A little preliminary work on your part can make the website building process go as quickly and smoothly as possible. So before you build your website, make sure you’ve got everything in order.
Begin by choosing a domain for your website. In most cases, you’ll probably want this to be similar, if not the same as, your business name. You might want to think of a few variations, though; when you purchase a domain name (in the next step), your exact business name might be unavailable. So brainstorm a list of possible URLs.
Next, make a list of things you’ll need on your website. This can be as basic as deciding you want a home page, about page, and contact page. But for maximum usefulness, you can also list specific features you want—whether that’s a hamburger-style navigation menu, a sticky top menu, or an online store (or all three). Deciding on your needs now will make it much easier to find the right themes and plugins later.
Not sure where to start? Take some time to browse the websites of your favorite businesses. What works and what doesn't? What elements on their pages would be great for your site? List everything you need, and keep that wishlist in mind when you choose your themes and plugins.
You can also start gathering all the assets you’ll need for your website. For example, you might find some stock images that you can use, or you can start writing the text for each page. Again, this helps the actual building process go faster later.
This is also a good time to make sure you’ve taken care of all the legal legwork for your business, like getting a business license and a tax ID. If you want to speed up the process, you can use a filing software like BizFilings.