Managing the Manager

Your organization has decided to outsource a project to an external firm. In some cases, the organization may allow your team to manage the project, but more often than not, the organization may want full return and to manage the engagement themselves. What does this mean to the project manager from the client organization? Depending on your company's project management philosophy (ie do they see project management as a scheduling function, or someone that truly manages the project and risk), this type of agreement may be more challenging than you first think. While it may be helpful to have the outside assistance, it may require a change in your normal approach and project management function in order to provide, effective, external team support and oversight.

I've been in situations where I was the contractor that has had customers instruct me on the process they would like to use and others that have allowed me to use my organization's expertise to deliver the best result. I've also been in situations where my organization is the customer who has outsourced a project and was responsible for truly managing the external resources and other situations where requested to allow the contractor to exert full control over the management, using their own approach and practices .

While the specific approach needed should be tailor to your specific situation and organization, I fine one of the more unequally challenging situations is when you outsource an engagement, including the management / oversight and project approach. While there are always opportunities for learning and growth, the last scenario can be difficult and even confusing for a strong project manager. The level of authority and your role will depend very much on your organization's perspective on project management. If you are put in this type of situation, my suggestions are:

1. Clearly Understand Roles & Responsibilities : Regardless of the scenario, clear role definition is an essential first step. You'll need to understand specific role expectations from both your organization as well as your contractor. Defining what the contractor is responsible for all the way down to communication with your organization is also important.

2. Be Prepared to Be a Passenger : Not being responsible for running the project can be tough for strong project managers who are asked to interface with the external consulting organization, especially where there are deviations from your recommended approach or where you identify areas for improvement and their process is set in stone. Understanding the roles and responsibilities of all involved will help you understand where you can provide value and where you can intervene. You may also need to prepare yourself for having more of an administrative role than an orchestration or technical role. Understanding who does what will help reduce the push and pull between organizations.

3. Ensure There is a Sound Escalation Path : While you may not have direct authority, you will want to understand what types of items can be escalated and when. You'll also need to ensure you have the proper support within your organization. The lack of direct and indirect authority, plus no support does not make for a prosperous environment.

4. Utilize Lessons Learned : Reviewing prior projects, especially those with many of the same variables is useful for educating the organization and can even assist your contractor. Continue to collect intelligence on what works well and what does not work well, even if you do not have direct control over changing the immediate situation. This information can be useful for not only the current situation, but future endeavors.

5. Educate Your Organization on the Value of Project Management : Even though you may not have direct control over the project or even the support you need, never give up on educating the organization and vendors on project management value and best practices. Hopefully the contractor will apply the same project management rigor you would, but if not, there is always a positive takeaway for you personally and hopefully professionally for your organization. Help educate your organization on your discoveries, the impact of these discoveries and the lessons you have learned through prior experience. Project management is not for the fault of heart, but requires tireless perseverance. Show your organization why you are in your role and the tremendous value this function can provide your organization.

There is always something to be gained and learned from each situation. While outsourcing to an organization that owns the management of the project may not directly utilize all of your project management skills, it will certainly help develop new ones.

How To Evaluate A Business Idea For Developing An Enterprise

Why Do You Need A Business Plan?

Planning is a process that never ends for all businesses. It is extremely important in the early stages of any venture when the entrepreneur will need to prepare a preliminary business plan.

There are different types of plans that may be part of any business operation. These include but not limited to Financial plans, Marketing plan, Human Resource plan, Production plans, Sales plans etc. Plans may be short term or long term or may be strategic or operational. Whatever the type of plan or the function, plans have one important purpose; to provide guidance and structure to management in a rapidly changing market environment.

A business plan on the other hand is a written document prepared by the entrepreneur that describes all the relevant external and internal elements involved in starting a new venture. It is often an integration of functional plans such as marketing, finance, manufacturing and human resources. It also addresses both short term and long term decision making for the first three years of operation. So, the business plan, or road map, answers the strategic questions of where am I now? Where am I going? And how will I get there? Potential investors, suppliers and even customers will request or require a business plan.

