16 January 2012
Discussing why set budgets matter in the proposal stages, and why it helps to let your designer know.

Budget: The key thing that separates businesses from others, and what makes your final decision. As our industry field is not too easy to pick apart in terms of pricing we are often frowned upon by potential clients when we ask them what their budget for the project is.

Speaking from personal experience, we have dealt with a multitude of clients that all want different things; yes the majority want websites, but what about what they want that website to do. We often sit with clients and speak in depth specifically just what they intend to achieve with their project. Everything is in place and we have a target, but the most crucial point to the entire project is the cost. You need to be realistic in the timeframes and work that goes into the project itself and the price will reflect this, we have always found that the best way to do this is by being upfront from the beginning and asking the dreaded question: “What’s your budget for this project?”

Now, this gets 1 of 2 reactions, you will ever receive a full and trusting answer of what the client is actually willing to pay, or you will receive what we like to call ‘a front’. Now it is understandable that when faced with this question that people will mostly knock the actual figure they have in their head down a little bit because they believe that we will then quote them within 10p of the budget, however we have worked hard to stress that this isn’t the case. As a company we know how many hours, resources and development needs to go into a project, which is exactly why we would like to ask the client of their budget to express whether they can actually afford our services, or even the project the aim to begin.

Most potential clients will hear this question and think that the said web design company are just after as much of their money as possible, though this is not the case, so if you are a potential client, or you are looking for a web designer, freelancer or organisation, please, be truthful with them. It can really get your project off to a flying start and can help the web developers to suggest alternative ideas or how they can make it work within the said budget.

Thank you for taking your time to read this.