Here, too, you are looking at an enormous range of options, from the simple one-page turnkey site for a few hundred dollars, done by a website vendor, to the multi-million-dollar website. The important critical point for the website plan is to have your resource requirements match your objectives and needs. This is one of the most important sections in your Web plan. It gives your plan a view into realistic resource allocations, and real costs. It should be developed in careful coordination with your expense budget and milestones table.
Assign specific features in your development plan to the resources available. Are there certain features that you do not currently have resources to build? Are you planning on outsourcing any of the front-end or back-end requirements for your website?
Your development plan, along with your front end and back end requirements, will help you allocate the proper number of resources to each feature, as well as helping you communicate with any outsourced resources you may choose to hire. If you have current resources available, you may be able to work with them to figure out allotted time and timelines based on your requirements.
Thinking about resources and where you will hire people to create the front end and back end of your website is an important task. When you are done with this chapter in your plan, you will have a document to take to a Web design firm, or any person with the skills to build your site, and they will understand what you need. They will be able to build a site map for you, a fully-scoped-out project plan, and figure out the time line for your website project.
If you are building a large hybrid site, and have secured investment from VC’s and/or Angel Investors, (or are planning on this type of investment), you should consider hiring in-house talent to build and manage your website, as your website will be your core competency. Taking it to a full service design firm will cost a significant amount (oftentimes full service design houses charge anywhere from $100,000 to a few million dollars to develop a full service site), and will mean that the outsourced firm understands your website better then you do. Also remember your website is never “done,” it is always changing and always moving forward, so when you plan resources don’t plan them to just launch the site. Plan resources to continue to develop, maintain, and expand the site.
