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It is a commonly held belief that first impressions are made within the first few seconds of an encounter and it is no different when it comes to web pages. With most Americans being on the internet, well crafted website design is critical to success of any business.

Do you have a small budget but big web design dreams? Don’t fret! This guide will highlight what is negotiable and what is non-negotiable with your web designer. Walking into the negotiation with a plan of what are feasible points of compromise will lead to a better rate of negotiation success in the long run.
First things first, what part of the “web design” process are you in? Typically, the process involves the consultation “creative” phase, design phase, and then maintenance for the finished product. Each phase must be treated as a separate entity and allows for different points of negotiation. Where you are in the process will affect how much leverage you have.

1. Just Starting: What to Talk About. If you are just starting out and have yet to meet with your web designer, you have the most wiggle room for negotiations. During your first meeting with your web designer (which may require a consultation fee), you will talk about the goal of your site and the general mood you want to convey. This is a critical part of the meeting, come prepared with ideas of what you want to accomplish and what you definitely what to include. The rest of the meeting will cover the specifics of the project such as a project timeline, price points and logistical issues. These last three talking points may not seem as significant as the site’s appearance but will greatly influence your relationship with your web designer. Make sure you are both in agreement.

2. Negotiation Time. Splitting the contract into phases gives you the best deal as well as flexibility if you decide to switch to a different designer. By splitting the contract into the different phases, you pay a contract price rather than an hourly rate. The preliminary contract could be just the basics such as a blueprint for the page and the design of the homepage only. The reason this is significant is that you can now switch to another company or renegotiate the initial terms now that you have idea of how the graphic designer works.

Paying hourly generally becomes expensive, if you can, try to have the whole project as a contract rate. If you pay for the entire project as a contract rate, you may need to pay some upfront costs for the designer to starts and will probably be required to pay in installments.

3. Contract: The contract does not need to include the very specifics of what the website’s appearance but should detail what is expected of each party. For example, the text color is not something that needs to be delineated in the contract. Things such as payment periods, timing, ownership rights and a breach of contract agreement need to be discussed in your contract. Ownership rights are important! Make sure you purchase the rights to your logo and anything else that is clearly identifiable as belonging to your company.

4. Contract is Signed, Design Work Complete: Negotiation Still Possible. Although it may feel like you have no room for negotiation because the project is “done”, you still have space for negotiations. This is particularly true if you are working with a smaller or free lance web designer. Places for negotiating include extending your contract (for a discount) or hiring your designer to do the web hosting or maintenance for your site (granted, this is only an option if you did not agree to this in your initial contract). Ask if you can pay a lower installment or if you can earn discounts if you refer clients or trade services.

No matter how informative any presentation is, it tends to get boring and audience tends to lose focus and concentration. This is more often the case, especially when the subject is technical or includes topics that need description. The ideal solution is to throw in some jokes and make the atmosphere light. This will surely be a welcome and change and will surely result in attentive listening and increased concentration. Do make sure that these punches are introduced well before the audience reaches a saturation point.

Who says serious images or boring logos can be added to the slides, one can add pictures of cartoon characters and aptly fit them in the presentation. Again, do not overdo it; otherwise it will take the focus away from main topic or purpose of the meeting.

Lines after lines and long paragraphs, if you find it bland so will your viewers. Presentation should be treated like a narrative; it’s like narrating a story, which the audience will love to hear and will be keen to know the next point. You can add jazz to the slides by using fade in fade out effects, or animation or simply include some sound files. The efforts you take to gather classify data and prepare a presentation, presenting it well also adds to its success. The layout of slides, font color, font size and the order of the topics and many other factors cannot be ignored and need to be taken care off.

Do not forget to make the presentation visually pleasant as well as easy on eyes. Keep it clean and simple, rather using gaudy colors that merely make it look like an eye sore, use basic and light colors and normal fonts. Avoid cluttering the slide with data, use numbering or bullets to differentiate titles and sub titles. Highlight or bold the important text; if you want to ensure that in the course of the presentation, the listeners need to know a particular point, you can also insert notes at the bottom of every slide. The advantage of this notes section is that only the presenter sees it.

Keeping all interested and engaged is truly a tough job and to handle all this with ease all you need is cues and prompts. These additions not only pique interests but help you in taking the topic forward without disturbing the flow of the PPT.

All these efforts and endeavors are to achieve a single goal of giving an effective presentation. Once you get the hang of it, nothing can stop you from delivering successful presentations. These minor points when included the presentation turns out be simply flawless and good. You can also give a mock presentation so that you are able to review it and detect the errors or flaws.

In a nutshell, think like the audience, if you find a particular thing bland so will they. The more presentations you give the better you will get at it. You can also refer to variety of websites and self-help blogs that give you tips to enhance your presentation.

Negotiation is a skill that almost everyone uses in their daily lives. For leaders, negotiation is critical to move a business forward and achieve significant profit growth. Negotiations are not only with vendors and customers but also occur internally with employees, regarding promotions, raises, time off, and project assignments.

What types of negotiators are there? According to the book, Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell, there are negotiation styles/strategies. It is possible to use a different one depending on the situation, but most people tend to fall into only one category.

• Avoidance – you do not like to negotiate so you just don’t.
• Compromise – this involves each side coming to some agreement where the gains are equal between them.
• Accommodating – this is where you are being nice and accommodating, but you are the one who has the most to lose.
• Competitive – this strategy will work well in situations where it is expected that the parties negotiate competitively, but are abrasive and/or unrealistic, i.e. buying a car.
• Collaborative – this approach can be viewed as the most creative, but also the most time-consuming. This consists of brainstorming ideas and resolving tough issues to come to an amicable offer.

The negotiation process is further complicated because there is the issue of a real value and a perceived value. When introducing a product or service to market, the perceived value could be drastically different then what the company had hoped to charge. Extensive research needs to be conducted before the launch with the hopes that this intelligence will lead to better negotiations. Unfortunately, some leaders “shoot from the hip” and/or ego gets in the way so the negotiations falter.

The leader needs to have a clear understanding of the entire situation to be equipped to handle counter offers and pushback. He/she also needs to be realistic in terms of future business dealings. Even internally, if a staff member is denied a raise, then that person may start to look to change jobs. This could lead to a higher cost to hire and train a new person and could lower morale which has an even higher negative impact.

What type of negotiator are you? Where can you fine tune your negotiation skills? My father has an expression “talk is cheap” meaning you can always ask because the worst you will hear is “no”. Leaders are more than capable of doing this but they do need to think longer term on how this action can affect the business in near and long-term.

Other “N” words to ponder – notoriety and new.