Start Checklist: 13 Things Decided Before Build

01 · Readiness check

What you have, not what you want.

01 Do you control the domain?

It must be registered to your company and you must be able to change DNS.

Yes — registered to us, DNS access Ready to connect Registered, but under a former agency or employee Transfer it back first Not yet We can help register it; the fee is yours

02 Is there a server?

A business site does not need one. A catalog does: one small VPS for the CMS and search.

Yes — we have a VPS or cloud account We will use it if it fits No server Fine for a business site; a catalog needs one Not sure what we have Send the specification and region

03 Is there a current website?

If it exists, the URL tells us more than a description does.

Yes, and it is still in use Migration or replacement Yes, but nobody maintains it We will assess what can be reused No website yet Starting from zero

04 What form is the product data in?

This is the single biggest factor in the timeline.

Excel or an ERP export Cleanest starting point PDF catalogues Needs extraction and structuring Only a supplier site or marketplace store Needs collection Nothing assembled A part list must exist before the build

05 How many usable part numbers?

Distinct parts, not spreadsheet rows.

Up to ~300 Business website 300 – 3,000 Business site, search added as it grows 3,000 – 30,000 Catalog tier 30,000 or more Catalog tier with a larger index

06 Are there product photos?

Original supplier images are fine, provided you have the right to publish them.

Yes — high resolution, ours Processed and published Some, or they need retouching Additional work, quoted separately No usable images Sourcing or photography needed

07 Is there English copy?

Product descriptions, company text, quality and shipping pages.

Yes, usable English text Edited, not rewritten Some text, mostly Chinese or rough translation Needs rewriting for buyers No copy Core pages can be drafted for you

08 Are company and quality documents ready?

Legal name, address, certificates, test reports, banking details for proforma invoices.

Yes — certificates and corporate details available Publishable on the trust pages Some documents, or they need updating List what exists Nothing collected The trust pages will be thin

09 Which markets are you selling to?

It decides language, shipping pages and which proof matters.

US and Western Europe English, compliance and lead time Global, including the Middle East, Latin America or CIS English plus shipping routes One region only Can be sharper than a global site

10 How many languages?

Each additional language adds pages, not just translation.

English only The default English plus one market language Written for that market, not machine-translated Three or more A larger content project

11 Which functions are required?

Pick the closest set; anything beyond it is quoted separately.

Pages, inquiry form, WhatsApp Business site Part search, filters, BOM or Excel upload Catalog Quotation generation, ERP sync or a payment gateway Custom work

12 When does it need to be live?

A hard date changes what can be included in the first release.

No hard date — do it properly 2 – 8 weeks depending on product Within four weeks A business site is possible; a catalog needs clean data Before a specific trade show Give us the date and work backwards

13 What one-time budget is approved?

The honest range, not the opening offer.

$999 – $2,499 Business website $4,999 – $9,999 High-SKU catalog Under $999 Narrow the scope or start on a marketplace Not decided Estimate from the part count and data state

Company name

Current site, if any

Anything else

02 · How to read the result

Three states, no scoring theatre.

Ready

Something that can be used as-is, or that does not block the build. A business site does not need a server, for example.

Needs work

Usable after a defined task: extracting a PDF catalogue, rewriting machine-translated copy, transferring a domain out of an agency account. It affects the quote, not the decision to build.

Blocking

The build cannot start. In practice this is almost always one thing: no part list exists. Everything else can be solved; that one has to be created first.

Not a test

This page does not score your company and it does not submit anything. It exists so the first conversation starts from facts.

Why this comes before a quote

Two companies with the same part count can differ by weeks of work depending on whether the data is an ERP export or a pile of PDFs. Without this, a quote is a guess with a date attached.

03 · Send the brief

WhatsApp · direct

+86 159 8986 1989

Paste the brief into WhatsApp, or email it. The reply is a scope, a fixed price and a delivery date — not a request for a meeting.

Open WhatsApp [email protected]

When you write, include

What you sell, and roughly how many part numbers.
Where your buyers are.
A link to your current site, if you have one.

Four lines are enough. You get a fixed scope, a fixed price and a delivery date — not a sales call.

Thirteen things to decide before a build starts.

What you have, not what you want.

Three states, no scoring theatre.