How I Prepared My Preliminary Project Proposal

In my case, I followed the following break downs keeping each section as brief as possible.

1. Background : In this section, I established the context of the project by giving an account of the problem it is trying to address.

2. State of the art: I gave an overview of existing and emerging technology in the field, including an account of rival technologies and a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the various options.

3. Proposal: I wrote an overview of the proposed project and the approach, ie the activities which I will be mandated to achieve the project objectives. Clearly establish the research element or novelty component in the proposal.

4. Consortium: an overview of the proposed manpower and establish the required ability to carry out the project successfully (eg skills, competencies, etc.)

5. Objectives and Deliverables: Identify (1) the objectives and (2) the deliverables of the proposed project.

6. Competitiveness: if applicable, establish the competitiveness or advantages of the proposed solution compared to other solutions, whether these already exist or are still being researched.

7. Cost: give an overview of the project cost (including start-up cost and working capital requirements).

8. Impact: this section should include:
i. Markets and Uses: identify possible uses and markets for the deliverables of the project.

ii. Benefits and Beneficiaries: identify the beneficies of the project's results (eg the project participants, the general public, third parties) and the manner in which they will benefit.

iii. Roadmap: give an indication regarding what further steps, effort, costs and timeframes are necessary before possible benefits can be realized from the deliverables or results of the project (unless these are realized within the lifetime of the project).

iv. Spillover Benefits: identify any secondary benefits of the project (eg facilitating participation in funding programs, improving Malta's ranking, strengthening Malta's reputation in a particular area, etc.)

Preparing a Detailed Business Plan
Stages of writing a business plan are: After deciding to go into business, before starting the business and when updating is required.

Business plans can be written for retail business, wholesale business, service business, manufacturing and any other type of business.

A business plan is written by doing the following:
Identifying all the questions that could have asked about the business.
Determining what additional information needs to be collected to answer all the questions.
Obtaining all the necessary information.
Comparison various alternatives
Making a decision on each question.

A business plan should:
Have a good appearance
Provide an index
Provide a summary
Number each copy
Be signed to show who is submitting it.
Depend on the nature of the business.

A business plan should be organized to carry a cover page, table of contents, executive summary, business description, marketing plan, organizational plan, operational plan, financial plan and appendices.

Outline of a typical business plan is as below;

1. Title: Feasibility study Report on______________________
Commissioned by_________________
2. Project consultants
3. Table of contents:

Executive Summary
The Report
Project Background
Objective of study
Project description and
Loan promotion
Promoter
Location

Market and marketing plan
Potential customers
Competition
Pricing
Sales Tactics
Advertising and Promotion
Distribution.

Technical Feasibility and management plan:
Factory
Machinery
Overhead charges
Packaging materials
Raw materials Manpower and Labor costs.

Financial Projection / Feasibility:
Overview on capital requirement
Financial plan
Projected cash flow
Projected profit and loss account
Expected balance sheet
Break-even analysis
Source and application of funds

Organization Plan:
Form of ownership
Identification of partners / Principal shareholders
Authority of Principals.
Management team background
Roles and responsibilities of members of organization

Assessment of Risk:
Evaluate weakness of business
New technologies
Contingency plans.

Schedules:
12 months projected sales
12 months proposed purchase
Fixed Assets and depreciation schedule
Profitability index.

Thanks for reading

Choosing a Web Designer

Many small business owners struggle with deciding on how to make the right choice for designing their website. They search the web for help with their website and find that the choice is harder than they thought. Currently there are (literally) millions of websites who claim to be professional web designers. However, one must be careful in choosing the right person or people in which to trust their company image. In this article, I will attempt to categorize web designers into manageable groups, and teach the reader the difference between the types.

Web designers fall into four general categories: freelance amateur, freelance professional, Web Design Company, Web Development Firm.

