What do I need to give my developer before they start?

Give hours, this season’s fees, photos of the real room, and the logins for the domain and the host. That bag is the start. A dental clinic or a salon does not need a mood board first.

I will not ask you to learn a builder to prove you are serious. I will wait if the bag is empty.

The bag, in the order I actually use it

• Hours, including the day you shut, Holi, the lunch gap. The listing and the page must match.
• Fees or a menu you will still honour next month. A “starts from” you will argue about at the desk is a bad line to print.
• The three questions you already answer by mouth. Walk ins. Deposit. Parking. Jain. Batch start.
• Three photos that look like the chair, the floor, the board. Not a stock smile. Heavy files slow the page. I will compress them. People leave after three seconds.
• Domain login, host login, the old builder if one exists. Names in your account, not mine.
• The Google listing URL. I need to see what strangers already read.

A Karol Bagh clinic that sent me a plastic folder last spring had the useful pile in this order: a paper fee card from this season, a phone photo of the Sunday board, three shots of the actual chair, and a screenshot of who still holds the domain. That folder beat an eighty-page deck. A Malviya Nagar salon that sent only Instagram stories left me guessing Holi hours. I drafted, then I waited. Guessed hours on a live page are how a stranger arrives to a shut door.

How long a small business site takes is usually under two weeks once that bag is here. How to choose a website developer is the hire side. How much of your time is the call plus this list.

A website floor is Rs 30,000 on pricing. The bag is not a second invoice. Missing pieces are delay, not a surprise fee I hid on this page.

What I can start without, and what I cannot

I can draft from a public Instagram and a listing. I cannot publish a fee you never confirmed. I cannot move a domain you cannot open. I cannot fix a host whose password sat with a person who left, until you recover it.

If the old site still lives, send the URL. I will weigh it. Nine clinic sites I timed sat at a median 8.8s, 2.4 MB, and PageSpeed 54. Your salon page needs its own weigh. I will not rebuild a URL that already opens and already takes a booking just to look busy.

A bag that is only photos is still a thin bag. Pretty chairs with last year’s implant line will be believed. Confirm the rupee before I typeset it.

What other people will ask for that I will not

A 40 page deck. Brand guidelines you do not have. A competitor list of twenty URLs. Stock you must buy from a site you have never used.

If a quote demands those before a call, ask why. Some of that is their process. Some of it is stall.

I also will not ask you to install a project app so I can watch you tick boxes. The bag is hours, fees, photos, and who holds the name. That is enough to start a page a stranger can use.

Honest downsides of a thin bag

I can ship a pretty page that is wrong. Wrong Sunday hours will be believed. That is on both of us if I did not wait for the card.

You can also over-prepare. A folder of eighty uncompressed interiors will make the first paint worse. Pick three. I will ask if I need a fourth.

A cousin who “has the GoDaddy password somewhere” is a real delay. Find that person before we pretend the fortnight has started. The build clock waits on the login, not on my mood.

What to do this evening

One card. Hours. Fees. Three questions. Who holds the domain. Listing URL.

Then take the three photos on your own phone, in the light you actually have, not a styled night you will never run.

If the fees live only in your head, write them on paper the way you already say them at the desk. If the photos live only on a photographer’s drive you cannot open, use the phone tonight. Waiting for a styled set is how a thin bag stays thin.

What to send when the card is full

The card, the three photos, and whether you can open the domain.

Send that bag. I will say we can start this week, we wait on the login, or the live URL you already have does the job and the bag can stay in the drawer.