How a web project actually works.
If you’ve never run a web project before, the whole thing can feel like a black box — money goes in, a website comes out, and the middle is a mystery. This is me opening the box. Here’s exactly how we work, from the first conversation to the day you own every last piece.
Why I wrote this
A lot of the folks I work with have never run a web project before — and why would they? You’re busy running a restaurant, a law practice, a nonprofit. Building websites is my job, not yours. So when it’s finally time to hand the thing off, it can feel like dropping your car with a mechanic who’s speaking a language you never learned.
I wrote this so there are no surprises. This is the start-to-finish shape of a project with us — what happens first, what I’ll ask of you, how long it takes, what it costs, how you pay, and what you walk away owning. If we end up working together, none of it should be a mystery.
Pour a coffee. Let’s do the thing.
It starts with a conversation
Everything starts with a conversation. Not a pitch, not a contract — a conversation. I want to understand what you’ve got, what’s working, what isn’t, and what you’re actually trying to do. The business first, the website second.
If you already have a site, bring it. If you’re starting from a blank page, that’s fine too — sometimes a clean slate is the easier project. Either way, this first chat is where we figure out whether we’re a good fit before anyone signs anything.
You don’t need to show up with a spec or a list of features. You just need to be able to tell me what you want in plain English — “I want people to book me,” “I want to stop answering the same five emails.” That’s plenty to start.
After we talk, you’ll get a real estimate from a real person — usually within a few days, not a form auto-responder. We scope it, quote it, and own the number, so you know what you’re signing up for before anyone writes a line of code.
We audit what you’ve got
If you come to us with something already built, we don’t just bulldoze it and start over. First, we do a full system audit — a top-to-bottom review of what you’ve already got.
This is one of the most useful phases of the whole project, and it’s the one people skip. Reviewing what’s already there tells us how it was built, where the real opportunities are, and — just as important — what not to do. A site that isn’t working is a goldmine of information. It shows us the patterns to avoid and the ones worth building toward.
- How it’s built. The platform, theme, plugins, and hosting — the hand we’re playing.
- What’s working. The parts pulling their weight, so we keep them instead of reinventing them.
- Where it’s hurting. The slow, broken, or confusing bits dragging the whole thing down.
- The opportunities. Quick wins now, and the bigger moves worth building toward.
Starting from scratch with nothing to audit? Even easier in some ways — there are no old decisions to undo. The review just becomes a conversation about where you want to go instead of where you’ve been.
Then you get a scope, in writing
All of that — the conversation, the audit, the digging — rolls up into one thing: a detailed scoping document. It’s the map for the whole project. It lays out exactly what we’re building, what it costs, and roughly how long it’ll take, so there are no “wait, I thought that was included” surprises halfway through.
I’m a big believer in this. A clear scope up front protects both of us — you know exactly what you’re paying for, and I know exactly what I’m on the hook to deliver. I even wrote a whole post on why a free, detailed scope should be the new normal.
How long it takes
“How long is this going to take?” Fair question — and the answer is the same as the cost one: it depends on the scope. But I can give you the shape of it.
- Small, well-scoped projects — 3 to 5 weeks. A brochure site, a refresh, something we’ve built a hundred times before. Known quantity, quick turnaround.
- More complex projects — 3 to 6 months. Custom functionality, integrations, a store or a membership site — more moving parts, more to get right.
- Highly complex platform builds — 6 months to a year. A real web platform with custom architecture and a lot of dependencies. These aren’t weekend projects, and you don’t want them rushed.
Where you land depends on scope, how quickly we can get decisions and content from you, and how many surprises the audit turns up. We’ll give you a real timeline once we understand the project — not a number pulled out of thin air.
What it’ll cost
Same answer here: it depends. But I’ve never liked the “book a call to find out what anything costs” game, so here’s the straight version. Most agencies hide their numbers — we publish ours.