Freelance Amateur

The majority of web designers you will come across, especially searching the Internet, are freelancers. That is, individuals who do web design but are not employed by a web design company. Some are self-employed professionals but most of these freelancers are amateur-hobbyist types. They find a copy of FrontPage™ came with their MS Office™ Suite. They discovered how fun it could be to make web pages so they started telling their friends that they could "design" web pages.

The "pros" of using an amateur is that they are very cheap. The "cons" are too numerous to mention, but I'll point out a few. They have no training; they have little knowledge of what makes a good website work; they do not understand HTML code or CSS but only FrontPage point and click; they do not understand general design and layout concepts and they have little real experience. The biggest reason they should be avoided for the serious businessperson, is that their work looks amateurish, which makes your company look amateurish. Who wants that?

Freelance Professional

A professional is often defined by simply being paid. People think that if you are paid for something, then you are professional. Maybe that's true in the Olympics, but for the business services world, you are not a professional until you are established and respected as one by your clients and peers. Freelancer professional web designers are a giant leap from the amateur in that they have established a portfolio of respectable work. They have some sort of qualified training and experience and they have credentials that can be verified by contacting references. They have a good reputation with their clients and other professionals. In general, a good freelance professional web designer can be good person to have doing your site. But they are hard to distinguish from the amateur when you are just searching the web.

The upside is, if you find a good one they are significantly cheaper than a web design company. But that is usually the only upside. If the budget limits you, then a freelancer will do for a small project. But anything seriously important should be left to a professional company.

Some downsides to using a freelance pro are that they are usually part-time, meaning they are limited in how much time they can devote to your project. They are also limited in what they can do for you. Most freelancers are specialists in one area and generalists in everything else. Some have no skills in anything except their one specialty and often you will have to find others to fill roles. In addition, freelancers are not always cheap although many of them are aspiring to create their own company; some are highly sought after and charge $100 per hour or more for their work. My advice here is, if you have that much to spend, go with a company that has a team of professionals to get the job done in a timelier manner.

Web Design Company

This is the next step beyond a freelance professional. The web design company offers the "whole show". They provide real project management and have pulled together a team of web experts to get a wider range of jobs done. A company can provide a much higher level of expertise in web design, programming, content development and more.

Such a company is usually very small, yet large enough to handle larger scale projects. Compared to the most highly qualified freelancer, a company has a diversity of talent and collaboration working for them. The end-result is usually a much higher quality product.

The only real drawbacks are on the one hand, the web design company is more expensive than a freelancer because there are many more people on the job. However, you get what you pay for rings true. On the other hand, for very large projects or long term development, web design companies may be too small and usually do not have the human recourses to accommodate that $500,000 contract. In the end, for serious business people looking for quality and professionalism and who can't afford the big firm, this is the way to go.

Web Development Firm

As the title implies, a web development firm is like any traditional company. They have a staff of office workers, they have owners and officers, and they have a team of talented professionals who are paid a good salary for their work. They often have a sales force that do inside and outside sales. The quality of their work goes without saying, as you could not be so well-established by doing shoddy work. These firms offer teams of very talented professionals who work on your project and get the job done in a timely and extremely efficient manner. Additionally, they usually cover all aspects of website development including marketing and advertising. They may have teams of specialists that they can deploy to your location and work in-house under a temporary contract. The possibilities are endless.

If price is not an issue and the highest quality work is necessary, then this is who you want to do the job. For smaller budget businesses, a quote from an established web development firm might knock you off your chair, but know that companies who have project requirements that reach hundreds of thousands of dollars know the score. Thus, the only real drawback for a web development firm is that they are usually very expensive. Then again, cost is relative and bigger companies like to work with bigger companies.

In summary, the choice is yours. I would recommend for the serious businessperson, that you budget a decent amount of dollars to properly design and execute a professional website. I would avoid the amateur and outsource to an individual or company with good experience and reasonable rates to create my web presence. If money were no object, then I would only deal with established firms and pay the big bucks to get the job done right and done well.

