1. Please describe the web services you currently offer.

I am currently a business to business service provider, offering marketing and advertising through print or digital media, to small businesses in my local area. I design logos, marketing newsletters, postcards, brochures, newspaper advertisements, product photography, and websites for small businesses that do not have in-house design services, but want professional looking marketing materials.

Please answer these questions:

• Do you have a contract describing your services?
  I do not currently have a contract describing the services I am offering.
• Is it fixed price or hourly?
  I have worked both fixed and hourly rates, but predominately fixed rates determined by the number of pages and factoring in upgrades for Flash, sound, photography, etc...
• What problems have you encountered?
  A major problem I have encountered is indecision, despite professional suggestions and examples. I believe this to be a form of procrastination on the part of the client.
  Another problem I encounter is getting content from the client and convincing them to update the content on a regular basis.
  Clients wanting lots of little changes to content they provided or asking for changes that amount to much more than what was originally agreed upon.
  Clients waiting till the last minute to give me things and then wanting it yesterday.
  A problem I have is wanting to create a much more interesting web sites than the client can or is willing to afford. But I feel like it is doing a disservice to my profession by devaluing the work and the expectation of what the work is worth.
• What are some things you hope this class will help with?
  I am hoping that this class will help me to establish value in the services that I offer. To help me establish myself as a professional consultant that has a service to offer of value to my clients, designed to increase their business and mine as a result.

2. Write a description of a recent project you worked on.

• I recently created a website for a small local retail shop that offers bridal accessories, invitations and announcements, as well as bridal favors and specialty gift items.
• It took much longer than it should have because I had to wait for a very long time to get the copy for the website. I also took alot of photographs for the website which took up alot more time than I had originally anticipated because of the clients desire to try many alternative shots to choose from.
• No, I did not make a profit, but I knew that going in. I wanted the opportunity to work with her to increase the variety of websites in my portfolio and for an opportunity to develop a marketing package, which will be the next stage of the project. Also since she is a fledgling business in my community, I am hoping that it will lead to other opportunities.
• Honestly, I created my estimate by figuring out what I would charge to do the job and charged half of that. (A practice I do not want to get in the habit of.)
• The end product is something I was very happy with. I know that one of the photos on the website brought a customer into her store and she made an impressive purchase as a result. I would have liked to have had a better idea of how to handle the photography part of the job. How to charge for the work and how to have gotten it done more efficiently.

3. Think about your next project. Create a list of 10 - 15 questions you can ask the client to help define the scope of the project.

1. What is your business and how will the web site advance it? What message is the website supposed to convey?
2. What do you forsee the purpose and outcome of this website to befor your company? (to increase awareness of your business or your product/service, to increase sales, to collect information, customer service, entertainment, etc...)
3. Is this website to be an informational website or will it be an e-commerce web site?
4. Will this website be designed from scratch or will this be a redesign of an existing website?
5. Do you already have a domain name and a web hosting service? If not, what domain name would you like? (.com, .net, .org, etc...) What are a couple of alternative domain names that you would consider if the first choice is already taken?
6. Who is your primary audience? (their age, computer knowledge and internet access, gender, any demographics that are relevant to the target market)
7. Would you like to have a form to capture information about the visitors to your website for further marketing initiatives?
8. Who is your primary competition? Do they have a website?
9. What websites have you seen that you really like and why? What websites have you seen that you really do not like and why?
10. What style, genre, or culture do you have in mind if any?
11. Are there any marketing materials (brochures, publications, corporate identity or media) that the website should be consistent with?
12. Do you need a new logo or new marketing collateral materials and media that will be consistent with and will advertise your new website?
13. Do you have content for the website or does that need to be created from scratch? If so, what will be needed and who will be responsible for creating it? Will the source materials be provided in a digital form or will content need to be scanned and typed into the computer?
14. What do you foresee for keeping the content fresh and updated? Who will be responsible for keeping the website updated?
15. Do you have any special programming requirements or advanced functionality?
16. Do you have a budget established for this project?
17. If the budget is not sufficient for the projected project, would you be agreeable to doing the project in phases?
18. Who will give final approval of the project?