If you are looking to have a website developed then you may consider putting the project out to tender. This is where you write up a specification for what you want your website to be and to do and then ask for companies or individuals to quote for it based on the information you have given. It is a great way to obtain a number of quotations without having to meet with each company one and one and going over what you require numerous times.

A tender document can be as long or short as you want it to be but obviously the more information you give the prospective web designers / developers, the more accurate their quote will be able to be and the more likely you are to get the website you set out to achieve.

Tender documents usually have a deadline in which your quotation needs to be in by. If you are planning on tendering for work often, then it may be useful to set up a template that you can base your reply on. Be sure to refer back to the specification in your quote and state exactly what is included and also what would be an additional extra in the reply.