Website projects rarely stall on design. They stall on content that never arrives, decisions nobody has made, and logins nobody can find.
Preparation is also the cheapest way to lower your quote. The more that's ready, the less of the project is spent waiting or writing on your behalf.
1. Decide what the website is for
Pick one primary action: booked consultations, quote requests, phone calls, or orders. A site aimed at one action outperforms a site aimed at four. Write down how you'll know it worked - number of enquiries a month is a fine measure.
2. Pin down your offers
For each service or product: what it includes, who it's for, what it costs or starts at, how long it takes, and what happens after someone says yes. If two offers overlap confusingly on paper, they'll confuse visitors too.
3. Gather content
- Real photos of your work, premises, team or products - even decent phone photos beat stock.
- Your current descriptions, even rough ones.
- Real reviews or customer feedback you have permission to publish.
- Service areas, hours, licences or certifications where relevant.
Content is the single most common delay in small business builds. Having it half-ready before kickoff changes the timeline more than any other factor.
4. Collect brand assets
Logo files in the highest quality you have, any colour or font choices you're committed to, and two or three websites you like - with a note on what specifically you like about each. "Clean" means five different things to five people; "lots of white space and big photos" is actionable.
5. List the features you actually need
Separate must-have from later. Booking, online payments or deposits, a store, a lead form that feeds your CRM, a members area, multiple languages. Each one changes the scope and the recurring costs, so it's worth being honest about which are real needs now.
6. Sort out account ownership before anyone builds anything
This is the item owners regret skipping. Your domain, payment provider, scheduling platform, business email and analytics should be registered in your business name, under an email address you control.
- Add collaborators through each platform's team or permission settings.
- Avoid sharing your primary account passwords - use invitations and roles instead.
- Keep a simple written record of which accounts exist and who has access.
- Turn on two-factor authentication on the accounts that matter.
7. Know your budget and your decision process
A range is enough - it lets a designer scope honestly instead of guessing. Also decide who signs off. Projects with two undecided decision-makers take roughly twice as long as projects with one.
For reference, our builds start at CA$349, with CA$949 and CA$2,299 tiers as the scope grows. Third-party services like scheduling, payment processing and domains bill you directly at their own rates.
Want help getting your website content ready?
The Website Starter Kit walks through the same preparation in order: pages, content, photos, services and the decisions a designer will ask about. It's the DIY version of this stage, and you can work through it before you hire anyone - or instead of hiring anyone, if that's where the business is right now.