So you need a website and you’re thinking about hiring a developer to build it for you. You don’t have time to build it yourself and just don’t want to deal with the hassle of maintenance and upkeep.

You don’t want to end up with a total jerkstore of a designer, so pay attention to these three important things when hiring a developer.

Friendly executive sitting in front of laptop in his office. Big window at the background. Looking away, daydreaming

1. Follow-through

If you’ve contacted a developer and haven’t heard back in five days, this is not the developer for you. If they can’t get back to you when they’re wooing your business, they won’t get back to you once they have your money.

2. Satisfied Customers

Look through your potential developer’s portfolio and take note of who their previous clients are. Contact those businesses to see what they have to say about their experience working with the designer. If you’re hearing things about not meeting deadlines, or not performing up to expectations, move on.

3. Asset Turnover

Check your developer’s website. It should be stated somewhere that they turn over all website assets to the customer. This means that everything created specifically for your site belongs to you. If it doesn’t say this, find a new developer, yo.

Pay attention to these three things when hiring a web developer to create your business website, and you’ll be golden, PonyBoy.