How do you guys start a project ?

Please contact me via PM - I will help you.

Thankyou for the kind offer but I am looking more for opinions rather than help. But if I get stuck I will certainly post up for assistance. BTW this is UK based but obviously that makes no difference really.

Does this company have any type of prospectus, sales brochures or leaflets? That's where I would start. Read into the company a little and find out what they do exactly - what distances they travel, what sort of loads they carry, that type of thing. Do they have any competencies and credentials you could use? Any clients or partners you could name on the site? Their experiences, history of the company. Latest news, and future plans. Try to immerse yourself in the company a little.

this guy is my Brother in-law and he's asked me to put up this site

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Rule #1) Don't work for family
Rule #2) Don't do it for free
Rule #3) Treat any client (even if you break #1) as a normal paying client with limited revisions
Rule #4) Tell them to find someone else if they're too high maintenance.

I've learnt the hard way never to work with family again.

Keep business and family seperate.

If they don't already have avsite I'm presuming they are a small business. They probably have looked at their oppositions site or other haulage sites. Ask them what sites they like the look of, not to copy it but to get an idea of what they would like to emulate, might give you a better idea on what theme to choose. Content really has to come from them..a small haulage company will need a simple about us page, contact us with drop downs for collections,bookings,enquiries, maybe a testimonial page. Unless I am getting paid to use my head I would keep it that simple.. A few file truck photos and a passable slogan .. Acme haulage...kents No 1 logistics solution....acme haulage..delivering for over 20'years that kind of homogenous stuff that non marketing people love

Reckon.

Well following on from this I have thrown together an attempt at a site for him. He has said he is "Happy but wants to change a little bit of wording here and there". With all that said he also said at the beginning

"just let me know at the end of the project how much I owe you....."

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Now that the site is nearly finished I was wondering how much I should charge lol. I have done the site and ALL social networks that it points too (At his request) So I have created profiles on linkedin, twitter, facebook and google + . Anyway here is the site eurefrigeratedtransport. Tell me what you guys think of it so far and how much would you charge for this type of thing.
I do know we should have agreed a price up front but he just said tell me how much at the end.....So what do you guys think is fair...PS I will be adding some more content to get it up to speed seo wise. This is just to get him started. I have not allowed the search engines to crawl the site just yet.

Anyone give any help with my last post ??

I always tell people - and I have this on my web site,

You write and submit your own copyright-free content. We are the designers, not the content creators. Your personal words and images will add precisely what you want to depict for your company, business or organization. This is why it is vital that you portray yourself through your own words and images...

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Feel free to paraphrase or use as is if you like it. I got REAL tired of people saying, "Oh just put whatever you think is good on the site" when I haven't a clue about the biz or org. One was my own uncle and he promised to send me info and never did - had to wing it on a Trucking and Storage Co. I knew next to nothing about. And then the site shows it and I look bad!

On the other hand, if there's an existing site, it's a bit easier. I just take elements off of those and then tell the people to let me know what changes they want - and to make sure they get it right because if there's more than 2 changes, they're going to have to fill out a "change order" and pay more.

Big mistake doing a favour then looking for a price. I have built sites in the motor industry. Dealers, breakers, recovery guys so I have a good idea of then Market. My experience is that updating and maintenance is were you will make a few quid. I doubt you have spent on paper too much on the site so you are not out of pocket too much. But if you can sell them the idea of serp increases, gains in ranking over there competitors, the power of social media and reputation management then you could get yourself a handy monthly maintenance contract. So you probably know the figures you want to look for but I would sacrifice a one time pay out for a long term earner just sell the idea that the site is only the starting point.