You make some excellent points. A website is your online storefront and often the first contact a potential customer has with your business. You only get one chance to make a first impression – so wouldn’t you want to make sure that first impression “wows” them? Or at least engages and impresses them enough that they want to know more?

My advice for anyone looking to hire a web developer is to check their portfolio – look at the work they’ve done and then have a consultation. If he/she doesn’t ask a) who your target market is, b) what you are trying to achieve with your website (lead gen, direct sales, etc), c) what is your overall marketing strategy, and d) will you want your website functionality to grow with your business (ie: will you need blogging, email capture, auto responders, etc). Then I would keep shopping.

Scott- again excellent points (that’s why I hired you to build my site- you get it!) and thanks for the comment.

-Carolyn

When I see a small business owner seek out and retain a quality website developer (even if it’s not me!), it clearly signals that the owner is serious about having a professional online presence. And that they clearly understand the great value to be obtained from a relatively small investment.

“What’s $1500, or $2500, $3500 or more going to mean for my business long-term profitability?”

When you have entrepreneurs who understand the value of a quality website system versus “hey, let’s throw some text and some free clipart together on a few HTML pages – that’ll look cool”, you have entrepreneurs that are serious about success.