Developing Innovative Products

Phase 0: Feasibility Analysis

The goal of this phase is to identify existing technology to achieve the intended high-level function. If technology can be purchased as opposed to developed, the scope of consequent development forms changes.

Simply put, product development companies research and assess the probability that the current technology can be used to reach the intended functionality of the product. By doing this, the development efforts are reduced, which in financial terms represent a great reduction in development costs.

Moreover, if the technology is not yet available, then the assessment can result in longer development cycles and the focus moves into creating the new technology (if humanly possible) that can accomplish the functionality of the product.

This is an important part of the in any product development process because it is safer and financially responsible to understand the constants that a product can have prior to starting a full development cycle. A feasibility study can cost between 7-15 thousand dollars. It may be sound very expensive for some, but when it is much better than investing $ 100k + to end up with a product that no manufacturer is able to produce.

Phase 1: Specification or PRD (Product Requirements Document) development

If your product is feasible, congratulations! you are a step closer to creating your product and you can move into documenting what is going to go into the product itself, aka the guts (product objective, core components, intended end-user, aesthetics, User interphase, etc).

In this phase, product design and engineering focus on documenting the critical functionality, constitutions, and inputs to the design. This is a critical step to keep development focused, identify the high-risk areas, and ensure that scope creep is minimized later.

This document will help you communicate the key features of your product and how they are provided to work to all members of your team. This will ensure that you keep everyone involved on the same page.

Without one, you are more likely to stay off track and miss deadlines. think about the PRD as your project management breakdown structure (BDS)

Phase 2: Concept Development

Initial shape development work identifies options for form, as well as possible approaches for complex mechanical engineering challenges. Initial flowchart of software / firmware also happens here, as well as concept design level user interface work. Aesthetic prototypes may be included in this Phase, if appropriate. Prototype in this phase will not typically be functional.

Phase 3: Initial Design and Engineering

Based on decisions made at the end a concept development phase, actual product design and engineering programming can start. In this phase, Level 1 prototypes are often used to test approaches to technical challenges.

Phase 4: Design Iteration

This part of the project is where we focus on rapid cycles, quickly developing designs and prototypes, as the depth of engineering work increases. This phase can include Level 2 and 3 prototypes, typically through multiple cycles. Some products require as many as twenty prototype cycles in this phase. Others may only require two or three.

Phase 5: Design Finalization / Optimization

With all claims tested and validated, the design can be finalized and then optimized for production. To properly optimize for production, product design and engineering teams take into account the target production volumes, as well as the requirements of the manufacturer. Regulatory work may start in this phase.

Phase 6: Manufacturing Start and Support

Before production starts, tooling is produced, and initial units are inspected. Final changes are negotiated with the manufacturer. Regulatory work also should wrap up in this phase.

A Comparison Between The Java IDEs: Netbeans and Eclipse

Unlike other general-purpose programming languages, Java is used widely by developers for building desktop, web, and mobile applications. But developers frequently look for smart integrated development environments (IDEs), frameworks, and tools to write applications in Java efficiently and rapidly. The developers can further write code quickly and efficiently by using an array of Java IDEs. Both NetBeans and Eclipse are hugely popular Java IDEs.

Despite being open source, NetBeans is the official IDE for Java platform. The features and tools provided by NetBeans enable developers to build a variety of desktop, web, and mobile applications with Java 8. The IDE further supports an array of technologies - HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and C/C++ - in addition to Java. The editors, analyzers and converters provided by NetBeans further make it easier for programmers to upgrade their legacy applications to the latest version of Java.

Eclipse is written in Java, and designed with features to simplify Java application development. The developers can further extend the IDE easily by using a variety of plug-ins. They can further use specific plug-ins to develop applications by integrating Java with other popular programming languages including Ruby, Perl, PHP, Scala and Groovy. Also, Eclipse is an open source IDE, and supported by an active community. Hence, it becomes essential for developers to compare NetBeans and Eclipse based on their key features and functionality.

