Project - web site

I think everyone will work differently and it depends if you work for yourself or as part of a company.

When we start out with a possible new client we first do a bit of research into their field, see other sites out there of the same genre and get a basic idea of what will be required on the site. Then at the meeting with them we discuss what they want on the site, if they haven't already got a site, or what improvement they want to an existing site (we tend to get a lot of rebuilds at the moment). Then we tell them what information, pictures, brochures, etc we require from them and then we advise them when we can start the site and how long it's likely to take. We then repeatedly chase them for the information we require!
Once we actually get to start the site, we'll do a first page layout, upload it to test space and let them see it (fortunately we have yet to have a client change anything I design!!) then I build the rest of the site, upload it to test space again and let them have a good read/look through it and then once they say fine (again I must be lucky because apart from the odd word or picture change we haven't had any changes at this point either) we upload the site to their own space and they pay us.