your developer

Your situation · Sole traders

Web developer for sole traders

As a sole trader, you don't have an IT department and you don't want a website that needs one. I build sites that look established and load fast, then hand them over with the training to manage them yourself, with no retainer, no monthly platform fee, and no being locked into someone else's system. It's a clean way to get a credible online presence without it becoming another bill or another thing to chase.

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What gets in the way

  • No site at all, or a thin one. Many sole traders rely on word of mouth or a social profile and miss the chance to look established and stand out from competitors who do have a proper presence.
  • The hidden double cost of builders. Going with Wix, Squarespace or similar usually means paying twice: someone (often a freelancer) to actually build and set it up, and then a monthly platform bill that never stops. The 'cheap and easy' route quietly becomes pay-to-build plus pay-every-month.
  • Technical setup you shouldn't have to learn. Even the DIY builder route still means wrestling with domains and CNAME/DNS records, which a non-technical person realistically ends up paying someone to sort.
  • Being locked into a platform you only rent. If you stop paying, the site goes; the design, content and setup were never really yours.
  • No time to maintain it. A sole trader is busy doing the actual work, not learning a web platform, so a site that needs constant fiddling just becomes another thing to chase.

What I'd build

The real comparison isn't 'free builder vs. paid build'. It's paying to have a builder site made AND paying monthly forever, versus a one-time build you own outright. There's no monthly platform fee and no retainer. The free AI maintenance training means you can add or change things yourself rather than paying someone each time, so the cost ends where a rented platform's keeps running.

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Questions

Isn't Wix or Squarespace cheaper?

It looks cheaper up front, but if you're not technical you usually end up paying twice: someone to build and set it up, plus the monthly platform bill that runs for as long as the site exists. A one-time build you own has no monthly platform fee, and the free AI maintenance training means changes don't mean paying someone again.

I'm not technical, so will I be able to run it myself?

Yes, that's the point of the handover. The site comes with free AI maintenance training built around your actual site, so you can make edits and add features without learning to code and without a retainer. The fiddly setup, from the domain to DNS/CNAME records and deployment, is all handled for you as part of the build.

Can customers book appointments or get in touch through the site?

Yes. Appointment booking, direct contact and enquiry forms, and similar tools can be built straight in. They're practical things that help you stand out and actually capture work, not just a brochure page. The maintenance training covers managing these yourself afterward.

Do I have to keep coming back to you for changes?

No. There's no retainer and no ongoing dependency. You're handed the site and the free AI maintenance training to run and extend it yourself. If you'd rather I do a piece of work later, that's your choice, not a requirement built into how it's set up.

Not quite your situation?

The build works the same way whoever it is for — yours outright, no lock-in, no monthly platform fee, and free AI maintenance training so you can run it yourself. What a site actually has to do is what changes. If one of these is closer to your line of work, it goes into the detail.

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All of them are listed on the your situation page.

Sound like a fit?

Get a rough price in under a minute, or tell me what you're building.

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