Understanding Important Differences between NetBeans and Eclipse

Java 8 Support: The version 8 of Java comes with several new features and enhancements including lambda expressions, new date/time API, and integrated Nashhorn JavaScript Engine. Hence, many developers prefer writing applications in Java 8 to avail the new features in Java 8. NetBeans is the official Java IDE, and supports Java SE 8 fully. On the other hand, Eclipse implements the new Java 8 language enhancements through Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ). The developers have to follow a series of steps to take advantage of the new language features provided by Java 8.

Java 8 Migration: Oracle recommends Java developers to use NetBeans. Hence, NetBeans support the latest version of Java almost immediately after its release. Also, it provides an array of tools to make it easier for developers to migrate their legacy applications to the most recent version of Java. The developers can avail the code editors, analyzers, and converters provided by NetBeans to move their applications to Java 8 quickly and smoothly. But Eclipse does not provide any robust tools to simplify Java 8 migration.

Number of Plug-ins: Eclipse scores over NetBeans in the category of plug-ins. Many developers opt for Eclipse to add functionalities to the application easily by availing the plug-ins provided by it. However, the developers often have to use several third-party plug-ins for Eclipse. The quality and performance of these third-party plug-ins differ. On the other hand, NetBeans enables users to avail a set of stable and quality plug-ins.

User Interface: The user interface of NetBeans is designed based on, whereas the user interface of Eclipse is designed based on SWT. Swift is a Java native lightweight toolkit, whereas SWT is a Java for the underlying toolkit of the system. Many developers find the user interface of NetBeans to simpler and friendlier than the user interface of Eclipse. The simple user interface of NetBeans further makes it easier for beginners to learn and use the IDE without putting extra time and effort. But the Java programmers have to put extra time and effort to work with Eclipse efficiently.

Configuration: NetBeans comes with several built-in out-of-box functionalities. The out-of-box functionality enables users to configure the IDE quickly, and accomplish basis programming tasks without any delay. But Eclipse is not designed with many out-of-box functionalities. The users have to install and configure Eclipse plug-ins to accomplish common tasks and build applications efficiently. These plug-ins make it difficult for beginners to configure and use the IDE within a short amount of time.

Working with Other Programming Languages: Both Java IDEs enable developers to work with other popular technologies and programming languages. NetBeans supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and C/C++ along with Java. Likewise, Eclipse also allows programmers to integrate Java with a number of popular programming languages including Python, Perl, PHP, Groovy and Scala. But NetBeans is designed as a tool-based IDE, and enables programmers to work with other technologies through specific projects. Eclipse requires programmers to install and configure specific plug-ins to work with individual technologies. Hence, Java developers find it easier to work with other programming languages while using NetBeans.

Support for Maven: Both NetBeans and Eclipse support Maven - a widely used project management tool. The complete build lifecycle framework provided by Maven makes it easier for programmers o automate the entire build infrastructure. But many programmers find it easier to work with Maven while using NetBeans. They can run Maven goals directly inside NetBeans. Likewise, they can use a console to view the output of Maven commands directly in NetBeans. NetBeans further makes it easier for users to update Maven dependencies, launch Maven builds, and create new Maven projects.

Android App Development: Java programming language is used widely for developing mobile apps for Android - the mobile platform with largest worldwide market share. The statistics posted on various websites depict that most Android app developers prefer Eclipse to NetBeans. In addition to being simple and fast, Eclipse also provides a standard UI toolkit - Swing - which can be integrated seamlessly into the Android applications. Also, a wide variety of plug-ins provided by Eclipse SDK make it easier for developers to build robust Android apps without putting extra time and effort. However, NetBeans also provides several features and tools to simplify Android app development.

