Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a website and a management system, and which do I need?

A website is your shopfront: it tells people what you do and turns visitors into enquiries. A management system is private software your business runs on behind a secure login, with your clients, jobs, quotes, invoices and scheduling in one place, used mainly by you and your staff.

If the problem is being found and getting enquiries, you need a website. If the problem is the paperwork once enquiries arrive, like spreadsheets, lost jobs and invoices chased by hand, you need a system. Plenty of businesses end up with both. If you're not sure, tell me what's slowing you down and I'll say which fits.

How does the process work, from first call to going live?

It starts with a conversation about what you need, which becomes a written quote listing each item. When you accept and the 50% deposit clears, work begins: discovery, design and build, with your feedback asked for at set points and the revision rounds your package includes.

When the work is complete and ready to go live, the balance is due and the site launches. For 14 days after launch, anything that doesn't work as specified is fixed free. After that, an optional care plan keeps it maintained; see After launch below.

How long does a website take? How long does a system take?

It depends on the package, and each one states its timescale up front. Websites: Essential about 5–7 days, Business about 10–14 days, Premium Static 2–3 weeks, Launch 2–3 weeks, Growth 3–5 weeks and Scale with a timeline agreed up front.

Management systems: Starter 3–4 weeks, Professional 5–7 weeks and Enterprise 8–12 weeks.

Those are build times from the start of work. What most often stretches them is waiting for content and feedback, which is why the quote is clear about what I need from you. Ask for a quote and the timescale for your project will be on it.

What do you need from me, and how much of my time will it take?

Four things: your content and materials (text, logos, photos and any account access the work needs), feedback when I ask for it, one person who can make decisions, and accurate information. I publish what you tell me, and I won't publish an accreditation or a statistic you haven't given me.

Most of your time goes on gathering content at the start and on the review points along the way. If I ask for feedback and hear nothing for 10 working days, I may treat that stage as approved so the project doesn't stall. The quote says whether you're providing the content, so there are no surprises.

I already have a website. Can you work on it, or does it have to be rebuilt?

It doesn't have to be rebuilt. I take on technical fixes to existing sites, such as DNS problems, SSL certificates, broken forms, and layout or mobile bugs, as well as full rebuilds.

Whether a rebuild is worth it depends on what's wrong. If one thing is broken, fixing that thing is the sensible spend. If the whole site is slow or hard to update, a rebuild usually is. Send me the address and what's bothering you through the contact page and I'll give you my honest view.

Do you only work with businesses on the Fylde coast?

No. I'm based in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire, and I work with businesses across the UK.

Websites and systems don't need me on site, so a project can run by phone and email wherever you are, and you deal with me directly throughout rather than an account manager. Engineering design work is scoped the same way: you send over the requirement and I come back with a clear plan. Get in touch to start.

Is the website mine? Who owns the code, the domain and the content?

Yes. Once the final invoice is paid, everything I've built for you is yours: the website, its source code, the content I wrote for you and the design as delivered. The domain, the code repository and the live site are transferred into your name and your accounts at that point.

Until then the work remains mine. I won't hand over anything that hasn't been paid for, and I'll never withhold anything that has. The reusable components and tooling I build from stay mine, but you get an unrestricted right to use them in your site for as long as you like. Accounts I set up in your name, like Google Business Profile or analytics, are yours from the start.

Will my website be found on Google? What is included for SEO?

Google has to be able to read a site before it can rank it: a clear title and description for every page, a sitemap, structured data about your business, and pages that load fast and work properly on a phone.

How much of that work is included depends on the package: Business includes basic on-page SEO, Premium Static includes full on-page SEO, Launch includes SEO metadata setup, Growth includes full SEO + OG tags and Scale includes everything in Growth. A package that doesn't include it can have SEO setup added for £150.

Nobody can honestly promise you a position on Google. What you get is a site Google can read and visitors don't give up on.

Can I edit the content myself afterwards?

Yes, if you'd like to. A content management system (CMS) gives you a simple editor for your text and images. It's included in the Growth package, and Scale includes everything in Growth; on a Launch site it can be added for £300.

If you'd rather not touch it, a care plan covers small changes for you each month: up to 1 hour on Essential Cover and 2 hours on Full Cover. Anything bigger, like a new page or a new feature, is quoted separately before any work starts.

Do you build online shops, booking systems and payments?

Yes. Shops and bookings are built on the Next.js packages: Scale is designed for them, and a shop (Stripe or Shopify) or a booking system can be added to another Next.js site for £500 and £400 respectively.

Both are running in my own work: Lytham Van Hire takes van bookings with Stripe deposits, and Ansdell Plumbing Supplies sells through an online shop with Stripe checkout. Card payments go through Stripe, so card details never touch your website.

How fast will my website be, and why does that matter?

Fast. Sites are hand-coded rather than assembled in a page builder, kept lightweight so they score well on Core Web Vitals, and optimised and tested as part of launch.

Speed matters for two reasons. People leave slow pages, especially on a phone signal, and every visitor who leaves is an enquiry you don't get. And Google uses page experience, including loading speed, when it ranks pages, so a slow site is harder to find in the first place. If your current site feels slow, send me the address.

What is a management system, and what can it replace?

