Here is what to prepare before hiring a web designer: one page. Not a mood board, not a 40-slide deck. One page that says what you sell, to whom, where, and what you want people to do.
That page is the cheapest protection you have. Write it before the first call.
Why does a website brief save more money than a discount?
A discount lowers the price of the wrong site. A brief makes it the right one.
Designers work from what you tell them. If you are vague, they fill the gaps with assumptions, and assumptions are expensive to undo. Every round of "that is not quite us" is billable time or lost weeks.
Here is the version we think about most. The first version of the Moore Prep site read like a small private school. Six programs. A tour scheduler. Classroom imagery. It described a business that did not exist.
The real business was one teacher, three services and one quiet room. Nobody was lying. The page just never got written down first.
Start with what you actually sell, in one sentence
Write one sentence. Who you help, with what, and where.
"We repair and replace residential roofs in Wake County." "One teacher helps struggling elementary students in a small room in Wake Forest."
If the sentence takes a paragraph, you do not yet know what the site should say. That is useful to learn before you pay anyone.
Read it out loud. Would a stranger understand it in five seconds? Would a customer you already have recognize themselves in it?
Cut the adjectives. "Premier," "full-service" and "innovative" tell a visitor nothing. A plain sentence does more work than a grand one.
List the real services, not the ones you might add someday
Now list what you sell today. Not what you plan to sell, and not what a competitor offers.
Moore Prep ended up with exactly three: Tutoring, Homework Club and Pre-K Readiness. The six-program catalog was gone, and the site got more believable the moment it shrank.
Be strict with yourself:
- Include a service only if you could start it for a customer next week.
- Put a one-line description beside each, in words a customer would use.
- Note which one pays the bills. That one leads.
A parent, a homeowner or a client who senses padding starts doubting everything else on the page. Smaller and true beats bigger and vague.
What is the one action you want every visitor to take?
Pick one. Call, book, request a quote, or fill out a form.
You may have several goals. The site still needs one front door. Everything else is a side entrance.
For Moore Prep, the front door was a free 15-minute call. It was the only way in, booked from Lana Millard's real availability, with the next open time shown under the button. Nobody pays for anything before a conversation.
That choice shaped the whole site. Write yours down in a sentence: "Every visitor should [do this]." A designer can build around that. A designer cannot build around "get more leads."
Where are you, when are you open, and who do you serve?
This section is short and constantly wrong on new sites. Write it down exactly.
- Address or area. If customers visit, give the street. If you travel to them, list the towns you really cover.
- Hours. The real ones, including the day you close early.
- Parking and access. Where do people park? Which door? Visitors in Raleigh, Cary or Wake Forest will ask.
- Service area. Name the places. "The Triangle" is a start, but a customer in Garner wants to see Garner.
Moore Prep's page names downtown Wake Forest, Hatch Coworking, parking and hours. A parent knows where to go before they call. That detail also helps local search understand the business.
Which proof do you already own?
Do not wait for a designer to ask. Gather it now.
- Photos of your actual work, space and team. Phone photos are fine to start. Stock images of strangers are what you are trying to escape.
- Reviews from Google or anywhere customers have been kind. Copy the text and note the source.
- Jobs or projects you can describe, with what the customer needed and what you did.
- Credentials you hold: licenses, certifications, memberships.
Do not invent any of it. If you have three good reviews, show three. Real and modest is more convincing than polished and suspicious.
A folder with this material in it, handed over at kickoff, saves weeks of back and forth.
Who updates the site after launch?
This question gets skipped, then hurts later.
Name a person. Is it you? Your office manager? The designer on a retainer? Nobody?
"Nobody" is a real answer, and it is a bad one. Hours change. Prices change. A holiday closure never makes it onto the page, and a customer shows up to a locked door.
Be honest about the person's skill and time. Someone who will edit text twice a year needs a different setup than someone posting weekly. Tell the designer, and ask what changes are easy and which ones need a developer.
For anything beyond a brochure, such as booking, payments or a client login, say so up front. That is custom web development, and it changes the scope and the conversation.
What must not change when the new site goes live?
Your old site has history. Some of it is worth protecting.
- Addresses of existing pages. If other sites or Google link to a page, moving it without a redirect sends visitors to an error.
- Pages that bring in calls today. Check which ones people land on from search, and tell the designer.
- Business details. Your name, address and phone number should match everywhere they appear online.
- Things customers rely on. A pricing page, a form, a login.
List the old addresses you know about. Your current designer or host can often provide a full list. A good new designer will ask for it, and a great one will plan the redirects before launch.
How do you use the brief to compare Triangle designers?
Send the same page to every designer you talk to. Then watch what comes back.
A good reply restates your business correctly, asks sharp questions about the gaps, and proposes work that matches your one action. A weak reply ignores the page and sends a template pitch with the same six programs everyone gets.
Compare these things:
- Did they describe your business accurately?
- Did they push back on anything, and was it smart?
- Does the scope fit your services list, no more and no less?
- Do they have a plan for old addresses and post-launch updates?
If you want a sense of how we approach this for small business website design in Raleigh, that page is a good start. The Moore Prep case study shows what a brief like this becomes once it is built.
Your next step this week
Open a blank document. Write the six answers: what you sell in one sentence, your real services, your one action, your place and hours, your proof, and who updates the site.
It should fit on one page. If it does not, you have found the part to sort out before anyone starts designing.
When it is done, send it to us or to any designer on your list. Then see who reads it.