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Website development invoice example for Building services

let's talk about my website design process from start to finish [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to my channel my name is Megan if you have not been here before welcome and welcome to another episode of wine and design I know this is not a wine glass but I just loved it because it has a little Skeleton on it and I am in total fall mode now I'm so excited this is like my favorite season but thank you guys so so much for coming if you have not been here before I post every Wednesday and Sunday and I am a graphic designer I love to sit down with you guys and talk about my business experiences my client experiences and how I'm really learning how to become the best graphic designer I can be and I want to share everything I learn with you guys because I feel like we all can grow together and succeed together so I really hope you stick around and that you enjoy this video I am so excited for today's video I'm going to be talking with you guys all about my website design process and how I really approach a website design how I work with my clients and honestly how long it takes me but I know that all of us learn in such different ways some of us learn from watching videos like this some of us learn from reading or some of us are just very Visual and want to have something easily digestible with some Creative Touch to it have a free guide down below where you guys can download a free infographic guide that goes over all the steps I'm going to talk about in this video but in a very easily digestible way so if you guys want to download that that'll be linked down below definitely check that out even if you watch this video and want to read that I think that's a great way to kind of see my overall process that'll be linked right down below definitely check that out I am sipping on some white wine today so I'm really enjoying that I feel like I'm really going to transition into the red wines coming up soon since it's Autumn and I'm so excited but enough said let's hop into my step-by-step process okay step one this is the initial Discovery call with my clients so I wanted to first off explain that before hopping into the discovery call my clients have most likely filled out my contact form on my website which I really hope that they did and if they do reach out to me on Instagram or email or maybe somewhere other than my website I always send them my contact form that way I can have my automated system send them the scheduler to book their Discovery call but not only that my contact form has a few questions in there that are really going to be helpful for me when we hop on that Discovery call so a few of those questions I just want to mention are number one the budget I have a range of numbers that they can choose from and if the minimum number in there isn't even where their budget's at that'll save both of us so much time and worry I guess from bringing that up on the conversation so I like to have that question in the initial stages so that we know kind of what we're getting into and then I also just like to ask where their business is at right now and like if they could explain to me a bit about their business I really like to have those initial questions answered that way I know how to guide the conversation and really kind of what to research before the call so I highly recommend if you don't have that process set up yet to make sure that they're filling something out even if it's your scheduler that has the questions after they schedule filling something out to help you guide this conversation now for the initial Discovery call if this is a purely website design client and not branding and website the number one question I always like to ask them is do they have branding yet if they don't I typically do not take this client if I've worked on their branding and it's maybe a year down the line they decide they want a new website that's perfect or if it's a client that doesn't really know what they need I could kind of guide them into more of a branding and website package but that's the number one question I want to ask because I cannot bill build something off of no branding if they don't have a color palette if they don't have a logo if they don't even have their typography set then I'm really not going to have a good starting point so if the client doesn't have branding then I will really try and sell them on The Branding and website package and come up with some sort of package deal so that they feel like they're not just getting talked into sales and everything so I like to have that conversation initially though because sometimes it's just not a good fit if they're not willing to work with you on The Branding portion and you want to make sure that you love what you're building and that you can use it for your portfolio so always always ask that but my other question I ask about the website is if it's e-commerce or if it's just an informational website because if it's e-commerce that is completely gonna change the way my proposal looks eCommerce websites are definitely a little more expensive it's a lot more time consuming and a lot more work so I want to make sure I'm asking them right off the bat what kind of website they are in need of and then I just want to kind of form that relationship and understand their passions and where they're at with their business where they want their business to be so after the discovery call I like to write down all those notes right away and then I have about two days I tell them that I will be sending out a proposal so I give myself two days even though sometimes it only takes me one or less because I really want to make sure I customize the proposal make it look really nice and go over everything we discussed and the package details as well as the start date and the payment plan so I want to give them all the details so that there's nothing left unanswered that way they feel confident selecting the proposal and hopefully moving forward so I do have a proposal template on dubsado that makes it really easy for me to add the package type that they want and just add the