need small business website design company recommendation

There are a million website design companies.. and every time I try to google one I get fake review listings that are really just referral sites.

A friend of mine is very non technical. They are starting a business and want a website. Not just an information one, but a few custom things that I wont get into. They thought that I could help, but I don't want to get involved with it. I am a technical person but I'm a database programmer.. not a web monkey.

Does anyone know of some good sites that can point me to a good website design company? I looked at squarespace too as a potental option. It seems cool, except that you don't get your code. Thats probably a bad idea??

i am a web designer. the best bet you have...is purchasing a pre-made template and getting someone to re-code it for you. $50-$100 will get you a very indepth site

buy a template from template monster, will be a lot easier.

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Originally Posted by slim150

They are starting a business and want a website. Not just an information one, but a few custom things that I wont get into. They thought that I could help, but I don't want to get involved with it.

Does anyone know of some good sites that can point me to a good website design company?

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i don't, but imo, buying a pre-made website template might cheapen your business's credibility. if your friend is starting a business around a brand, their website should be a reflection of that brand, which is sort of what you're after: a web design company that knows how to properly articulate/strengthen your friend's brand for use on the intarwebs. if your friend's business uses a pre-made website template, what if your friend's business clients see their pre-made website template being used by another business?

i recommend researching small- to medium-sized web design companies in your local area or major city. in my experience, the smaller guys'll really get to know your friend/their business needs, they'll get work done faster (i.e. no outsourcing to india) and the quality of work'll be much better

th0r, you'd be surprised at the quality that you can get. I'm no site designer or web dev by any stretch f the imaginationl, but i have a basic knowledge of HTML and C++ and CSS, and can edit a template monster template, and have done for quite a few people recently, They are really really professional looking, not the cheap crap ones you see. if you pay maybe 200 dollars or so for a decent one you can use, as long as you can edit the flash files (which I'm getting better at with practice) then you're sorted. If hiring someone to design a website, a small guy will be really expensive, your best bet is to go with a big company to edit a template monster template. Which may I add are awfully badly coded.....

i guess my point earlier was that why buy a pre-made website template for cheap when it can be bought by anyone else, or another business for that matter? wouldn't you want your business website to be unique according to your brand? or am i thinking too much like a designer and not like a businessman?

Your thinking like a businessman and not like adesigner, I'm thinking like a designer- someone wants a job done, and for as cheap as possible, so why bother breaking my arse working on it when I can edit what he gives me to suit him..

you can think that way if just want to get paid a small premium for editing a pre-made web template, but my advice to the o.p. is to actually spend more money on a business website w/ a unique design b/c i feel going that extra mile will be better for his friend's business

depends on what you want really u didnt give much detail if you want to just list info on some pages and have a store just make your one little clean setup in a wysiwyg program that also allows direct html code. You can made some things work and look pretty good just using Microsoft Frontpage 2003 and then adding gadgets and apps to your pages like adding google maps to location info and make it easy to get directions. If they want to sell stuff online and have it be pretty simply and free take a look at ecwid.com and videos of ecwid on youtube its a pretty cool app you can add to about anypage, website, facebook, wordpress.

If they want something simply just make it.

this is a frontpage website with the ecwid store browser in the main space of the page
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...f/5294f77c.png

that website looks awful

Yep, that website sucks like hell. But yours won't be terrible as that if you do it yourself. Don't get ripped of by a designer, get a webhosting with cpanel, hawkhost.com is pretty good. In cpanel there is something called softolucus. Click it, in that there is a dozen of website engines. Choose one, and softolucus can install it automatically and gives you directions about what to do next. Everything is in plain english in many of them, way easier than it sounds. After installing do some google for templates. You can get it up and running in a few hours.

Don't worry about the free templates, if your shop makes good money, than you might hire someone to re-design.

lmao.

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Originally Posted by Expeto

Don't get ripped of by a designer, get a webhosting with cpanel, hawkhost.com is pretty good.

Don't worry about the free templates, if your shop makes good money, than you might hire someone to re-design.

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web/graphic designers aren't out to rip you off; i almost sense you, or someone you know, has been

just go the extra mile: hire a web/graphic designer, differentiate your friend's business by making their website look super good, get more clients and make more money

^agrees with thor..

template monster and the other sites are good but in regards to professionalism they got a prob as customizing the sites to suit particular needs and designing the stuff from a blank canvas is sumthng tht always scores above templates.. :)

you need any help just visit my site

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Originally Posted by logon68

you need any help just visit my site

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What site :unsure:

Not to mention that kind of comments could be considered as advertising.

not to mention that kind of comments usually are scams

Web designing really needs more idealistic and analysis to come out with best result.