Continuing from part 1, "Why Pay for Website Design?" here we'll continue with the reasons why hiring a professional to handle your website's development from scratch, really is worth while.

Why Not Convert Print Materials?

For one thing, in order to convert your print materials for website development, you'll have to hire a web designer. That designer won't have to make the same kinds of design decisions as one working from scratch, but there are still challenges involved in implementation. Unless your print materials are perfectly suited for use in website development, it's not going to be quite as cheap as you think.

Will You Be Ready for Future Development?

This is a hard sell for anyone who's looking to cut costs and shorten the development time, but we'd be amiss if we didn't discuss it.

The fact is, that if you rush to launch a website, but don't spend the time now to think about your future website development needs, you're adding extra work later - not just deferring development priority decisions, but actually growing the total time spent on those decisions.

We mention this because even the simpler tasks involved in your web development project will be influenced if you think ahead. A good developer or designer can make your website's code and layouts more flexible toward your future goals, if he or she simply knows what those goals are.

The Bottom Line:
Custom Web Design Is Worth It

If you're looking to cut costs, there are plenty of new website developers who are dying to get their foot in the door, willing to work for peanuts.

If you don't want to spend time on consultations in order to arrive at the decision on which direction to go with your website's development, just have your designer give you three mockups based on a short phone conversation, and choose the one you like best.

If you've already paid more than you wanted to on print design, you can often save more money by asking your web designer to use those materials for inspiration, instead of asking for a pixel-perfect web-based copy of those same designs.

In short, there are ways to cut costs, and save time, in brainstorming and deploying your business's website development - but there are often risks involved in cutting those costs, as well.