It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas again. Time for holiday parties, wrapping presents and time spent with family. But, for businesses, it can be a complicated time of year. Keeping projects moving isn’t easy with employees taking time off and often distracted. This is compounded by the fact that we are also nearing the end of the year.
We find that clients often approach us right around Thanksgiving (or later) in the hopes of completing and launching a new website at the first of the year. We are always happy to take on new holiday website design projects, but our clients aren’t always ready. A little bit of foresight can solve a load of problems when it comes to beating deadlines for your holiday website design plan.
Get Started Early
There is no substitute for an early start. Instead of rushing to meet last minute deadlines, start your process in September or October. Giving yourself and your team, nevermind your website design vendor, several months will ease the stress of completing a huge holiday website design project.
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Check Your Internal Schedules
Before getting started, make sure your company’s timeline isn’t cluttered with more things than you and your team can handle. We all need to multitask sometimes, but the better you plan for time off, company events, important launch points and internal deadlines, the easier your project will go.
Be Mindful of Your Vendor’s Schedule
It is easy to forget when putting together your holiday website design plan that your vendor is facing multiple deadlines and complicated holiday schedules. Expect at least a couple three-day weeks and a timeline that is slower than usual. Assume at least a 25 percent increase in budgeted time for these projects.
Be Flexible
Providing a deadline range for your holiday website design plan rather than a firm date is better for everyone. Rarely does a project go perfectly, so it’s critical you plan for the unexpected. A launch date of the last two weeks in January is often more realistic than January 21 or whatever arbitrary date you set. Everyone will breathe easier during the process.
Prepare for Multiple Launches
One of the simplest ways to mitigate a tight schedule is to roll out your website over the course of several micro launches. Start with a coming soon page followed by the initial website design before finally reaching a conclusion. Not every part of a website has to be complete for every launch. Set deadlines for different launch points and keep the entire project moving smoothly.
Don’t Stress
Ultimately, a website should be a living thing. It will change over time as your company and expectations change. Understanding that from the very beginning will help to reduce stress at an already stressful time of year.
Staying on schedule this holiday means having a great team. Site Mender has been providing high quality web design since 2001 along with WordPress, SEO and website maintenance. Please read more about the services we provide and visit our website design portfolio for more information. And, of course, please call us at 888-424-6363 or get a free quote today!
