Tightrope: Determine your website needs and then set a budget

— -- The online activity is running at full speed these days. I have often written about the importance of having a website for your company and keeping it updated. However, unless you know how to design your own site and even if you do, at some point you will need to select a company or professional to take care of your website needs.

With so many changes happening online, I thought I should check in with someone who is an expert in working with businesses both large and small with their website needs. I paid a visit to Marimba Milliones, CEO of Milestone New Media Group. Her company is a Pittsburgh-based full service web communications operation, specializing in web design, development, and advertising and interactive development systems.

One of the biggest challenges for the small entrepreneur is budget. My first question to Marimba was how much or how little can we get away with spending and yet maximize our online presence?

Marimba said, "An entrepreneur must determine what they hope to gain from their site. For example a consultant selling his or her service has a different need than a person who sells tee-shirts. Therefore the emphasis of the consultant's website may hinge on credibility and validation. A person selling tee-shirts is generally more focused on sales and exposure as well as credibility. And perhaps another entrepreneur might want to create an interactive online software such as the online version of the tax preparation programs that many use to prepare their taxes.

So, it looks like before we can talk about setting a budget we must first decide what we need in a website. Sometimes to start with a simple three page website that serves as a company brochure is a good beginning when you are on a tight budget and aren't ready for a lot of bells and whistles on your site. At a later time you can slowly add the components that you need or want.

Marimba gave me several things that can be useful when selecting a web designer.

• Get referrals from friends and colleagues who have websites that have impressed you.

• Visit websites in search of the type of thing that you want and ask them who designed their site.

• You can visit sites like guru.com or elance.com or similar sites that have profiles of thousands of folks in the website design, development, graphic artists and web-writing business. You can submit an RFP (Request for Proposal) at these sites in order to find a good match for you and your business.

She said that once you find the right match, spend time telling the web designer what your ideas and visions are for your website, but also be open to recommendations from the designer; after all his/her job is to help you to achieve your online goals.

There are many folks out there who will claim to be professionals. It is your job to make certain that when you hire a sub-contractor or bring on a new vendor, get references and make certain they have the capability to do exactly what you are looking for and not something similar to what you want.

You can visit Marimba here.

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of her columns. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds is founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, a six-step guide to success published by Viking. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com.