Advice on hiring designers      

There are quite a few firms that do it all. They advise, act as Internet service provider, act as business host servers, install hardware, and design and maintain Web sites. This one stop shopping may sound ideal but in my experience most Internet service providers are not the most reliable business hosts and most design firms do not provide adequate strategic planning. There are exceptions. Those firms that provide the best service tend to broker out various functions.

Many designers/developers charge by the hour or the page and they need a lot of activities to support the personnel on their payrolls. The result is your needs may not drive the process. This is one good reason why you should develop a plan first and separately from your design work.

Most designers do not have the background to work with your marketing experts for maximum impact. For this reason you may wish to work with an Internet marketing consultant first. Then, after formulating a detailed plan, negotiate to have specific work done by the best talent available.