We hear the same story often. A business owner commissions a website, pays a deposit and waits. Weeks pass. The work that comes back looks nothing like the brief. Revisions spiral. The project ends badly, sometimes with a half-built site, sometimes with a legal dispute, and almost always with a significant amount of money gone.

This is not uncommon in Nigeria or the UK. It’s also largely avoidable if you know what to ask before anything is agreed.

01. Can you show me documentation from a previous project?

The answer tells you how a developer manages scope.

A serious developer will have a written specification: a document that defines exactly what is being built, how it’s structured, what the content model looks like and what success means. They should be able to show you this from a previous engagement, with client details redacted if needed.

A developer who has never produced written documentation manages projects entirely from memory. That’s fine for small personal work. It’s not fine for your business website.

Scope creep is almost always a documentation failure, not a dishonesty failure. If nothing was written down, nobody can be held to anything.

02. What will the site be built on, and why?

This question has two parts. The first is practical: what platform, framework or CMS? The second is harder: why that choice, for your specific situation?

‘WordPress because that’s what I know’ is honest but not strategic. ‘WordPress because your content team has no technical background, your site needs custom taxonomies, and PHP 8.2 on your existing host means zero migration cost’ is someone who has thought about your situation.

A developer who can’t explain the reasoning behind their technical choices may not have considered whether those choices are right for you.

03. What is your payment structure, and what does it cover?

Standard professional practice is a deposit before work begins, and the balance on completion. The deposit should cover initial work and demonstrate commitment from both sides. Industry standard is thirty to fifty percent.

Watch out for full payment upfront with no milestones, hourly billing with no fixed cap, vague deliverables tied to payment stages, and no written agreement at all.

Our structure at GressTech is fifty percent on agreement and fifty percent on launch. Fixed-price quote after scoping. No surprises.

04. What happens after the site goes live?

This question reveals more bad proposals than almost any other. Many developers disappear the moment a project ships. That’s fine if you plan to take everything over immediately, but most clients don’t have the capacity to manage WordPress updates, plugin maintenance, security patches and hosting configurations on their own.

Ask specifically: what’s included in the post-launch support period? What do maintenance options look like? Who do you call if something breaks in six months? Our included post-launch support window is thirty days, with ongoing maintenance available separately.

If the answer is vague, you own everything the moment the invoice is paid.

05. Can I speak to a previous client?

Portfolio sites show polished screenshots. References show what working with someone actually looks like.

Any developer worth hiring should be able to give you at least one client contact, someone you can call or email to ask: did they deliver what they said? Did they communicate well? Would you hire them again?

A refusal, or a list of confidentiality excuses, is a red flag. Some NDAs are real. But a developer who has done good work for happy clients can almost always find someone willing to say so.

“The brief you send at the start and the site you receive at the end should be recognisably the same thing. Documentation is how you make that happen.”

The simplest version of all of this

Before you hire anyone to build your website, get three things in writing: a specification document, a fixed price and a timeline. If any of those three are missing from the proposal, ask why.

If the answer doesn’t satisfy you, keep looking.

Want GressTech to review your site, stack or security posture?

Start a project at gresstechsolutions.com or write to info@gresstechsolutions.com