There are 5 high-level steps to starting a website when working with a web design company. Many have guidelines (Download an example here) to help you get your resources together so you can deploy efficiently and accurately. Steps may include:

1. Register a domain
2. Build web resources
3. Create your sitemap
4. Implement a design
5. Implement your website into your design

There are many web builder tools to choose from. You'll want to find a tool with these concepts:

1. Flexible - you should be able to create whatever design works for your site
2. SEO Focus - find a tool that lets you modify your meta tags and all other SEO components so search engines can find you
3. Online access - it is very helpful if you can access your website to make changes from anywhere you have the internet
4. Object oriented - very few content mangement tools (CMS) are object oriented (Word Press, Drupal, Joomla are not). This allows you to quickly design and modify your site and templates
5. Cloud hosting - it is very rare to have a CMS that is already built for cloud computing. So many benefits come from redundant, durable, scalable server resources

There are many other things to look for in a CMS tool for hosting your site.Talk to you marketing professional to help you make a decision.