Recent article: Business Solutions with Softwares Articles
A collaborative approach
Working with a consultant doesn't mean you get a solution on a plate. It should be a collaborative partnership, where both of you end up learning something along the way. If you tell the web developer what you want, and they deliver only that, you've missed your chance to expand your ideas about web strategy options. If you sit back and let the web developer decide what's best, you're unlikely to get a web site that reflects the real distinctiveness of your business. A web developer who happily takes a pile of marketing material from you and doesn't get in contact again until the web site is finished is going to deliver brochureware. By 'brochureware' I mean a site that is static and superficial, as opposed to a site that enriches your business by taking good advantage of the Internet's unique communicating powers.

A proposal document
After meeting with you to find out about your business and discuss the objectives for your web site, the web developer should prepare a proposal describing the work to be done, the time it will take, and roughly how much it will cost you. Expect the proposal to also contain details about the web developer's business: how long it has been in operation, what resources it draws upon, and information about their web site design and implementation process.