1) What is the goal of your web site? This is a very important step in the process of developing your web site. It is from this step that you will decide the overall concept for your web site. Spend some time thinking about this - it will be time well spent.

• Is it to sell products?
• Is it to provide a higher level of service to your customers ?
• Is it to provide an economical yet professional "brochure" of your company?
• Find new customers and increase my database of contacts?
• Expand your business into other areas of the world?

2) Who is your customer?

• Are they customers you already have a relationship with?
• What economic level of customer are you wanting to reach?
• Do you know what level of technology they have?
• Do you know what other web sites these customers use?

3) What are your competition or similar businesses to yours doing on the internet?

• Find out their web site address, either from advertising messages, a phone call or by using the search engines and spend some time visiting their site. This will give you some ideas as to what you will want to include in your web site and will give you the opportunity to identify what you can do to differentiate your business.
• Read industry and trade magazines to find out what your industry is doing on the internet. Make note of any opportunities that exist for you to link your web site with.

4) Define a budget for the project. This is a dollar budget as well as a time budget.

• Determine the amount of time you have to spend developing the structure of the web site.
• Determine if you have the resources in house to develop the web site.
• Assess if you have the necessary skills and software to establish and maintain a positive, professional web site.
• Do you have the time to do this - it can be very time consuming and detailed, standards are constantly changing.