"Get me a brain surgeon - and make it a cheap one .  .  ." the CEO cried. Not something that sounds wise or even survivable is it? So why is it that so many serious companies - ones whose owners and employees whole future depends on getting the right number of the right customers - why is it that so many put perhaps the most important part of their future in the hands of a friend or relative or of a cheap contractor or freelancer?

The problem that arises by not going with a Professional Web Design Agency is actually quite similar to the cheap brain surgery parable. The effects are often irrevocable and permanent for the company, its owners and its employees. The problem that Professional Web Design Agencies often have to undo is not just a site that loses customers or makes them think of the client company as cheap and unprofessional. That can be reversed. The problem is not just that your site can get banned from the search engines or that referrals and re-orders can be put off when they see the site. The problem is that if you go for a friend, relative or even a freelancer, your whole future Internet and Web strategy is not just in the hands of an amateur who can only help sporadically when it suits them - but more often than not you can't regain control in any way and you find that you have delegated one of the most important parts of your future growth away without much chance of getting it back.

If you must use someone who you know - find out how many businesses he or she has made succeed on the Internet. Remember that is very different from leading up large corporate projects with huge teams and massive budgets - and remember that that is also very different from just being a knowledgeable techie. There are just too many skills required in a professional web site for any individual to do to the right standard. And too many pitfalls that even the highly intelligent university graduate with years of other technical experience will fall into in the first couple of years of site making - and the first dozen or so sites. So those don't count.

If they have the right background ask them how many hours a week they can guarantee to put in full time. A crumby web site can be put together in a few hours. A web site that works correctly and looks professional will take several weeks full time work.

A Professional Web Design Agency may cost more in the short term but you are more likely to find yourself in the elite group of companies that brings in business from the web and grows strongly - rather than the vastly larger group of semi-abandoned web site that litter the Internet.