Source Code Formatting: Both Java IDEs have the capability to automatically format the source code of application written in Java. But many programmers find the Java code formatter provided by Eclipse to be more efficient than the code formatting options provided by NetBeans. While using Eclipse, the programmers can invoke the Java code formatter directly by using the shortcut C-S-F. Hence, they can format the Java code in a flexible and efficient way.

On the whole, both NetBeans and Eclipse are open source and cross platform Java IDEs. But Eclipse is supported by IBM, whereas NetBeans is supported by Oracle. Each IDE provides several innovative features and tools to simplify and speedup Java application development. But the developers must evaluate the pros and cons of each Java IDE according to the specific needs of each project.

5 Ways Blockchain Will Transform the Life of a Common Man

With all of the media set ablaze with news of prices of cryptocurrencies, you may wonder how it affects a common man. Right at the heart of cryptocurrency and other digital currencies is Blockchain technology.

There are various industrial and administrative problems that the technology can solve for the common man. Do you own a small business but often feel transparency is lacking because of traditional methods of communication? Have you ever ended up with higher than usual medical bills? As a business owner, is finding legitimate candidates a hassle for you? These problems affect entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, individuals and Blockchain technology seeks to provide solutions to make the life of a common man much simpler through simplified solutions.

Banking

Banking in almost all countries is still very focused on paper-intensive transactions for any money transfer, recordkeeping or other back-end functions. Blockchain technology can replicate this in a digital format and create a decentralized ledger that allows not only the bankers but also the customers to access a single source of information. This system allows banks to eliminate chances of fraud as documentation and proof of ownership of assets can be checked digitally by bankers in the Blockchain ledger which can be accessed at any time in an unalterable format.

Identity theft is also a major problem in the banking sector, with citizens' information being stolen and used to open fraudulent accounts for illegal activities. According to the Federal Trade Commission's online database of complaints, there have been over 13 million complaints filed for card fraud and identity theft with 3 million of these complaints being filed in 2016 alone. Through a blockchain system, customers can directly view all accounts owned under their name and immediately notify their respective banks in case they spot any suspicious activity in their banking details. Some of the known examples include IBM-backed Hyperledger Fabric project and the Utility Settlement Coin by UBS.

Healthcare

Blockchain technology can simplify healthcare in incredible ways and make medical data management much simpler. Making patient records widely accessible can allow research on drug development much more convenient, and it also reduces the implications of counterfeit drugs. Clinical trials and their outcomes can be made available in a decentralized network, allowing healthcare specialists and researchers to conduct research and find solutions to better healthcare. Accenture is one of the biggest companies that have started offering innovative healthcare solutions for the medical care sector for secure and fraud-free transactions.

Medicare frauds can also be brought down through blockchain billing management as the billing system can be fully automated without any scope of intermediaries committing fraudulent activities. With over 56 million people under Medicare as of 2017, over $1.3 billion has been ripped off the government through fraudulent activities by rehabilitation facilities and home health care services. Blockchain systems can effectively safeguard citizens who seek medical assistance from healthcare providers that overcharge for services offered through fraudulent billing practices. The centralized data not only help medical professionals in offering treatment based on the history of the patient and his/her family but it also eliminates the chances of a patient incorrectly recollecting past symptoms or disorders.

Public Records

One of the most important civic administration functions of a government is to record all information about its citizens. This includes information about individuals and businesses with regards to their assets and activities. Most of the recorded information is recorded in paper databases, making data management extremely difficult even in developed countries.

Blockchain-based systems like Ubitiquity can encode all public records in a digital ledger to keep the data on citizens from being altered for fraudulent activities. Identity theft is a problem that can be very difficult to deal with for the administration and digitizing all public information to make it tamper-proof can help prevent such instances of criminal activity.

Voting

One of the biggest limitations of the voting system in almost every country is that even today, voters need to be physically present at polling booths to cast their votes and can make things difficult for people who need to travel on poll days. More importantly, there are no means of verifying the poll results for the average citizen.

