Online businesses vary in almost every way possible - from who they serve to how they make revenue. However, one basic similarity connects all internet businesses: websites. If you don't have a website, you're not doing business on the internet. An online entrepreneur must choose between designing a website himself or herself, or hiring a professional web designer.

Studying the latter option first, professional web designers vary in many aspects, most notably style, ability, size, experience and price. If you plan on hiring a professional web designer, you want to ask the designer for examples of his or her work and for references. You don't want to just review the web designers past work without also consulting references, because no matter how good, stylish, or well-coded the designer's work is, how do you know the websites were made according to the directions of the customers? You also want to consult more than one designer, so that you can compare and contrast the work of different designers. By researching the references and past work of designers, you'll know their respective abilities, styles, and experiences. Never just take a designers word that he/she works "very well" and has "a lot of experience".

Once you've researched some designers' styles, abilities, and experience, there are two other important things to check: price and size. For price, more may actually be better. Your website's appearance and functionality will determine the success of your online business. Saving a few bucks on web design often will cost you in the long run, perhaps terminally. So, when choosing a web designer, avoid cheapness. However, size works the opposite, less is better. You want a unique, customized site that's built & designed according to your directions. A large impersonal designer-company mass-produces generic websites, and isn't interested in meeting the special needs of individual single-sales. Going to a large web design company for a quality site is like going to McDonalds for a quality hamburger. All you'll get is a generic flavor-less product.

An expensive professional designer is needed to outsource, so I recommend that online entrepreneurs build and design their own websites. Even if you know nothing about designing websites, it's probably better to learn to design websites rather than outsource the design of your website. An entrepreneurs time is very valuable, but, in the long run, the cost of learning is lower than the cost of outsourcing. By building and designing your own website yourself, you can change, update, and add to your website anytime without rehiring a web designer. Wise people say that it's better to teach a man to fish, than give him a fish. Well similarly, it is better to teach yourself to fish, than to buy a fish... especially when fish are websites.