bucks!

Before you go out and order yourself a website, you may want to consider how and why you truly want one. You might even want to–ugh–prepare a business model for your website. Have a read at the following article from inc.com. It will help you with this. Then when you contact your web designer, you may actually be able to answer his questions with some degree of preparedness. Imagine that!