customization and make it fit for the client's needs so I like to send that as soon as I can because it's fresh in both of our minds and it's exciting okay step three if they have accepted the proposal and they've signed the contract and they've submitted their deposit make sure they submit the deposit because you don't want to start on something that hasn't even had a deposit down yet but once they've done all that it's time to begin so my very first initial step is to send them their client portal as well as the questionnaire that will help me get even more insight into their current business so I do want to send that client portal as this next step because the portal will have my task board in there which not only helps me but helps them understand what I'm working on during what weeks and when they're going to have certain things in their hands so I really like to make sure that I explain to them what the portal is about and to do that I do have a video walkthrough where I tell them this is where you'll find your task board this is where you'll find your emails and I like to break it down for them so that there's no questions unanswered It ultimately communication is the biggest thing you can do for a great Italian experience so I want to make sure that they understand everything going on all right the next step is to begin the design process so at this point I'm hoping that they filled out the questionnaire and now it's our start date so on the start date is is when I actually jump into designing the home pages I don't design the whole website for me I really like to approach it with just the home pages in the start and I like to give them about two different designs to choose from sometimes if I'm feeling really excited I will give them three designs to choose from but most the time that third design is going to look similar just a little bit of a different layout or different colors but the reason I like to give them multiple options is because if they like a certain direction over another then they can tell me that and we can go down that specific Direction so I like to give them two very opposite home page initial designs so I can really get a feel for what they like and what they're drawn to so that is my initial step is to design those home pages at this point though we do not have content yet we do not have images typically I like to have images from my clients weeks before we even start but most of the time that doesn't happen or they have a photo shoot scheduled or they don't really know what to take for photos or maybe they just don't have it yet so if that's the case I like to just use placeholder images and placeholder copy and I'll get to that part a little bit later alright the next step is to get feedback on those initial designs so I've gotten questions here and there about if I like to get on calls to accept feedback or if I just do feedback over email I've gone so many different ways with this and ultimately it's kind of up to the client I mean I have my specific communication styles that I stick within and that's email or a Google meets or Zoom meeting but most the time my clients just like to communicate over email and this is one of the reasons I love Adobe XD it actually allows me and allows my clients to pin comments on specific parts of the design so if there's one image they don't like they can actually place a pin there and let me know or if they don't like layout or if they want to add something it's so easy to communicate with my clients on Adobe XD and I think it's just a seamless way to get that feedback but when I do send these initial designs I give them about four to five questions to answer that way I can guide them into providing me the most efficient and really well thought out feedback because I don't want to hear I don't like it with no explanation I really need to know so I can make the next round of revisions worthwhile for both of us all right the next step is to hop into more designs so at this point I'm going to design the interior Pages as well as make any edits to the homepage that they want to see so this is when I just get in full design mode and I have so much fun with it I find inspiring duration from a bunch of different places but a lot of times I just I'm really inspired by the homepage design and I kind of have a feel for where I want to take the design from there so the interior pages is all all dependent on the questionnaire if they filled out the pages that they will be needing that'll help me understand if I need to build an about page contact page service page or if it's a shop page and for shop pages I do like to show them how that will look as well as a product page and how that will look too so I don't like to do every single product mock-up I just like to give them the initial template of like this is how it's going to look for your product pages and for your shop pages so that's how I do it but I do like to jump into those interior page designs and the edits and get that out to them the one thing I have not mentioned during these design steps is I always send a video walkthrough of why I designed what I designed because ultimately sometimes people don't know why designers choose the things they do and I like to kind of tell my clients you know I laid it out this way to break the page up or I added this font here to really have a call out kind of graphic and I like to just explain everything so that once again no questions go unanswered to get feedback and to make sure that the copywriter has now begun their copywriting process so every designer does this so different I have found that for for me I really like to design with a blank slate and give my copywriters the framework of what to write and where to write it so I know some clients are some designers like to design off of the copy and that's like their framework but for me I find that I understand more of like what copy needs to go where and then I just let them do their part of creating beautiful copywriting so I do have a copywriter I have found her this here and she's been amazing and she has a quick turnaround so I feel like at this point of the process is when it's a perfect time to hand her the entire mock-up