web design proposal

[lister]

Hi everyone,

I have been learning web design and development for a few years and have built a few sites. mainly for friends and colleagues. Most of my sites have been static, though I have helped build and maintained a wordpress site and textpattern site.

I friend of mine has asked me to write a web design proposal for a company they do work for. The company are a is a light engineering business with quite a few years of trading.

The current site is very ugly and is in need of a fresh and professional update with
re-branding, Usability and structure.

As its my first proposal I'm a little un-sure how to approach this for the first time, considering this is going direct to the proposed client.

1. Should all proposals provide quotes at initial stage.? I'm a little worried here as I have had no communication with the client as of yet

2. The current branding within the site uses quite an ugly logo. How do you suggest to the client that they need to think about re-deisgning the logo and brand colours before work is done on the design look and feel. Or are some sites designed around a bad logo?


could anyone give us some tips or advice for planning proposals for a new client for the very first time. I have done some research on google but would like to know how people here started off?

thanks


lister

[JMCDesigner]

Write down a breakdown of stages you propose for their website, then you can break up the price and negotiate the stages if its out of their budget. Do a little research into their competitors, theres always one that can be a great example of how not to have a well designed site.

[mortega1777]

Hope this helps...
First, schedule a free (or paid) consultation with the company, and try to have your friend there. Find out what their goals are, and more importantly their values. This can really help you design something that will blow their socks off. Be thorough with your consultation, listen closely to what they want to accomplish with the site. Tell them you will evaluate what it will take to get the job done, and get back to them with a proposal very soon. Then go research their industry, and the company in the grand scheme of things.
Map out the project on paper and estimate how many hours it will take you. Include time for de-bugging, tweaking, and testing. Then decide how much you want to make an hour. If you are beginning, that is, without a complete, flawless portfolio, you might want to scale it down a little.
Next, calculate your overhead. Software, hardware, utilities, and recurring bills that your business needs. There are many software programs out there that will help with this.
Then decide how much profit you want to take from the project. After all, if you are running a business, and only making enough to pay yourself a wage, why not go get a more stress-free, stable job? You have a valuable skill and it shouldn't come cheap. In the beginning, I found myself charging way too little. It was exciting to see my work online, but that didn't pay the bills. So give yourself a percentage of the pie that you can be happy with. Again, this is sometimes hard to demand in the beginning, so you might want to scale it down a little.
Do the math, and round it off to a nice even number. IMO, people feel like you're giving them a good deal when you do that.
Finally, presentation is the key. Keep your proposal design simple, yet memorable. Tie everything in with your branding efforts. Go in like you deserve the job, and remember: under-promise, over-deliver.

As for the logo issue, design one for them! It will be great practice, and good for your portfolio, even they don't use it. Throw it in for a good price, and they'll appreciate the effort. Just make sure you don't design it until after the consultation!

I'm sure I left something out...anyway, great luck!

[lister]

thanks for all your tips, its still pretty daunting..

[Mercury0880]

Hello, You might want to do a search for smashing magazine (I cannot post links as of yet). There's a ton of good advice on there. Just do a search for web proposal. I totally understand the logo thing. That has happened to me before. You just have to word it in the nicest way possible that their logo sucks

It seems daunting now, but once you have a great proposal typed up, you can use it as a tempate for future projects...

[BlackApache]

I am trying to find a good web design proposal example to get an idea how I should create one for myself. Do you know where I can find it. I do not think Sitepoint has a book with examples.

Thanks,
Erik Diamond

[lister]

I have found a few by google.. But at the moment the best one I have as a template is Sitepoint..

lister