Academy › Courses › Describe your business
Tell us about your business: the brief for your website, written out in full
Knows exactly where what they sell ends, and comes away with their website's job written out in full, in the order it gets built, plus a short checklist for judging the first draft.
When it's your turn to describe your business so someone can build your website, it's normal to freeze up or wing it as you go. You blurt out the first price that comes to mind, forget to mention that materials are billed separately, promise a delivery date you can only hit during your best week, and leave the contact info at a vague "just message me" without saying when you'll respond. The website gets built, but you end up redoing it two or three times because the job was never written out in full: it was half-finished, still in your head.
This course puts those decisions in the same order you build a website: where your service area ends, what name goes on the address, which price you show and which you leave out, what turnaround you promise, where you want people to find you. From that, you'll put together a single written brief, with no gaps, plus a short checklist to judge whether the first draft you get back is right or needs changes.
This is for anyone who has a business, or is about to start one, and needs to describe it so someone can build their website; it's not for anyone who already has a finished, written catalog of services and prices.
- Write the sentence that pins down where your service ends and what gets billed separately
- Choose the business name that goes in your website address, even if it's different from your legal name
- Decide whether each price gets a number, a "starting at," or a "contact us"
- Write the complete project brief in a single document, in the order a website gets built, plus the checklist you'll use to judge whether the first version is good
Have your current price list handy, even if it's handwritten and unsorted.
The 7 lessons
In the order it makes the most sense to read them.
- 1
Where what you sell ends
You'll leave with the sentence that spells out what your service includes and what's billed separately, written down before you have to improvise it in front of a customer.
4 min - 2
The name on your website doesn't have to be your company's legal name
By the end you'll have settled on the business name for your website address, different from your legal name if needed, and you'll know what happens if you change it later.
4 min - 3
The price you show before anyone has to ask
You'll leave here knowing whether each thing you sell needs a number, a "starting at," or a "contact us," based on how much your price actually changes.
4 min - 4
The turnaround you promise is your worst case, not your best
You'll leave this lesson with the delivery or appointment window you'll write next to the price, calculated on your slowest week, not your fastest.
4 min - 5
The channel you want people to reach you through
By the end you'll have chosen your website's main contact button and written, right next to it, the real hours when you respond.
4 min - 6
The whole project brief, in the order the website gets built
By the end you'll have the whole project brief written in a single document, in the order a website gets built, with no gaps for someone else to fill in on their own.
5 min - 7
The yardstick for judging whether the website is good
By the end you'll have a short, fixed checklist for judging the first version of your website, and you'll know how to tell a real flaw from a matter of taste.
4 min