Blockchain development companies like Followmyvote are coming up with solutions that seek to make online voting a reality. It will allow citizens to view accurate information on poll standings and results and various other statistics publicly. It also leads to safer voting for citizens of countries in internal or external conflict and criminal activities to coerce citizens into voting for specific candidates can be completely avoided.

Business Hiring

Businesses of all sizes have a hard time finding the right staff. Through blockchain technology, it is possible for businesses to verify credentials of all applicants through a digital database. Blockchain technology can be applied to create a decentralized database of professionals with verified qualifications in a secure ledger that businesses can refer to for hiring candidates. Learning Machine is a New-York based company that seeks to address this problem that focuses on recording verifiable information on workers.

Tax or employment-related frauds make up 34% of all identity theft as of 2016, and a blockchain system makes the hiring process for any business much more secure as a company would have access to valid candidates only, reducing the risk of hiring fraudulent employees. It also helps applicants by speeding up the hiring process and helping them to find jobs they are eligible for and have a hassle-free application process.

Use of blockchain technologies helps individuals and businesses alike, and it also protects personal information while making important data publicly visible. While blockchain has the best application in cryptocurrency, its use can spread to other sectors as well to provide meaningful solutions to citizens around the world.

Top 10 Tips for Choosing a Web Designer for Your Business Web Site

How to Choose a Web Design Firm

Simple. You do your homework on them. Then, you start asking questions and taking notes. There are plenty of web designers available. You want to go with the best because, in fact, your web designer is in essence your partner. You want to choose a designer that takes YOUR business seriously.

What questions do you ask?

There are several important questions to ask when choosing a web designer for your business web site.

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design firm for your business web site is a very important decision. And if your company is like most small businesses, you probably do not have a web design experience. Building your web site will take time and work. And working with a web designer is no easy task. So choose the right web design company from the start and avoid do-over's, which can be cost and time consuming.

1. What kind of web experience do you have?

For starters, find out what kind of design experience your potential design firm has. Do they have experience with content management systems such as Joomla or Drupal, do they have experience working with "raw" HTML? Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience with ecommerce hosting?

2. Do you have a portfolio that I can review?

An experienced web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and reviewed each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you?

3. Do you have any references?

In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What did not they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

4. What are your prices?

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal without all of the costs are well understood up front.

Ask them a bit about how they manage payments. If they respond in a very business-like and professional manner, this is a good sign. If they throw out answers like - "Do not worry, we'll manage" or "Whatever you are comfortable with", do not be fooled. This is trouble waiting to happen. Get the price in writing before you begin the project.

5. Do you have experience with search engine optimization?

Most small business owners do not have it in their budget to hire a separate marketing firm to work on search engine optimization (SEO), so it is imperative that your web designer have experience in SEO. A good designer will know that design and SEO go hand-in-hand. Designing a web site for search engines with "clean" code that utilizes cascading style sheets is essential to getting your content indexed in the leading search engines, such as Google and Bing.

6. Do you have experience with social media marketing?

Many marketing firms do know the first thing about social media marketing. These firms are stuck in the past and are not as effective as they pret to be. Be sure that you work with a designer that knows how to setup a Facebook fan page for your business and design a customized Twitter profile. This is important because you will want your social media properties to mesh with the design of your web site. The web site and social media pages should complement one-another.

7. What is your process for designing or building a web site?

Make sure you ask your potential web design company about the process that they use? Do they design a web site or do they build a web site? An experienced Internet professional should understand the difference between these two concepts. If they do not, they're probably not as experienced as they claim to be. Building a web site is a highly technical process, while designing a web site is a highly creative process. Many advertising firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily require any web development skills whatever. At the same time, many firms design web sites, yet out-source the creative portion of the project. Find out from the beginning what the process if for the firm that you are considering.

8. How long will it take?

Perfectionism can be a huge stumbling block in the fast paced world of the Internet. Some designers are unable to compromise between quality and time to market needs. Test: See how long it takes until you receive a proposal.

