I need to contract with a website team.  What are the interviewing questions I need to consider?

Karyn Greenstreet had a great article recently…and here’s a link:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/who-owns-your-website/

Here is an excellent article about 10 Questions to Ask:

http://ezinearticles.com/?10-Questions-To-Ask-Your-Prospective-Web-Designer&id=548109

I agree with every single one of the ones she’s suggested here.

You need to know what their track record is, see examples, find out how easy they are to work with, what is their turn around time, are they set up to design it so YOU can make changes easily (or your VA can).  You do not want to have to go through them.  Also, ask them if they integrate with 1ShoppingCart.  If they don’t, then I would really question whether they are serious since that is the most widely used shopping cart there is.

Are you looking for someone that you can meet with locally or are you fine with doing it all via email and phone? 

And here’s one more resource that I just ordered after your question: 

http://www.herenextyear.com/pdfs/11designer.pdf

Hope this helps (and is not TOO much information!  HA!)  I think you’ll see the themes in all of these ideas…

If you are going to be making calls on colleagues, schools, businesses, individuals, vendors, or any other individual or group with whom you want to work, you might wonder what to take with you – and how not to spend a fortune on your materials. Here are some ideas to consider:

I recommend bringing the following:

• Business cards; people expect to receive a business card, so you want to have one ready to hand to your contact.        

• Document (flyer, handout, brochure, special report, pamphlet, booklet, fact sheet, or the like) that you can leave behind with the person. It needs to be useful and something that provides your contact information and an indication of what you do and/or who you are.        

• Your planner; you want to have this available so that you can schedule a time to call back, to set up a program, to visit with some students, to address a meeting, or whatever is appropriate. You want to help the person you’re visiting making some kind of commitment and you want to be ready to schedule that.        

• Some prepared questions to ask to get the person talking about whatever the issue is (i.e., the issue that is connected to your reason for calling on the person). You are in an inquisitive mode, not a full-on sales mode. You need to find out what his/her issues are and then see whether what you have to offer can help with that. And if there’s not a match between their needs and your skills and expertise, be a resource and recommend someone else or another service.

Whatever you take, make sure you have things easily accessible and organized so you’re not shuffling around in your briefcase or folder. Leave any excess “stuff” in the car and just have what you need. Everyone is busy and you don’t want to be wasting time trying to find what you brought with you. You want to be able to carry your materials with you in one hand so that your other hand is free to shake hands, get the door, etc. Fumbling around never makes the best impression.

When creating the materials you leave behind, you could use MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Publisher, Adobe Acrobat (or other PDF creator). Each of these products have something to say for themselves in terms of ease of use and functionality, but most often, I use Word, especially when it’s just a one page flyer. SIMPLE is what to keep in mind (vs. cluttered).

If you don’t want to create your own materials, you could post the job on on Elance or Craigslist, but before doing that, you can always just give it a try to create your own materials. Just agree with yourself to spend an hour on it and see how it looks. Your flyers and materials need to be correct and informative, not perfect. I remind myself of this often.

Remember, we all need to be aware that we are marketing ourselves–and so the more people can get to know us, the better it is.

And, to make sure you are productive in your personal and professional life, you’ll want to access the resources at

**http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh

If you are wondering, should I interview others, my answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

To answer the WHO? question, consider individuals from these categories as resources (depending on your purpose):

• Children and young adults
• Former students
• Former teachers
• Teachers
• Administrators
• Former clients
• Organized people
• Disorganized people
• People you would like to have as clients
• People you know and would love to learn from
• People you have never met but would love to learn from
• Folks in crisis
• Folks who seem to have it all together
• Authors
• Speakers
• And the list continues on and on….

The idea here is that, depending on what you want to learn, you can interview anyone. All you have to do is ask. Most people are willing to be interviewed, because most of us love to be asked for our opinions, knowledge, ideas, how-we-did-its, etc.

To answer the HOW? question, here are some suggestions:

1. Figure out what you want to know (and you don’t even have to know for sure what you’re going to do with the information).     

2. Determine who would be able to help you know what you want to know.     

3. Ask the person or persons if you may schedule a time for an interview. It might be face to face or on the phone. It could also be an email interview, although generally, I prefer some voice contact because you can read (actually hear) so much when you have the voice, too, not just the words. But be flexible if the other person prefers email. They are doing you a favor so make it as easy as possible.     

4. If you’re interviewing on the phone and want to record the call, there is equipment you can purchase for that, however there are services that provide that as well, such as the one I use, AudioAcrobat. The nice thing about recording the interview is that you do have it to use later for reference, or potentially as a “product” (as long as the other person is fine with that–and can use it as a product, too).
   

To answer the WHY? question would take many articles, but are four reasons:

1. You gain information you wouldn’t have otherwise.     

2. You make connections with others through your interview that you might not have made connections with (or at least this type of connection) if you hadn’t asked to interview him/her.     

3. You have information to freshen up and/or extend your knowledge that you can share with others.     

4. You can turn the interviews into ‘products’ of different types, e.g., MP3 downloads, CDs, Special Reports, and the like.

It’s easy to find people to interview and to capture that interview (using AudioAcrobat, as I mentioned earlier). Who are you going to call or email today to ask? Why wait?!

And, to make sure you are productive in your personal and professional life, you’ll want to access the resources at

** http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh