Most people overpay for a bad website for one reason. They didn't write a brief.
They sent a designer a vague Instagram DM, "hey I want a website for my café, how much?", and a month later they're stuck with something that looks nothing like what they pictured, and the designer is confused about why they're unhappy. Both people lose.
A brief fixes this. It's a one-page document that tells your designer exactly what you want before anyone touches a keyboard. Takes you 20 minutes to write. Saves you weeks of revisions and, honestly, saves the relationship with your designer too.
Here's what to put in it.
1. Who you are and what you sell
Two sentences. Not your life story. Just: what's the business name, what do you sell, who do you sell it to. If you've been running for a while, add one line about what makes you different from competitors. That's it.
2. What the website actually needs to do
This is the part everyone skips and it's the most important. Is the website supposed to book appointments? Sell products? Show a portfolio? Get people to call you? A "website" is not one thing, it's a tool, and the tool changes completely based on the job.
Pick the one main thing. Not five. One.
3. The look and feel you're going for
This is the part where most people get stuck. They write things like "modern, clean and professional". Cool. So does everyone else. That description fits 80% of the internet and tells your designer absolutely nothing useful.
Here's what actually works. Send 3 to 5 real websites you love. Not Pinterest boards, not mood images, real live sites. Can be in your industry, can be completely unrelated, doesn't matter. A plumber can send a restaurant site if that's the energy they want. A designer will look at those links and extract more in 10 minutes than a page of written description could give them.
«One link to a site you love beats ten adjectives every time.»
Then send 1 or 2 you hate and say why. "This one feels cold". "This one has too much going on". "This one reminds me of a hospital". The haters are almost more useful than the lovers because they tell the designer where the landmines are.
Quick bonus. If you know your brand colours, send them. If you don't, don't sweat it, a good designer can pick them based on what your business needs to feel like (we wrote a whole article on colour psychology if you want to go deeper on that).
4. The content you actually have
Be honest here. Do you have photos of your work? Written descriptions of your services? A logo? Testimonials? Because if you don't, that's fine, but the designer needs to know before quoting, because gathering content takes time and somebody has to do it.
5. Your budget and deadline
I know, I know. People hate sharing budgets because they think the designer will just charge exactly that. Here's the truth, a good designer will tell you what's realistic for your number. If you say €500 and the job needs €1500, they'll say so. If you say nothing, they'll guess wrong and you both waste time.
That's it. That's the brief.
Five sections. Twenty minutes. Do this before you message any web designer and you'll get better quotes, faster turnaround, and a website that actually does what you need.
If you want to see what we build and how we work, or you've already got your brief ready and want to send it over on WhatsApp, we reply within a few hours.