Let’s be fair guys, finding web developers is easy. If you need a web developer, just spend a few dollars on LinkedIn ads and boom. Your inbox will start flooding with tons of emails of desperate developers hunting for projects. But hiring the right web developer who truly understands your goals and objectives is a different story. It’s more of like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolate “you never know what you are going to get.”
Setting up a website for your business is arguably one of the best ways of marketing. Web presence increases opportunities for any business and is also the need of the hour. Thanks to the plethora of web design templates, you can now have your own website without requiring too much money and coding knowledge.
However, web design template may be cost-effective and a secure option but is a short-term solution. Themes can only help you establish a quick online presence but soon as you start to get along with it; you will come to a point where the theme won’t be able to suffice your needs.
This is the point where you would require a web developer to create an appealing website that meets your tailored needs. But finding the right web developer may get a bit frustrating as it requires you to do a lot of research to determine the needs of your project and anticipate the required skills. Otherwise, you may end up spending thousands of dollars without getting the quality results.
How to Hire the Right Web Developer
There are hundreds of web professionals around. With each having specialty in a particular set of skills. This is the reason why business owners often find themselves at the crossroads deciding whom to trust with their objectives.
However, our team has derived five of the most important and determining factors to consider if you want to get the best web developers onboard.
Determine Your Project Needs
The first thing you should be aware of is that all business websites are created differently. The design and structure of the site are developed according to the needs of the particular business. Do some research and come up with your own idea, how your website should look like.
Here are some pro tips,
- Understand the niche of your business. Each niche has a different scope. Understand which niche is in great demand.
- Find out which web development approaches are mostly used and an individual of which skill is required for that job.
- Before starting the development process, you need to analyze which audience you are going to focus. Determine what are their needs and how you are going to fulfill them.
- Spend your time in research. It is important because all your business efforts should have to be calculated and specific to the goal. But first, take your time to define your goal. Have a look at your competitor’s websites, what they are doing, how they are grabbing the attention of its customers, etc.
- Determine how much time is required for your task to be completed and make a schedule of each and everything.
- Analyze which things are relevant to your niche and which things are not.
- Anticipate potential obstacles and hurdles that may come in the way.
Determine the Required Skills
First, you need to analyze, which skills do you require for the job. Searching for your competitor’s website will help you out in this task. Explore each and every page on their site. Check out every slight detail they have provided. Remember your plans are to get inspiration and ideas from their site, not to copy them and stealing their information. There you can have a better idea and the skills you require for a successful job completion.
- When it comes to choosing a platform for e-commerce web development, there is a variety of options available. Top e-commerce platforms that the majority of people rely on, are WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and PrestaShop.
- If you are struggling with which one to choose from, there are a number of tutorials available online. From there, you can have an idea which one is suitable for your business.
- It is necessary to have some basic knowledge about the platforms: you are hiring a developer to start working on. You can give a personalized touch to the whole thing.
Determine Budget and The Pricing Model
Determining the budget can be tricky. Before planning your budget, you have various options in the form of pricing models available there. Choose wisely according to your preferences and requirements. Let’s have an insight into three of them
Time and Materials
I prefer this approach to keep things simple. You will determine the costs by asking the developer, how much does he charge per hour. By utilizing his resources, how much he will charge you for the work he has done in specified hours, in return, he will have to deliver the product or unit product he has formulated in that amount of time.
The whole project is usually divided into tasks and each task should have to be completed in a given timeframe. You will have an end result after each completion of the task. You can also ask for changes during the project development process.
Flat Rate / Project Cost
Fixed price is the alternate approach. Through this approach, one can determine the cost through the successful delivery of an end product or service. This approach is ideal when you know that the development agency you have interacted with, has a good reputation and is having experienced individuals related to your assigned task and will achieve their goals in a given timeframe.
The developer is bound to perform his given task and could not conduct new experiments because his goals are only limited to deliver the end product.
Value-Based Pricing
This is the most modern approach where a member or a team will analyze the scope of your project. They will brainstorm your concepts and will create an effective strategy. This means that the pricing is based on your goals and the value of the work delivered. Under this model, you no longer have to worry about the developer’s costs.
The major concern of the developer would be to focus on the effectiveness of the end product rather than the completion of the product. Look at the portfolio of several web designers and Examples of Some prior Designs.
Well, I believe that you can evaluate a developer by its previous works. Watch his portfolio and look for his projects that are related to your task and also check for the complexity of the task he has completed. Though never make it your sole criteria for hiring someone. You can also contact his previous clients to see whether they are satisfied with his/her work or not.
Also, don’t obsess on education. There are many well-reputed web development agencies that haven’t hired developers on the basis of their educational credentials rather, they preferred experience and work history over education. There are many great developers out there who may lack education in a formal collegiate setting. At the end of the day, it’s all about you and your business’s needs.
Here are some tips to filter out developers in your survey.
- Ask them to provide samples of their recent projects that are related to your niche.
- Which e-commerce platform is his/her specialty and what is their approach to usability
- Does he have the ability to build mobile applications for your project?
Shortlist Top Three and Arrange a Meeting with Them
Now you are fully prepared to conduct an interview of the candidates you think are most suitable for your task. There is no need to carry out interviews of all of your selected candidates instead, explore your list and choose the top three and call for meetings. Tell them what your inspiration websites are. Express them clearly what you want them to develop.
Try to perceive what are their motives? Listen to their reservations or concerns related to your project. When you realize that their ideas and concepts are unique and uncover many other aspects related to your niche. The hard part is almost done. Congratulations, you have found the exact match.
Understand the Contract
The contract is often taken for granted. Before signing a contract, read it thoroughly and ensure you have covered and understood all the things mentioned in the contract. If the developer hasn’t created a formal contract, you can create one by yourself. This is what you can use as a reference in the future and also a perfect approach is to make things streamlined. Also, remember to withhold ownership rights to yourself.
Conclusion
Hiring the right person for the web development task seems to be an overwhelmingly tricky task. However, with an insignificant research, you can make a perfect decision of choosing the right web developer.
Author Bio: Syed Waqqas Mohsin is an Online Marketing Specialist with over 5 years of experience in Digital Media and is currently a Team Lead at FME Dubai, a leading e-commerce web design and development agency. Over the years, FME Dubai has successfully delivered projects in Magento, WordPress, WooCommerce, Joomla and other CMS/shopping cart platforms. You can find him on the LinkedIn.
