How we work

Our Role

We act as architect, surveyor and project manager.  We take care of planning permission and the construction team.  We may manage the purchasing of necessary materials on your behalf.

When we work on you site we are normally responsible for:

• Working with you to ensure we understand your goals for the site as well as the nature and needs of your business.
• Advising on any issues, errors or ommissions which need addressing
• Creating a Brand Board to establish the colours, fonts and imagery that will be used throughout the site.
• Creating a Wireframe diagram from your bullet point lists which is used to create menus which aid user experience and enhance your SEO.
• Writing a Project Outline which explains the technical elements we will be using and why they have been chosen.
• Designing Templates according to the agreed Wireframe and adding your ready-to-use content to the site.
• Connecting and testing any third party services such as newsletters and social media.
• Testing the website for responsiveness, accessibility and speed.
• Putting a backup and maintenance routine in place as agreed in the Project Outline.
• Creating a personalised User Guide and Site Owner's Manual which you will receive on handover.

Your Role

You need to buy the land, give us access, finance the project, and have clarity about what you want built.  You need to pay for the various project stages.  You may want to manage the purchasing of necessary materials.  Either way those materials are essential for the build.

In website terms that means:

• Paying for hosting, owning a domain name, providing access to your hosting, and completing the Discovery questionairre.
• Each stage needs to be paid for before we move on to the next one.
• You may want to purchase additional plugins for use on your site and these often require annual renewal which you would be responsible for.
• You need to provide a bullet point site map, social media links and contact details, as well as logo, images and text in the correct format for all sites.
• Posts, custom post types and products often require a bullet point category list.
• If you have a Contact Form on the site, it will need a dedicated Email address on the website domain and a password.
• Complex Forms require a flow diagram.
• Depending on the site, you may need to enter your payment provider details and/or provide API keys for social media accounts.
• If you accept payments on the site, you will need to make some test transactions to make sure the process is working as it should.

The Process & Cost

Every stage in the process involves payment of a deposit and a final payment which involves the handover of tangible assets. Those early Discovery Phase elements are equivalents to architect’s plans, surveys, planning permission and purchased materials.  This allow you to transfer the project management and building to any developer if you are not happy with us.

We separate the early Discovery Phase costs from the Build Costs. The Discovery Phase is essential for a successful website.  If you come to us with a full project brief, brand board, wireframe guideline and ready-to-use asset folder then only the Build cost applies.

Our prices are fully transparent and modular.  Package outlines are for guidance only.  You can add to your website in a way which works for your budget at any time.  We also provide advice on how to save money by doing things yourself.

Additional Items

Our prices for the installation, configuration and testing of additional items are outlined in our price list.  The capital or annual renewal cost of plugins (and themes) is not included in those prices.

You can either purchase and renew these under your own license, or if you chose one of our Concierge packages, they may be included for the period covered by your chosen package.

Why we work this way

It is our experience that the greatest stumbling block to building a successful website is getting clients to provide those essential branding assets, page content and images in the right format.

Secondary to that is lack of clarity on the part of clients who have not thought through what they want their website to achieve for them.  Our golden rule of “Define, Refine and Align” helps us bring in your project the way you want it, on time, within budget

Most of the websites we build are for small to medium size businesses and solopreneurs or freelancers like ourselves.

Whether you have sought outside funding or are self-funding your business or career, you will almost certainly have encountered the need to create various analyses (Pest, SWAT, AIDA) and a budget which shows the anticipated ROI (Return on Investment).

Your website, whether new-build or upgrade, is no different.  It is an investment and, as such, needs to pay for itself either in financial terms or by making your working life easier and more enjoyable.

Saving Money

Our itemised and transparent pricing is designed to increase awareness of what is involved in the process of building a website.  It also helps our clients see where they can save money by bringing parts of the process in-house or doing it themselves.

We provide all our clients with comprehensive guides on how to save money by providing the necessary assets in the right format so the build can commence.  Those guides include where to find free or low-cost images, fonts, icons, plugins, editing software and other tools.

Peace of Mind

Our Concierge services free you from the ongoing responsibility of maintaining and updating your website.  The systems we have put in place allow us to do that in an affordable way, starting from only £1 per day.  Some packages include the use of plugins under our developer license as long as we are responsible for maintaining the site.

Our Peace of Mind packages allow you to leave the monitoring and technical maintenance of your site to us so you can do what you do best.