of the website and let her have fun with it because at this point too the clients have filled out her intake form and they are just ready to go and she's ready to create that content for me so this stage of feedback is so important because once I get to the development part of the website I don't like to accept a whole lot of edits at least entire framework edits because that's going to be really difficult to do once I have everything set up on the website it's not that difficult but ultimately that's going to take a lot more time than it would to just completely edit it on the design portion and the mock-up portion so I really want to make sure it's clear to them that they tell me everything all the feedback they have right now that way I can jump into the development portion with no edits left remaining so I really want to make that clear to them and yeah it's very important to me because once the website's developed I have my launch plan and yeah we'll get into that okay so the next step is to develop the website and typically I develop this on my own however I do have a developer on my team that I actually just will hire on the side if I am super busy with other projects he can go help me develop the website because ultimately I've already designed it and it's just making it functional so sometimes I'll send it to him but I do like to develop it on my own I think it's kind of fun to see it all come together and I like to develop majority of the time on WordPress I'm sure you guys know this by now WordPress is my go-to platform for many reasons I'll leave a video up here that goes over why I love it but I like to develop on WordPress and make it functional there and at this point in the process because my development portion takes about two weeks sometimes less but I like to tell my clients two weeks because I am at this point of the process hoping to get put the copy from my copywriter so I can plug that in and then once I send it to my client it's basically their entire functional website so this website development portion is a little bit longer it's a two-week part of the process but it's really important and I want to make sure I test it make sure everything's functional and if it's an e-commerce website that's going to take probably even longer but I like to have a two-week Mark of development just to do a website walkthrough with my client so at this point I have done everything I really need to do I've built designed the website I've developed it I've tested it I've added the copy and now it's just to walk my clients through the beautiful website that we created together so this is when I will accept a few little edits here and there if they just want maybe a color change somewhere or a button to link somewhere else that's totally okay what I really meant by giving me all the feedback is making sure that there's not huge design changes that is going to make the whole page look different so this is when I just walk them through make sure they understand how it works where the buttons go and where the contact form is going to lead them to and all of the questions that they might have will be answered on this walk through call I do like to hop on a call for this portion it makes it so much easier to walk them through what it is that I'm looking at so that is the step 9 portion of my process right the final exciting step of the process is the website launch so website launches in the past for me I didn't make it a big enough deal that it really is I mean it's been close to 10 to 12 weeks that we've been working on this and it's at a point where it's ready to be launched and ready to be under their domain and ready to be viewed by their customers so I want to make this exciting for my clients so to do that I do send my clients an email on launch day with all these emojis making it super fun and including some complimentary website launch Graphics that way they can go post on their social media they can celebrate it and get some traffic flowing to their website so website launch days should be so fun as a designer you should be so proud and you should take the day to go celebrate yourself get a coffee get whatever you want but I do recommend making these website launches really exciting to not only get the potential customers excited but to get your clients excited too because they invested in this process and it's a really really cool time so that is the final step of the process and that is my entire website design process in total 10 steps and typically like I mentioned before takes me around 10 to 12 weeks to design a full website I know that might seem kind of long but I really like to dive deep into my clients websites and make sure that I understand we have everything on there that the copywriting reads beautifully that they have the photos that they love and that everything is just perfect for them so 10 to 12 weeks is pretty typical for my websites and it's super fun but I really hope that this was helpful I hope that you found some insight into the way I kind of lay that out and that's exactly how my task board looks for my clients they'll be able to see each one of those steps in the due dates that are tied to each one of those steps so that is my process and let's cheers to that because that was a lot of talking but like I mentioned at the start of this video I do have all of those steps in an infographic guide right down below like I mentioned at the start of this video if you want a printout version of all those steps I just gave you that'll be linked right down below definitely check it out I've made a really cool easy to follow infographic if you're curious on all the steps I take to get to a functional website but thank you guys so so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed this video and that you found some help from it and I am just so happy you're here so I really hope that you guys stick around for more and cheers I hope you guys have a wonderful day weeknight evening whenever you're watching this and if you enjoyed this I would appreciate it so so much if you gave it a thumbs up subscribe down below and I will see you guys in my next video blinds [Music] I had a reach for the city lights [Music]