Wouldn’t it be neat if you could buy a studio apartment in New York City with the ability to expand it at any time to a one bedroom and then a two bedroom?  You could start with what you could afford and then expand your living space as you were ready financially.  What a great idea, it’s too bad we can’t do this in a physical world, but in a virtual world this is completely possible.  It is a great way to start thinking about your company’s website.

Before you start building or talking to web development firms you need to do 3 very important steps:

• Define the vision
• Create a budget
• Outline a plan

Defining the Vision

What is the big picture for your website?  This is more about functionality than design.  How many sections do you want on your website?  What will each section contain for content? Will some content display differently or have a sorting feature?  If you’re building an ecommerce site, what do you need to show when you first launch? What features do you want to eventually have? For example, customer reviews or login area for wholesalers. Defining your vision will help you focus on the needs of your customers. You should also take some time to understand the trends related to your industry and how they relate to updates and changes in your website.

Creating a Budget

Now that you have defined the big vision for your website be realistic about what you can afford for the first six months of the build and launch.  Other than pre-packaged websites it will take some time to build it.  What can you afford to invest in the website for your launch?  By knowing where you want to end up you can discuss today’s budget with tomorrow’s vision.

Outlining a Plan

Planning is an important part of getting what you want for what you can afford.  Take your vision and budget and break things out into phases. The foundation is the most important part of building a website.  The technology you invest in will allow you to grow.  The right content management system or the right shopping cart framework can give you all the tools to budget for growth.  Next, set target deadlines for each new feature to be added. This will give you an idea from a budgetary point of view to properly plan for allocating funds as your business grows.  I would also recommend trying to tie in marketing initiatives to the new feature launches that you are planning.  This is a great way to get more bang for your development and gives you additional ideas to market to your customers.

You may have heard the phrase a “website is never done”. When you think about designing or redesigning you should keep this approach in mind.  Building with phases can alleviate the pressures of having to invest your entire budget at once. You would not rent a 2,000 square foot office if you were just starting out.  Think about your website the same way and save money.