How to run a short website kickoff call

A family bakery says yes to a new website and pays the deposit. The kickoff call runs for ninety minutes. It's friendly, full of ideas, and covers everything from the font to the owner's plans for a second shop. Three weeks later, nobody has sent the photos, the domain login is with a nephew who's moved interstate, and the owner's partner, who never joined the call, wants a different home page.

The call wasn't too short. It was the wrong shape.

A good website kickoff call takes about thirty minutes and settles five things: what you agreed, what the business needs the site to do, who sends which words and photos by when, which accounts exist and who owns them, and who approves the site. You send a short recap the same day. Everything else can wait for the first draft.

What should I ask at a website kickoff meeting?

Keep this list open during the call. Each part has one or two questions, and a note of what you're listening for.

Part	Ask	Listen for
What we agreed	"Here's what's in the quote. Has anything changed since?"	New pages, new ideas, a new deadline
What the site must do	"What would a good month look like once the site is live?"	One clear job: bookings, calls, orders, visits
Words and photos	"Who will send the text and photos, and by when?"	A name and a date, not "we'll sort it"
Accounts	"Who holds the domain, hosting, email and Google listing logins?"	Names, and whether the business owns each one
Approval	"Who needs to say yes before it goes live?"	Everyone with a veto, including people not on the call
Next date	"When can we look at the first draft together?"	A day in the diary

The second row does the most work. "A good month" gets owners talking about the business rather than the website, and the answer tells you what the home page is for.

How do you prepare in ten minutes?

Don't spend the call on things you could have looked up.

• Reread your research. If you took the time to research a business before pitching, you already have a list of facts to check and questions to ask. The same research that helped you win the work, the kind of research on local businesses to pitch you do before any first email, becomes the brief.
• Reread the proposal. The website proposal template you used sets out what's included. Bring it up on screen in the first minute.
• Look up the domain. ICANN's lookup tool shows public registration details for a domain, such as the registrar it's held with. Knowing that before the call turns "who has the domain?" into a specific question: "It's registered with [registrar]. Who has that login?"
• Check the Google listing. Hours, phone and address, so you can ask about anything that looks wrong.
• Write your five questions at the top of the call notes. If you only get through those, the call has done its job.
• Send the agenda the day before, with a line asking the owner to bring anyone who needs to approve the site. The partner who wants a different home page is much easier to meet on day one than in week three.

If this client came from your own outreach, your notes from how to find web design clients locally remind you what caught their interest in the first place. Start the call there.

How do you run the thirty minutes?

A simple agenda, said out loud at the start so everyone knows the call has an end:

1. Two minutes: thanks, the agenda, and "we'll finish by half past".
2. Five minutes: what was agreed. Share the quote and check nothing has changed.
3. Eight minutes: what the site must do. Ask about a good month, their best customers, and the questions customers ask most.
4. Eight minutes: words, photos and accounts. Get names and dates.
5. Five minutes: approval and the next date.
6. Two minutes: what you'll send after the call.

When a big new idea comes up ("could we sell gift boxes online?"), write it down and say, "Let's quote that separately once the main site is live." That one sentence protects the timeline and the price without saying no.

Which questions do most kickoff calls forget?

• "Who else needs to approve this?" The partner, the business owner's parent, the franchise head office. Find them now, not after the first draft.
• "What happens if the photos are late?" Agree it up front: you'll use placeholders and the launch date moves by the same number of days.
• "Who owns the domain and the Google listing?" If it's a former employee or a relative, getting access can take weeks. Start now.
• "Is there anything the site must not say?" Health claims, prices that change, a former business partner's name.
• "How do you like to be contacted?" Email, text or phone, and when.

What should you send after the call?

A recap, the same day, short enough to read on a phone:

Subject: Website kickoff: what we agreed

Thanks for today. Here's what we agreed:

The site's main job: [e.g. bring in orders for weekend cakes]
You'll send: [text for the About page, 10 photos] by [date]
We'll send: [first draft of the home page] by [date]
Accounts: [domain with registrar X, login with name]; [Google listing owner]
Approval: [names] will approve before anything goes live
Next call: [date and time]

If anything here is wrong, reply and I'll fix it.

Ask them to reply if anything is wrong. Silence isn't agreement, but a recap they didn't correct is much easier to point back to than a memory of a call.

Then set up the project so the recap turns into work. Building, reviewing and delivering client websites covers what happens between kickoff and launch, and your website QA checklist is worth sending now, so the client knows how the site will be checked before it goes live.

What if the owner can't give you thirty minutes?

Some owners can't. A café owner with one day off a week may offer you ten minutes between deliveries. Take it, and move the rest into writing.

• Send the questions the day before, as a short list they can answer by reply. Most owners are happy to write two lines each in the evening.
• Use the ten minutes for the two questions that need a conversation: what a good month would look like, and who needs to approve the site.
• Offer a call at their quiet time, even if that's early. A bakery's quiet time is mid-afternoon; a restaurant's is mid-morning.
• Talk to the right person. If the owner hands you to a staff member, ask the owner the approval question yourself, even if only by text.

However short the call, the recap is the same. It matters more, not less, when the call was rushed.

What should a kickoff call not cover?

Fonts, colours, layouts, the second shop, a full content plan, and anything that isn't in the quote. Those conversations go better with a draft in front of everyone.

For a one-person AI agency, a thirty-minute call with a clear recap does more for the project than two hours of ideas nobody wrote down. The bakery would have been fine with half the call and twice the notes.