If you really want to help us stick to a budget then you need to be prepared, be prepared and be prepared. We'll help you with the initial structure of the site if you need it. We've got a handy free Website Checklist that will help you to refine your ideas and really think about what you want from a website, why you want a website and what you think it might look like. We couch this is simple terms and ask you what you like and don't like, as well as suggesting various features you might find useful to incorporate on the site. This helps you to get organised and helps us to understand what's going to go on each page.

But before you press 'go', the most important thing is to have the material you want us to use, ready and waiting. That means:

• a logo
• any existing branding like a typeface/font or colour scheme
• good quality photographs that are the right dimensions for the job (a banner slideshow that has photos that are the same size and shape will look better than one where they're all sorts of different shapes and sizes)
• Links to any professional bodies or societies, so that we can source logos from them in the correct file format
• And most important, the text you want to use on the site (this may not be perfect or finished, but the closer it is to the real thing, the quicker this will all go)

If you can have all these things ready to go when we start creating the site, we'll have a much better chance of sticking to the budget. Next time, we'll look at photographs in a bit more detail.