We’ve lost a few nice jobs here at Small Box recently. For the most part we have lost them because we have been unwilling to quote any further than we can “see”. We know from experience that large Web projects require an investment in planning before any other work can be done. So we have been responding to RFPs and other inquiries with smaller planning proposals. Something that will create clarity and definition for the additional work to come.

We believe project planning needs to be done regardless so let’s start there and see what we turn up. We may uncover some great open source solutions that reduce the cost and timeline. Maybe some of the “required” functionality isn’t really needed once we have completely researched and mapped out the project.

The Web is nearly infinite and a Website should be a living thing, not a “finished” thing. So we need to have a flexible plan that can accommodate the ever changing nature of the Web. Planning may be educated guessing (see 37 Signals) but it is a needed map to take ideas further down the road.

Planning isn’t cheap but neither is redoing a poorly planned project. The right foundation will build a Website that lasts for years to come. We have also seen many projects come to us that were rushed into production and subsequently missed the mark and had to be redone. Over time this ends up costing much more and negatively impacts the business or organization along the way. Those costs are hard to estimate but a bad Website can destroy a business. If a company’s Website can’t be found in search engines, is impossible to use and hard to update then it is probably doing more harm than good.

Not every project requires a separate planning agreement. Some projects we can “see” all the way to the end since we have done very similar ones in the past and the client clearly understands their needs and goals. But we find when taking on a large, custom Website or Web application we must insist on planning before we build.

I recently wrapped up a 6 stop tour of Indiana with the SBA (Small Business Administration). I was part of a half day seminar put together by the SBA and sponsored by the Indiana Chamber and NFIB. My portion was an hour long presentation on marketing with an emphasis on Search Engines and Social Media. Afterwards I would talk to the attendees, mostly business owners, and hear all kinds of stories, some of them horror stories involving a marketing or Web company that cost a lot of money, didn’t finish the job and never explained their process. It was fascinating to hear from all types of businesses knowing they needed to use the Web to grow (or survive) but with little idea of how to go about doing it.

One of the points of my presentation was to encourage these company owners to ask the “dumb” questions when talking with Web companies (like us). I see some in my industry essentially intimidating their clients with strange acronyms- SEO, CMS, PHP, etc. Then they proceed to lead these trusting business owners towards the wrong solutions- Flash websites that are invisible to search engines, Websites with no content management so they charge the business for every update, designs that look cool but aren’t user friendly, on and on. So I would often pull up their website and give them my feedback, which is usually not good news, then they would often say- “yeah, I was wondering about that, seemed strange to me too.”

Web technology is changing quickly. There is no way a typical business owner has time to keep up with everything nor should they. If they take the time to become Web marketing experts then chances are their business will suffer as result. Same reason we outsource HR work here at Small Box. We aren’t experts in HR and not big enough to have a full time HR manager. So I ask a lot of “dumb” questions to our HR company and they very nicely answer them all.

So if you are one of those companies that knows you need to start using the Web to grow your business but don’t know where to start, it’s ok. Just start with the “dumbest” questions you can think of cause there are really no dumb questions when it comes to the Web. We will listen, meet you where you are and put together some ideas. We will also show you results we have gotten for other businesses and organizations. If we feel that our services are the right match for your business needs, and that may be the case, then we can recommend another company that meets your needs/budget and does quality work.

Our goal is to help anyone that comes our way find the right solution, even if it isn’t us.