Websites for small businesses and sole traders.
Most people I build for don't want a big website. They want something that loads quickly, says what they do, and doesn't cost them sixty quid a month just to exist.
I'm in Bridgend, working across South Wales and remotely anywhere in the UK.
How I build
I do the whole thing myself, there's nobody to hand you off to and no account manager in between. You tell me what the business does and who you're after, I put something together, we go back and forth until it's right.
Most of what I build is static, so no content management system and no database. Those sites load quickly, most of them have no ongoing hosting cost, and there's nothing sat there wanting a security update every month. For a lot of small businesses that's the right answer, the site says what you do and the details don't change much year to year.
If you want to get in and change things yourself, that's a different build and I'm happy to do it. A blog, a menu that changes weekly, events, a shop window you keep updating, all of that wants a CMS. The trade-off is hosting that can run it and software to keep updated.
If you need more than pages, a booking system, a store or something custom, that's its own page.
Tell me what you're picturing and I'll tell you which way I'd go. If you're comparing me against a couple of other quotes, there are five questions worth asking all of us first.
What you end up with
Three things, all of them in your name rather than mine.
The site
Built start to finish, static or with a CMS behind it if you want to edit things yourself. Most small businesses end up static, it's quicker and there's less to go wrong. Static means nothing monthly at all, you renew the .com or .co.uk once a year at list price and I take no commission on it.
The domain
A .com or .co.uk registered in your name rather than mine. Want to move it somewhere else one day, it's yours to move and you don't need to ask me.
The hosting
Most static sites have no ongoing hosting cost. A CMS needs hosting that can run it, and big sites sometimes do too, so I'll tell you before we start if yours is one of them.
The rest of it
A site isn't much use if the email attached to it goes to spam, so I'll check that at the same time. If your quotes and invoices have been disappearing, that's worth reading about separately.
Selling more than a handful of products and a plain site probably isn't it, Shopify is usually the better fit. I'd rather say that at the start than build you the wrong thing.
What it costs
A complete website is usually around £600. That's the design, after picking from a few ideas, the build and getting it live on your own domain. Sometimes it's cheaper, if you've already got a clear vision of what you want. Each project is priced on what you actually need or want, and I'll tell you the number before we start.
Smaller jobs and fixes are charged by the hour. A page added, a form that's stopped working, email sorted, that sort of thing. Message me with what you need and I'll give you a price.
And don't forget, once it's built there's no ongoing monthly cost for hosting. I don't charge anything once it's live, and I don't charge a monthly retainer for support. Unless you want to guarantee my availability that is, then it's your choice.
Questions people ask first
Can I edit the site myself afterwards?
If you want to, yes. Say so and I'll build it with a CMS, then you can log in and change text, add pages, post updates. If you don't care about that, a static site is simpler and the changes come through me. Worth deciding before we start though, a CMS is a different build and it costs you more upfront.
Who owns the domain and the site?
You do. The domain is registered in your name and the site is yours. Nothing sits in an account of mine that you'd have to prise it out of later.
I've already got a site. Can you work on that instead?
Depends what it's built with. Tell me what you've got and where it's hosted and I'll tell you whether it's worth fixing or worth starting again.
What happens when I need something changed?
You message me and we work out a plan. Small changes are usually quick. There's no support contract to sign first.
Tell me what you're after.
A rough idea is enough to start with. I'll tell you what I think it needs, and if I don't think you need a new site I'll say that too. I aim to reply within a working day.