It's software built around the way your business works: one place for your clients, jobs, quotes, invoices, scheduling and team, on a phone or a desktop, behind a secure login.

It can replace a patchwork of a spreadsheet of jobs, a separate invoicing tool, a paper diary and a lot of memory. Every system starts from a proven base and is then configured for your trade, your job types and your workflow, so you're not paying for everything to be invented from scratch or bending your business to fit generic software. See what's always included.

Can it handle quotes, invoices, jobs, staff and customers?

Yes. Every system includes client records, jobs linked to those clients, a status pipeline set up for your work, role-based access for admins and staff, and an activity log of who changed what.

Quotes and invoices with PDF output, and job scheduling with a calendar, are included from the Professional package, or can be added to Starter for £400 each. Beyond that there's a list of add-ons, from notifications and document uploads to time tracking and online card payments, each priced on the systems page before anything is built.

Where does my data live, and who can see it?

Your system's data lives in a Supabase database, a hosted PostgreSQL service, with files in Supabase Storage, and the system itself runs on Vercel. Nobody gets in without an account: sign-in is required, and role-based access means staff only see what their role allows.

It's your data. Once the final invoice is paid, the system and its code are transferred into your name, and every system comes with a backup script and a written restore procedure. Where the system holds your customers' personal details, I only handle them on your instructions.

Can the system be added to over time?

Yes, that's how it's designed. Start with the features you need now and add more as the business grows: extra users at £75 each, or features from the add-on list such as a client portal, online payments, reporting or an installable phone app.

Every addition is scoped and priced before any work starts and added as a new quote, so you always know the cost in advance. Small changes can also come out of the monthly allowance on Total Cover, which includes up to 4 hours of changes a month.

What does a website cost? What does a system cost?

Website packages start at £300 for Essential, a one-off fee. The list runs up to Scale at £5,000, for complex builds that are scoped per project. Management systems are a one-off build fee too: Starter £1,500, Professional £3,000 and Enterprise £6,000, with Enterprise scoped after a discovery call.

I'm not VAT registered, so there's no VAT to add to any price. Every package, add-on and price is listed on the websites and systems pages, and your quote itemises exactly what you're buying. Engineering design is priced per project once I've seen the requirement.

Is there a deposit, and what are the payment terms?

Yes. 50% of the project price is paid before work begins, and I don't start until it clears. The balance is due on delivery, meaning when the work is complete and ready to go live, not after it has been live for a while. Invoices are payable within 14 days.

Larger projects can be split into stages, each invoiced as it's reached and paid before the next begins. Care plans carry no deposit: they're billed monthly for the month ahead, starting when your site or system goes live.

What is a Cover plan, and what does it include?

A Cover plan is my monthly care plan: it keeps what I've built working after launch. Essential Cover is for static sites, at £75 per month. Full Cover is for Next.js sites and web applications, at £165 per month. Total Cover is for management systems, at £275 per month. Custom Cover is for anyone who would rather choose. What each plan includes, and every service priced individually, is on the Cover plans page.

Cover is a maintenance service, not insurance and not a warranty. It does not indemnify you against loss, and the limits in section 13 of the terms of business apply to it exactly as they apply to everything else.

Every plan has a 3-month minimum term, then runs monthly with a month's notice. Unused hours don't roll over, and new features, redesigns and new pages are quoted separately.

Are there any ongoing costs I should know about, like hosting or a domain?

The build itself is a one-off fee. What can recur depends on what you choose: a care plan if you want one, and the third-party services your site or system runs on.

Third-party costs, such as domain registration, paid apps, stock images and text-message credits, aren't part of the quote unless it lists them. Where I buy one on your behalf, you pay exactly what it costs me, with the supplier's invoice available if you ask. Hosting setup can be added for £100, but ongoing hosting and maintenance beyond a care plan isn't included, so ask me what applies to your setup before you accept a quote.

What happens if something breaks?

For the first 14 days after launch, anything I built that doesn't work the way it was specified is fixed at no charge. That covers defects. It doesn't cover changes of mind, new requirements, or problems caused by someone else editing the site.

After that, it depends on your care plan. Full Cover and Total Cover include bug fixes, and Total Cover adds same-day response in business hours. Without a plan, tell me what's wrong through the contact page and I'll price the fix before doing it.

Can I ask for changes later, and how does that work?

Yes. On a care plan, small changes come out of your monthly allowance: up to 1 hour on Essential Cover, 2 hours on Full Cover and 4 hours on Total Cover. The allowance runs per calendar month and doesn't roll over.

Bigger changes, like a new page, a new feature, a redesign or a new integration, are project work. Tell me what you'd like and I'll price it before doing anything; I won't add work to your bill unannounced. Agreed changes go on a new quote, and if a project is still in progress they may move the delivery date.

What happens if I want to move away from you?

You can, and you take everything with you. Once the final invoice is paid, the domain, the code repository and the live site are in your name and your accounts, so another developer can pick them up. Accounts I set up in your name, like Google Business Profile or analytics, stay yours.

A care plan can be cancelled with a month's notice once its 3-month minimum term is up. If you're a business and decide to stop partway through a project, you pay for the work done to that point and we part on good terms.