The most expensive sentence in web projects is "I assumed that was included." Preparation prevents it. Spend one hour with this checklist before approaching any developer and you will get sharper quotes, fewer surprises and a faster build.
Purpose (one sentence)
Complete honestly: "The website's job is ______." Getting enquiry calls? Selling products? Building credibility for offline deals? Every design and feature decision flows from this sentence — and mismatched assumptions here derail projects later.
Pages and content
List your pages: Home, About, each Service, Gallery, Contact — whatever applies. Mark which content exists versus needs writing, and audit your photos honestly. Content readiness, not coding, is the #1 cause of delayed launches.
Features — needs versus wishes
Two columns. Must-have at launch: enquiry form, WhatsApp button, maps, gallery. Nice-to-have later: blog, online payments, customer login, multiple languages. Developers quote very differently — and much more accurately — when you separate these.
References
Collect 2–3 websites you like, noting what you like: the colours, the layout, the way services are shown. "Like this header, but our colours" communicates more than an hour of describing.
Practical facts
Do you own a domain already? Hosting? Budget range and honest deadline? Who from your side approves things, and how fast?
Bring these answers to any first meeting — including my free estimate meeting — and you will leave with a quotation grounded in your reality instead of a guess padded for the unknown.