Getting Started
To begin your search, arrange interviews with several web development companies. You can choose between local companies and the outsourcing option of hiring companies. Conducting a short interview over email, Skype, or instant messaging can help you determine a web development provider’s experience in developing websites for small businesses. Some IT firms specialize in huge, long-term projects for large corporations and government agencies, and they may not be right for your business.
Research Their Current Clients
It is also wise to review a company’s success stories on its main website. Success stories are satisfied clients who have agreed to have their companies featured as web development projects on the web development service’s website. Choose the company name of a satisfied client and enter that name into the Google search engine query.
When you find the business website of a client success story, review it and decide if the website appears to be driving a successful company. This quick research gives you a sense of a web development company’s capabilities. Another option is to read the client’s company profile on a business information service’s website and determine if the company is similar in size to your company.
Communication & Decision
Ask questions in your interviews about what web developer applications a prospective web development company developed for small businesses. If you want to outsource to a web developer overseas, you might be able to use a company recommended by another small business owner whom you trust.
After your interviews are complete, review each company’s portfolio or brochure and choose a company for your project. Once you make the initial investment in a web developer, you want to be able to stay with that company through project completion. Switching web developers in the middle of a website redesign can be expensive and can place your company behind schedule. It pays to make a careful choice of a web development company before beginning redesigning your website and/or building more web-based applications.
