When dealing with suppliers, it is normally you who decide what you want before you search for a supplier or a partner. How do you approach this? Define your needs and requirements and what have a good idea what you want to pay? Do you always go for the cheapest or do you always go to a friend? No, I thought not.

Think about how you approach your website. Do you do the same?

It really is quite straightforward, although it is quite simple to be caught out.

The first step is to decide what you want to achieve – Do you want to attract more customers or increase sales? Are you planning to sell directly to your customers, or is this more about providing information?

Don’t be fooled by smart design. A very cool leading edge website may very well look good, and appear on your web designers portfolio – however, have you measured the outcome against your original plans?

Often, the best performing websites are not the ones we think about. Your web site is part of your overall marketing effort and needs to work within it. As a small business owner, you can’t afford Brand Advertising like the big boys – you don’t have the money to waste.

In short, decide what you want to achieve. Brief your suppliers on this. Don’t get caught out by flashy design and the latest fad, measure the effect changing your website has had on your sales.