There are many ways you can set your business or brand apart from the competition - you can offer better customer service, a revolutionary product, hilarious or insightful social content, or even lively events that help you better connect with your customers. But perhaps the most direct and psychologically powerful way to establish your business and set it apart is through exceptional design.

1. How to Hire the
Web Designer or
Design Agency
You Need

2. How to Hire the Web Designer
or Design Agency You Need
There are many ways you can set your business
or brand apart from the competition - you can offer better
customer service, a revolutionary product, hilarious or insightful
social content, or even lively events that help you better
connect with your customers. But perhaps the most direct and
psychologically powerful way to establish your business and
set it apart is through exceptional design.
2 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

3. How to Hire the Web Designer
or Design Agency You Need
Design will touch many areas of your brand - your
logo, offices, and, most importantly, your web
presence. That’s why it’s crucial to hire the right
web designer or design agency for your site.
In this eBook we’ll offer some tips for finding the
right web designer for your small business. We’ll
discuss the importance of a website that looks
good on a desktop or Android or iOS mobile device;
establishing a look and feel for your brand; and what
to do when the PSDs a designer sends aren’t quite
looking the way you want them to.
3 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need
1

4. Establishing a
Design Perspective
Before a single pixel gets created or a single email
to a designer gets sent, you want to give some
serious thought as to how you want to use design to
present your brand identity. Is your brand youthful?
Serious? Futuristic? Modern? Simple? Complex?
Getting creative and brainstorming a list of terms that
accurately reflect your branding goals will be hugely
helpful as you go through the design process.
Look at other brands both inside and outside of your
industry and see how they use design to convey their
purpose and values. What do they go they get right?
And, just as importantly, what do they get wrong?
How do they use color? What navigational elements
on their site are new and exciting? Boring and cliché?
Hidden and difficult?
4 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

5. Establishing a
Design Perspective
It’s probably a good idea to talk to your colleagues, customers,
investors, family, and friends to get their impressions of your
brand. Ask them to create short descriptions of their interactions
with your brand and where they think it’s heading. Yes, you are the
ultimate authority when it comes to branding your business, but a
little outside input can provide clarity.
Put all of this information in an Excel or Word document so
you can easily share it with a designer when the time comes.
5 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

6. Do Your Research
When it comes to hiring a Web designer, you may be
tempted to hire an old friend, your talented neighbor,
or the first impressive design agency you come across
online. However, if your goal is to build a Web site that
you’ll be happy with for quite some time, it’s worth
doing your research, even after you think you’ve found
“the one.”
Not sure where to look for a web designer? Start with
your favorite websites. Chances are many of them
discreetly mention the person or agency who created
the website. Check the bottom of the homepage.
Fiverr®, of course, offers a wide range of design
professionals that can help you create the website
your business needs.
6 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

7. Do Your Research
Be sure ask around. A colleague or friend may have worked with
someone who did a project for them that went particularly well.
However, if this is the case, be sure you get to see their work before
you commit to hiring them - you want to make sure their design
aesthetic and level of talent is right for your project.
Look for a designer who has a strong portfolio and a boatload of happy
clients. Generally, their past clients are happy for reasons that go
beyond their love of the designer’s visual work. Good reviews mean
the designer probably responded to emails quickly, worked at a fair
price, and finished the project in an ideal amount of time.
And of course, you’ll want to look at other sites they’ve designed.
If you see something you like, ask the designer or agency if they
can incorporate that interesting element into your site. And if you
see something you didn’t like, clarify whether this was their idea
or something their client insisted they do (it happens!).
7 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

8. Gather Proposals
When looking for a Web designer, it’s easy to get into
the mindset that they’re helping you or doing you a
favor. But remember, you’re paying them for their
services and giving them business, so you’re offering
a similar level of assistance.
Before you decide to hire a designer or agency, ask
them to send you proposals that clearly communicate
their plans for your Website. Their proposals should
include plenty of visuals and explanations of how those
visuals map back to your original goals or concepts.
The proposal should also set forth the price, the
schedule for completing the project, and how any
post-launch needs will be handled (for instance, will
they help you update the site at a discounted rate if it
should need it at some point down the road?).
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8 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

9. Gather Proposals
It will also be good to know what kind of platform they
suggest using for the website. If it’s a simple Wordpress site,
it’ll most likely be easy for you to update on your own in the
future. However, it’s a custom or unfamiliar CMS, you may
have to get used to its quirks and peculiarities. If a designer
or agency encourages you to go with a CMS that you haven’t
heard of or used before, do some research and ask around to
make sure it’s a reliable system.
Again, while you are the ultimate authority when it comes
to what your brand is about, but you can - and should! - get
input from other people that you trust. Share the proposals
with team members, friends, and colleagues. And in the end,
go with the designer or agency who is offering you the best
looking site under the most ideal terms.
9 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

10. Be a Partner
So let’s say you’ve found the web designer or digital
agency that’s going to design your site. They’ve come up
with a great proposal that matches your needs, you’ve
settled on a fair rate, and you’re ready to let them go off
and return with a great, fully functioning website.
Stop right there. It’s probably wise to temper your
expectations.
A newly designed website goes through many iterations
before it is officially born. So be prepared to go back and
forth several times in order to land a design that works with
your needs. Ideally your designer will allow you to go back
and forth a few times to get your website exactly where
you want it to be. There’s a chance that their proposal only
allowed for a set number or revisions and feedback rounds,
so look for this when reviewing proposals.
One way to make the process go smoothly is to outline
everything you need your site to do for you. Will there be
an e-commerce section? Will the designer need to create
everything from scratch, or do you have photos and PSDs
that they can use? Have you remembered to create a site
that looks great on any device? The more you can tell your
designer when you start, the better off you’ll be.
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10 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need

11. When the Job is Done
It can be hard to envision the day
when your website is completely done, but we promise
that it will eventually come. When it does, support the creative
community by letting others know about your experience with the
designer. If they have a profile on Fiverr or a testimonial section on their
personal website, leave a detailed description of their talents and
the job. You should also consider allowing them to put their name and/or
logo somewhere on your site so the world can know they were the ones
who helped you make it. And of course, when your friends,
colleagues, or clients are looking around for a Web designer or
agency, be sure to pass along your designer’s name.
11 | How to Hire the Web Designer or Design Agency You Need