Building a Party

[magewish4]

New-ish DM here asking advice:
I'm trying to get our campaign off the ground and having trouble getting a couple players to build characters. Part of the problem is that these two are the newbies of the group and aren't sure where to start. Another is that the other 4 party members have built their characters and we're trying to figure out how they fit in with the rest of the group. We had a false start with a campaign a few months ago with another DM and part of the problem was some players didn't really care about their characters and I'm hoping that getting a chance to build their own will help.

A few specific questions that may help (or help figure out where I went wrong):

Do you usually have your party build characters together, or separately?
Do your players usually build their characters or do you do it for them?
How does a party balance out? Does it have to?
What are the big questions that really help you build your character? A few of my players have had 'eureka' moments where they knew what they're character would be and everything else was just a question of 'What would my character do?' while building. What can I do to encourage that?

[VoxRationis]

I just tell the gang what things are allowed and they all sort of call dibs bit by bit. When new players come in, I usually narrow down their options appropriately, in the form of suggestions rather than outright requirements.

[FidgetySquirrel]

A few specific questions that may help (or help figure out where I went wrong):

Do you usually have your party build characters together, or separately?
Do your players usually build their characters or do you do it for them?
How does a party balance out? Does it have to?
What are the big questions that really help you build your character? A few of my players have had 'eureka' moments where they knew what they're character would be and everything else was just a question of 'What would my character do?' while building. What can I do to encourage that?
1. My players cooperate on creation if they feel like it, but they usually just roll whatever they feel like.
2. They make their own characters. Since my players hate point-buy, I usually provide a stat bracket to be assigned as they please.
3. No and no. I try to compensate for the crappy class balance.
4. I'm not sure how much I can help on this one. I typically have a persona in mind when I actually get to make a PC, then I just figure out the best mechanics for it.