If you have not got a website at present and are looking to have one created, it can be easy to get carried away with the amount of functions and gadgets you can add in to it. Each time you add something new to your site, it will most likely incur and additional cost. If budget is limited then you may want to create a list of the essential items you need to have on the site and then the additional ones that you would like to have if budget allows.
When taking to your designer and programmer, be honest about the money you have to spend and explain to them what the main purpose of the site is. If it is to sell products online then the checkout process will need to be straight forward and easy to use. If it is to gain enquiries then you need to make sure you have plenty of opportunities to add in call to action banners and buttons.
Always ask the designer to create a visual of a few of the pages so you can see what it is going to look like before they start to build it for you. This will allow you to make any changes at an early stage hopefully without creating too many additional costs.