I understand. Really, I do. You're afraid I'll take advantage of you. You're afraid if you tell me your budget for your web venture, I will give you a quote which is really worth less than the number you gave me. You're afraid I'll cheat you. Or, you want to compare my quote with other designers' and want to see who will give the best price. I understand your reluctance to tell me sensitive business information. But, please; tell me your budget! I need to know! Let me tell you why.

Almost always, price is my starting point. You need a budget to help guide and prioritize your web site design goals. I take the number I've been given and come up with a list of features that best accomplish your goals and fit in that budget. Your web site budget helps me craft a proposal and a plan which works for your company.

Let's say you need a car. You can go to a car manufacturer and tell them you need a car. You have a list of requirements: It must be fast, comfortable, hold up well should an accident occur, etc. Of course, you want it to look nice, be roomy enough for your family of 5 and have ample trunk space. Well, that list of requirements seems reasonable enough. And you can withhold your budget for the car in the hopes that one car maker will give you the best one for your budget! But what if the car maker decides to give you the car with the best of those features? What they give you a Bentley, instead of a Hyundai Santa Fe?? Both of those cars have all those features, but the Bentley is clearly out of the price range of most people, although it is likely the best-built one of the bunch. And even someone who says, "please be price conscious" is still not giving enough information. You can get a Lexus, Hyundai, or Range Rover in that line up, again, with different price ranges. For some, a Lexus or Range Rover is showing sensitivity to price!

Business owners looking to build a new website often have a laundry list of features and functions which they want. But the truth is, that list of features should be a list based on the business goals of the website. And one of those goals must be to accomplish business objectives while fitting within a well-defined budget. The budget will help pare down the features which are less important to accomplishing the business objectives, keeping the absolutely necessary ones.

To give a valuable and meaningful proposal on a project requires that you tell me your budget. If someone is able to give you a price on a website redesign and hasn't asked your budget, they're not taking your business objectives into account. They're simply throwing the price of a list of features at you. And while it might accidentally fit within your budget, it may not do what your business needs.