December 2, 2008 at 7:04 pm · Filed under Web_Design
Web Designers are wonderful people. They are generally creative, colorful visionaries. But as with most creative people, they sometimes lose touch with a few details that could separate them from the success they desire.
Before I had the chance to manage web design projects myself, I noticed a lack of attention to important details by the people who did manage them; especially when those people wore many hats. This lack of attention seemed to occur at the very beginning of the project.
Even when I voiced my concern, I was assured by those in charge that this was okay. “We’ll fix it later!” they said. Or worse, “What does she know? She’s just a project manager.” Sure enough near the end of the project things would begin to spin out of control. Small details became big problems. Precious time was wasted “fixing things” and sometimes mistakes were overlooked totally only to be discovered by the client, or worse, pointed out by the client’s target customers.
Design and technical people are generally detail-oriented. However, most have no patience for seemingly minor details outside of their area of expertise and they often love to jump right into their work. On the other hand, project managers are a special breed that look at projects from a different perspective. The good ones instinctively ask the right questions from the beginning.
Sometimes a project manager asks questions that seem obvious or simplistic in nature.
Yet, if not asked, addressed and included in the plan, a project can become much more difficult than ever imagined. This can result in higher costs and lower profits. Yet so many people miss this direct correlation. They often tack on the duties of project management to others involved in the building of a site without considering whether or not this person will have time to devote to doing an effective job as project manager. More critically this person might not have the right perspective for the job of project management at all.
The right project manager can have a profound effect in the juggling of multiple projects, especially when there is little or no staff to spare. When projects are managed efficiently your business is empowered to manage more projects. Well-running, multiple projects means an expanding bottom line for your business.
A web design company that is structured with highly-qualified project management from the start is a company that can produce great projects every time and grow more quickly. These results will create satisfied clients who will say great things about you and your business.
While having a dedicated project manager may incur costs in the beginning, it is an investment that will result in more satisfied clients, referrals and testimonials. What is the value of that? Priceless!
So, the next time you think cutting the role of project management will save on valuable resources, consider project management as a direct investment in the growth of your business and your bottom line.
Gayle Santana is a project manager focused on helping and supporting web design firms. She brings a unique perspective to her work which helps business owners save money and get projects finished on time. Her email address is gayle@pvsnetwork.com.
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December 1, 2008 at 5:01 am · Filed under Web_Design
The web design that your business presents to the world helps to form an image of your company and the level of work that can be expected in the customer’s mind. It is for this very reason that having great web design is important to your company’s website. However, not all companies can afford to have professional web design done for their businesses, especially if they are a new start-up running off of the pocketbook of the owner or if they are an individual who provides freelance services. For these companies, finding an acceptable discount web design option may be the only route available.
Having a website is a must even for the smallest businesses. A website provides a useful tool for your potential clients to visit to find out more information about your company, your services, and what type of quality you can offer them. More and more customers are shopping online and more large companies are looking for specialized companies and freelancers online to handle many aspects of their business, such as copy writing, programming, and advertisement. It is more crucial these days for those who sell merchandise and services to have an Internet presence for these potential customers and clients to find them.
One discount web design option is to do it yourself by purchasing software, such as Microsoft Front Page, that will help you put together a professional website. This will require that you have some skills in building a website using HTML or some other programming language. If you have limited knowledge in this area, then it may take you some time to learn enough of what is needed to put together a good interactive site that will attract customers to what you have to offer. Even still, the quality may not be as good as what you can get from hiring a real web design professional to do the job.
Many of these programs, including MS Front Page, also have a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) site builder so that users do not have to have any knowledge of HTML or other programming languages. However, the most professional looking and easy to navigate sites are those that were put together using a programming language, rather than a WYSIWYG site builder, because such programs are limited in what they can or cannot do. A poorly put together site can turn customers away before they even have a chance to learn about what you have to offer, because they want to feel as if they are buying from professionals so that they are comfortable handing over their money. On top of everything else, you will also need to make sure that, if you build a site, you know how to make your site search engine friendly and easy to navigate
There are many options available for one to hire a professional web design company. Such a company will most likely deliver a product that is of a high standard and is also comparable to the quality that appears on the websites of large businesses. However, hiring such a company can be very costly. The more references and experience a company has with large-scale businesses, the more they will hike up their prices. This most likely may not be an available option for those who are running a start-up company out of their own pocket. It might be feasible once you have some good profit rolling in but, until then, you may need to choose a different avenue.
Another discount web design option is hiring a freelancer. Although American, British, and Canadian freelancers may only offer you a slight discount when compared to web design companies, especially if they have skills that are just as advanced and refined as the designers who work for big companies, you can also find many freelancers in countries such as India, China, and Pakistan who will do your job at an extremely discounted rate due to the lower cost of living in their part of the world. However, the downside to these designers is that it is often hard to determine if they will deliver the product on time or if there will be any communication problems between you and the designer due to language barriers. This can make getting your site finished a long and frustrating experience.
Basically, a good quality 4-6 page site should only cost you a few hundred pounds or so. Anything more and you are paying for the kind of references and experience the company has, rather than purely the quality of their work. Web designers that have not worked with big name businesses and have not been in the game for 10 years can have the same skills and produce the same quality as someone who has. After all, when you think about it, those large web design companies are probably hiring designers with the same amount of skill and experience as many other individual designers who are charging much less, since they are out on their own and do not have the name of a big company to back them up.
Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of Discount Domains a leading UK budget web design provider. Please feel free to republish this article provided a working hyperlink remains to our site
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November 30, 2008 at 12:01 pm · Filed under Web_Design
Are you looking for a professional web design service, however are only on a small budget? This article gives you free advice and tips about how to obtain a cheap but quality web design. There are also some very valuable website promotion tips. I hope you enjoy the read.
How To find cheap website design companies.
You may think that you need to spend hundreds of pounds to have an internet prescence. I do not agree and believe that for a basic information type website, the maximum you should have to spend is
Tags: affordable web design, cheap web design, cheap websites, web design, web design firm, website designaffordable web design, cheap web design, cheap websites, web design, web design firm, website designShare This
