Before you go to see any website developers about building a site for you, take the time to work through the following.

1) Define the primary purpose for your site. 

Exactly what to you want the outcomes from your site to be.  Do you want more newsletter sign ups?  More sales? etc  The layout of your site should be designed to make it appealing and easy for interested new customers to interact with you.

2) Prepare a brief for your new site

Research other sites from within your industry and outside it, to decide what features you would like your site to have.
It may not be necessary to start with everything up front as developments can be done in stages, so prioritise your wishlist as well.  Some features that you might consider include:  Newsletter sign up, Giveaways, Blogs, Forums, Booking Systems, E-Commerce (for online selling), Events Calendars, Photo Galleries & Forms.  In addition, think about the content that you would like to include such as; Product and/or Service details, Company history, Testimonials, Returns Policy, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Media pages & Contact details.

A cricital element for any site that you get designed is that it should be built into a CMS (Content Management System) so that you will be able to your website yourself after it's been built.

3) Research potential providers

Research providers and understand exactly what you are getting for what's quoted, make sure that you understand the design, development and hosting costs and make sure that the system they are using has the ability to scale with you (that you can easily & cost effectively add to the site later) as your business grows.