• Do it yourself (internally). Benefit is that you control the development process. Drawbacks are that the employee developing your site may or may not know current technology, he or she will be taken away from doing their daily business, and will have no professional resources for support when trouble arises.
• Use a person/friend with web design skills. Benefit is that the costs are kept artificially low, as most business managers who take this route do it because they know someone who designs sites for a living. Drawbacks are too many to detail. The major ones are a lack of support once the project is finished; a good chance that the project will stall, and never be completed; and a site which seldom will reach the initial goals set by the company.
• Hire a web site design company. Benefit is that project management will come from both sides, keeping the site design process on track and professionally done. The drawback is obvious: this will traditionally be a larger investment in the short run, but will save you time and money on the back end. Once you have made the right choice to use a web design company to create and manage your site, you are faced with the critical decision of actually choosing one.

Following are a few tips you can use when interviewing companies about your current or future web site. All of the tips may not be applicable to every reader, but you should find some nuggets of information that will help you make your choices.

1. Ensure that the company you are choosing to design your web site has industry knowledge, or is willing to learn about your industry.
2. Review web sites created by the company. Look at them from a your client's standpoint and from a business manager's standpoint.
3. Discuss your current needs, and your future needs. Determine if the web company is willing to use a phased approach on larger projects in order to manage costs.
4. Demand a detailed, written proposal that defines what is going to be done, and who will be responsible for doing it. Web sites, to be successful, must be done as joint projects between your company and the web development company.
5. Find out up front what the potential maintenance costs are going to be for your proposed site. Ask the web design company how other businesses have managed the maintenance part of their sites. Realize that maintenance and updating will determine the success or failure of your site in the future.
6. Discuss marketing the site with the account rep. It is important to have someone who knows where to go to find the most effective marketing available for the amount of money you want to spend. Remember that a site no one can find is of no use to people who do not know your company's web address.

Contact Red Rock Partners. We will be happy to go over questions you may have concerning this new technology, and how it can affect your business.