9. What type of support is offered after web site launch?

If your design firm does not offer web site maintenance, you might want to continue looking. Most reputable design firms will offer "post-launch" maintenance for companies that do not have an in-house webmaster.

10. Which web hosting providers do you work with?

If your design firm does not know the first-names of the contact at their favorite web design firm, then this should raise a red flag. Most reputable web designers know not to choose a web host simply because they are the most popular or because they offer the cheapest web hosting. A reputable web design firm should know who to call and how to get results! Does your web designer work with a green hosting company? Environmentally-friendly web hosting is becoming more and more popular for business web sites looking to implement an eco-policy.

Getting a little recognition on the W3 is hard, even in a niche market (especially in a niche market). You have less than 10 seconds to convince a site visitor to stick around long enough to learn about the quality of your services, your products or your message. Web surfers are jagged out on information overload. If they do not see what they want to see on your home page or a landing page, they bounce. So, making a statement about your corporate culture and your business' core values ​​has to happen in the blink of an eye. Visitors will never even see the "About Us" page if you do not create a good impression - in 10 seconds. So, go green! An emblem or banner claiming that you employ green hosting makes an immediate statement about your on-line business. It says you care about the environment.

Do your homework when choosing a web design firm.

Good designers are creative people that need to think out of the box. Finding a good web designer is getting harder and harder. The good designers are being snatched by agencies and large projects. They are overloaded with work and often, you will not know about them because they do not have time (or need) to market themselves. Doing your homework and asking the right questions is important to decide if they are right for the job.

Business Sales Close Plan - Milestones to Close the Deal

Being with my feet on the sales ground for 25 years in IT, I can recommend that many steps in the sales process need to be discussed and agreed internally and with the business customer to come to an agreed and signed contract.

Following this sales process through a so called 'Sales Close Plan', describes all the necessary milestones that need to be agreed from a resource perspective, internally from a supplier perspective as well as from the business customer resource perspective. This Sales Close Plan will enable you to set up the right expectations during the contract negotiation milestones during an enterprise sales process.

Discuss with your business customer the close plan and have your customer sign / off the Sales Close Plan on timescales and milestones. If each stone is finalized confirm this in email to your customer so all expectations and potential road blocks keeps transparent and visible to you as supplier and business customer.

1. Identify the Power Sponsors:

Which customer contacts have the power to approve or veto a major contract deal?
Who are the business owners?

2. Identify customer procurement process:

Send Non Disclosure for approval.
Perform Customer due diligence and screening.
Is supplier employee screening process required?
What are customer standard terms & conditions?
What are the expected legal challenges? Intellectual property, Warranty ...?
What are the payment terms?
What is the VAT number?
What are the shipping address details?
What are the billing address details?
Discover expense costs cap guidelines.
What is the business identity code?
Will payment be in Dollars / Euro ...?
What are the finance contact details?
Which legal resources are required from supplier, internally, externally?

3. Approval process:

Who needs to approve from the IT department?
Who needs to give approval from the business department?
Is budget available? If not when?
Is Board approval required to close the deal? I yes, when is next Board meeting
Which person from the Board supports business case?
Do we need a reference visit and who will attend from the customer?
Which reference do we nominate for site visit or phone interview?
Agree on travel arrangements for reference visit.

4. Feedback 1st round legal / proposal discussions:

Does the commercials / T & C's in the proposal need to be updated to get a deal?
If yes, which resources from supplier and customer are required?
Do we need internal approval from higher management for this?
Is customer requesting any legal adjustments that need further legal review by supplier?

5. Send new proposal / T & C's contracts:

Agree date for presentation final proposal to customer.
Is customer verbally accepting new proposal / T & C's?

6. Contracts:

When will customer sign / off contracts?
When can signed contracts be collected at customer?
Reconfirm resources allocation.
Start of project or delivery.