We work in fixed fees, not hourly. We scope the project, quote one number, and own it — you never watch a clock tick while we work. The number moves with scope and complexity, and it assumes we’re handling the design too. Here’s the rough shape of it:
From $6,500
A website refresh or redesign — a solid small-business build that does its job.
From $10,000
Stores, courses, and gated platforms on WordPress or Shopify, built to scale.
$10k – $25k+
Complex builds and custom integrations — more capability, more moving parts.
From $650/mo
Flat-monthly care plans to keep the thing healthy after launch — no meter, no surprises.
Want the whole thing broken down by project type? It’s all laid out on our pricing page — no call required just to see a number.
And if you’re still wrestling with the bigger “what should a website cost me?” question, I wrote a full guide on website pricing — who to hire, DIY vs. pro, and how to not get burned.
How payment works
Once we’ve agreed on a number, let’s talk about how you actually pay it. I try to stay flexible here, because cash flow is real and every business runs differently.
Pay in full
The whole project fee up front. Simplest for both of us — and because it is, you get a small discount for it. If your cash flow allows, this is the one I lean toward.
Two payments
Split the fee in half: one to get started, one along the way. A comfortable middle ground for a lot of folks.
Three or four payments
Need it spread thinner? We can usually break the fee into three payments, sometimes four. Just ask.
Monthly
Pay a set amount each month across whatever term we work out. Between paying in full and going monthly, those are the two I like best.
How we’ll stay in touch
Nothing kills a project faster than silence. So we stay in close contact — you should never be left wondering what’s happening with your money. Here’s how we usually keep the lines open:
- Weekly check-ins. We meet once a week to talk progress, nail down details, and clear up anything fuzzy. If the project’s moving fast, we’ll meet more than once.
- Email, anytime. Good old email handles the day-to-day. Send it over and we’ll get to it.
- A private Slack channel. Want us in your pocket? We’ll set up a private channel where you can reach us asynchronously — no scheduling required.
How we review progress
Here’s a thing I feel strongly about: no big reveal at the end. You’ve probably heard the horror story — months of silence, then a “ta-da” that looks nothing like what you pictured. We don’t work that way.
Every week, I show you where things stand. Sometimes there’s a lot to show; sometimes there isn’t much yet, or what’s there is hard to read out of context. When that happens, we hop on a call and walk through it together so it actually makes sense.
The whole philosophy is to iterate out loud — small, visible changes you can react to early, while they’re still cheap to change. You’re never surprised, and we’re never building in the dark.
After we launch
Launch day isn’t the finish line — it’s more like the start of the shakedown cruise. Once real people start using your site, real-world stuff surfaces. So every project includes a 30-day support window after we go live.
That month is yours. It’s there so we can tighten the screws while the project’s still fresh:
- Squash bugs. Anything misbehaving once it’s live, we fix.
- Tighten things up. Functionality that works but could work better gets the polish it needs.
- Train you up. Walkthroughs so you and your team can confidently run the thing yourselves.
After those 30 days, you’re not cut loose unless you want to be. If you’d like us to keep watching the platform, handle the updates, and keep shipping improvements, we offer flat-monthly care plans. And if you’d rather take it from here, you’ve got everything you need to — which brings me to the most important part.
You own all of it
This one matters to me more than almost anything: you should own every piece of your project. Not rent it from me — own it. We’ll host your site on our servers and handle the hard parts, but the keys are always yours.
In practice, that means:
- Your code. You get access to your project’s code repository on GitHub. The whole codebase is yours — not locked in a vault on our side.
- Your reporting. Any analytics or reporting you want eyes on, you get access to. No black boxes.
- Your hosting — your call. We host by default, but if you’d rather host it yourself, we’ll help you get set up. One caveat: we don’t support what we don’t host, so keep that in mind.
- Your domain and DNS. Your domain name should live on accounts you control — same with your DNS. Always under your name, never ours.
Think we might be a good fit?
If you’ve read this far, you’ve got a real sense of how we work. If it sounds like the kind of partner you want for your first web project, let’s talk. No pitch — just a straight conversation about what you’re trying to build.
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