How to eliminate delays in business website launch

Is your business website launch delayed. It happens most of the times. But if you have a look there are many stupid reasons why your new website is delayed.

This delays in business website launch can be eliminated by keeping few simple things in mind. But before that here is the

Havoc which delays in business website launch can cause to your business.

Loosing your ROI

You may be launching your new website or redesigning an existing one but if the launch is delayed then all your time and money invested becomes a huge liability. It delays your ROI which as a business owner I am sure you would not like at all.
Delay in reaching your target audience

You build a website or redesign your website only for one reason which is to target specific customers online.This could be for sales, blog subscriptions, memberships etc. You always choose a best time to launch you website.

If it gets delayed then you loose that opportunity to your competitors. Your competitors may be extensively marketing their website and if your website is not there ahead of them then you loose your target customers.
Higher website development cost

Apart from all the other effects your website launch delay can increase your website development cost drastically.

More it is delayed more you pay to the website designing company or you keep paying salary if you have hired a web designer in house.

You may think that you hire a full time website designer for website design work so how it costs to pay him salary if the website is delayed.

If your business website is done on time then you can use the same in house designer to work on other things. For example, special offer landing pages design, emailers and newsletters design, ads design etc. But you can’t do that as he is busy with the website designing.
Delayed market response

Faster the website is launched faster response you get from your target market. You get more time to eliminated bugs and work on improving your website to move ahead of your competitors.

You also get more time for innovative ideas to implement on your website as per the the response of your target audiences. We call it ‘early bird advantage’.
Effects on shareholders

Shareholders are specific about timings. Your business website launch delays can have a negative impact on your shareholders.

A lot of investment is made by the shareholders of your company. They would never like website launch to be delayed at any cost.

These economic effects due to delayed websites can’t be estimated but they are huge. It has a significant negative effect on your ROI and profits.. Let’s move on to the reasons behind delays in business website launch.

Reasons for delays in business website launch

Website launches could be delayed for many reasons. Here are some important ones we have shortlisted.

Poor management of website development resources

You may hire best website designers and website developers. But if these are not managed efficiently then it can cause delays and waste of time and money.
Frequently changing designs

Sometimes over doing of website design leads to changing it over and over again. This is a major reason why a business website is not launched on time.

You think you have finalized the design but you switch back to your website designers and delay the web development part frequently.
Lack of communication and coordination within the teams

If teams involved in web development process lack coordination and communication then it will definitely delay your website.

The web design team, web development team, project manager, decision making authorities should have clear and timely communication.
Shortage of resources

Another reason for delays in website launch is the shortage of resources. If you do not have sufficient experts for different tasks of web design and development then you end up delaying your website development and launch.

These are the important factors to take care off during the planning of your business website development

How to eliminate delays in business website launch

If I elaborate on the above mentioned reasons then it will be imperative that website launch delays can be avoided by improvements in both website technical process and decision making.

Website development process requires strategic planning, setting tasks, fixing deadlines, including buffer time for unexpected issues. Here are some important ways you can eliminate delays in business website launch.

For website design agencies

Being a website designing agency you can follow certain process to eliminate delays in website launch.

Understand the requirement

As a website design agency you should be clear on what your client wants. Never agree on anything until your are absolutely clear on what needs to be done.

Take you time in understanding client’s needs and don’t worry client will not run away if you look to clear your doubts.

It is always better to be clear in the beginning than to get stuck in the differences later.
Draft a proper website design agreement or contract

Always get draft a proper agreement for your client to sign. The agreement should focus on the website building requirements, phases, tasks, deliverables, payment terms etc.

This will help you in getting paid fast and let you focus on individual phases of the agreement. Since client will sign a contract or agreement so it will eliminate the delays due to change of requirements in later stages.
Get the consent from the people involved

Try to get all the decision makers from your client’s side involved in agreement signing process.

If you do not then there are very good chances of addition of different views and opinions during the course of website development. This is a common cause of delayed website launch for many business.
On time

You need to be on time for delivery of various tasks defined in the agreement. This way you can push you clients for timely feedback.

Delays in completing tasks is not at all good for the reputation of a website designing company at all. You may loose your current client and also the word of mouth publicity which you can get from your clients for timely delivery of the projects

For business owners

As a business owner you would never like to delay your business website launch. Unknowingly Things happen and website gets delayed.

But you can eliminate these delays by just being a little more careful and cautious.

Proper Planning

Proper estimate for time and money required for your website development will make your life easy once you get started.

If you are looking to get a blog design or a business website or an ecommerce store developed, you must have properly estimated business plan in terms of time and money.
Research about the website design agency you want to hire

You should be careful when hiring a website design company. There are people in this industry who never fulfil their commitments.

Read more about:
How to choose the best website design company?
How to choose your Website Design Outsourcing Partner

Ask for references and browse through their portfolio.

Read their FAQs. For example
Ecommerce Website Design and Development FAQs
FAQs on Offshore Outsourcing of Web Designing work to ICO Webtech
Our Website Design FAQs
Answers to the SEO FAQs
Stick to the process

Never loose your focus and stick you the process defined with your website design company. As many companies try to loosen up on the pre-decided process which cause delays in business website launch.

You should review the the tasks completed in every phase of the website development process. Keep your website design and other teams involved in the website building on toes for timely deliverables.
Too many changes

This could delay your website launch till eternity. You should thoroughly research about your target customers and try incorporate all the changes during the planning process.

Too many changes in later stages is frustrating for you as well as you website designers and developers.
Timely content

Make sure you provide content to your website developers on time. Content delays is a major factor in delaying your website launch.

You should keep your website images, texts and other type of content organized during the planning process.

If you have hired professional content writers or content creation agency then make sure you keep them on toes for timely delivery.
Avoid too many decision makers

Whenever you get a new website or revamp your existing website, it is always exciting. This may invite involvement of too many people in the website design and development process.

Conflict may arise due to this and will lead to unnecessary confusion at various stages of website development.

It is always good to decide on the core team members who will be involved in the website building decision making.