The Internet is changing the way we do business and represents one of the most exciting competitive advantages to small businesses today. If you have a small business, you’ve already done the math and realized that if you don’t have a website to promote your products or services your business will not succeed.

If you already have a website and you’ve grown dissatisfied with your home-grown efforts, it’s time to contemplate a more serious online presence. There are several options for anyone looking to spruce up their website. You could go buy one of the dozens of "web page builder" programs like FrontPage, GoLive Studio or HomePage, but they’re tools without direction, and since thousands of people are using them for their basic websites, you run the risk of your website looking too much like your competitors. You also have the option to purchase pre-made templates from companies such as Template Monster, but then you have to ask yourself how many people in your same industry chose that exact same template for their website.

There are more than a million websites on the Internet today, and that number is building rapidly. The key to being recognized by potential customers is to the stand out from your competitors. No web page builder program or pre-made template will give you what you need to really succeed in your industry.

Now that you’ve realized that you need a professional web designer to create a custom web design for your business, what comes next? These days, anyone with a computer can call themselves a web designer, so it’s often challenging to separate amateurs from full-service agencies. How will you know when you’ve found the right design firm? In the same way you'd know when you found a good pair of jeans, it just feels comfortable. In order to evaluate a potential firm, you should consider the following:

Word-of-Mouth. An excellent way to start the process of finding a design firm is to use word-of-mouth. If you have friends who have their own websites, ask them how they created it. If you see a website online and really liked it, ask the company owner who created it for them and if it was a good experience or not.

Price Range. The pricing for web design is all over the map. Every company is different when it comes to putting a price on all the different variables that go into making a website. For example, is your site going to be hosted on their server or your own? Are they going to be responsible for month-to-month maintenance? Do you already have artwork they can use, or will they have to create new material?

Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio. Do you like it? Does it speak to what you're trying to accomplish for your site? Are the sites user-friendly in addition to being attractive? Does the company seem to focus on one industry or many?

Quality of Proposal. A good proposal from a design firm should include details about every component of your project, how much they cost, and estimated timelines for delivery. The detail and care in the proposal is often a reflection of the detail and care you will get for your project.

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