Bad approach to a web design agency

A few tips for wasting web designer’s time.

This is how-not-to make the first contact with a web design studio or agency:

  1. Promise more work later on, as a compensation for a limited budget
  2. Copy and paste response e-mail to competing agencies and forget to change the recipients name
  3. Offer a share in the project
  4. Not having budget at all

Promise more work later on

Instead of planning future projects and future marketing and future additions to the current project, it’s better to focus on doing what you do right now. And do it the best you can. If your current task is to create the best possible website, then you better create the best possible website.

If the budget is limited, plan for the scope that fits your money. A single feature done right is way better than fully featured nonsense.

Forget recipients name

This is obvious. For starters, don’t copy and paste your e-mails. Never.

Next, don’t collect proposals from many different agencies all at the same time. We are in a custom tailored service business, not mass production. Many Most of us don’t copy and paste websites, so we can’t provide you with a discount based on lower production costs.

If you’re looking for the cheapest option, any studio or agency will be too expensive. Maybe a pre-made website template is the right solution.

Offer a share

Would you share your house with a tiler or a carpenter who built it?

Shares only make sense if the project is something that attracts that particular contractor apart from merely building a website. If they find the project interesting, they will usually offer to do it for alternative kinds of compensation.

Not having money, only great ideas

If you don’t have the budget for a project, secure it and then come back. Securing money for a project actually helps. It puts people in a reality perspective. Securing the budget is a start of a project itself and it usually allows some room to rethink and filter the project ideas.

Marko Dugonjić is a designer specialized in user experience design, web typography and web standards. He runs a nanoscale user interface studio Creative Nights and organizes FFWD.PRO, a micro-conference and workshops for web professionals.

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