How we work

Nobody NEEDS a web designer. EVERYBODY needs what’s next.

How we build websites, applications and automations. Five clear steps for a site, a different six for a system, a fixed price agreed before anything starts, and no stage where you are left wondering what is happening.

Every Werehouse Media website project runs through the same five stages: plan and design, build and test, your private preview, revisions and QA, then launch and aftercare. The homepage concept is reworked until you are happy with it before anything else gets built, then revisions between the first and final draft are currently unlimited.

A systems project, whether a bespoke application, an automation or an integration, runs differently, because what has to be agreed first is what it does rather than how it looks: a process audit (normally £495, free for a limited time), then a fixed quote with stages, then a build in stages that each go live on their own, tested against real records rather than sample data, then handover of the code, the documentation and the accounts.

How long either takes depends on the size of the project, how much custom interactivity or integration it needs and how quickly content and access come back, so you get a realistic date at quote stage rather than a number invented up front. What makes a project run late is almost always waiting on photos, text, data and sign-off, not the building.

A realistic date at quote stage Fixed price, in writing Websites, applications and automations

Pick a step. See exactly what happens.

Two shapes of project, and they do not run the same way. On a website the first thing agreed is a design. On an application or an automation it is what the thing actually does, so the order changes and so does what you are signing off.

Step one · Plan & design

We plan it, then design it

We start with a proper conversation about the business: what you sell, who buys it, what a good enquiry looks like and what you want more of. Then, before any design, we map what people actually search for, because that decides how many pages the site needs and what each one is called.

Then we design the homepage first, in the browser, at real sizes, with your real words in it. You see it early and tell us what you think while changing it is still cheap.

A friendly kick-off call, no jargon
Keyword and intent map agreed
Page structure signed off before design
Homepage designed first, in the browser
Unlimited revisions until you are happy
One visual system for every page

Step two · Build & test

We build and test. Properly.

Once you are happy with the design, our developers code the site. Nothing is bolted on that does not need to be there, which is what keeps the pages light enough to open fast on a phone and leaves nothing sitting in the background waiting to break.

We write and place your copy, size and convert every image, wire up your forms, set up tracking, and add the structured data that tells Google what the business is. Then we test it on real devices, not just a desktop browser window made narrow.

Custom-made - performance prioritised
Copywriting written from our interview
Images converted, sized and lazy-loaded
Forms, tracking and schema wired in
Tested on real phones and tablets
Keyboard and screen-reader checked

Step three · Your preview

You see it, and tell us what you think

You get a private link to the real site, not a picture of it, the actual thing, on a real URL you can open on your phone in the van. We walk through it together so we can explain why things are where they are.

Then you send your list. Anything that is wrong, we fix. Anything you want moved, we move. This is the round where being fussy is genuinely helpful.

A private preview link, just for you
Walked through together on a call
Your feedback written down, not remembered
Changes made and shown back to you
You give the go-ahead in writing

Step four · Final checks

Everything checked before it goes live

The unglamorous stage that decides whether a launch is boring or a disaster. The checks are run against a draft copy of the site on its real hosting rather than on our own machine, because our machine has everything already loaded and yours will not.

If you had an old site, every old address gets pointed at its new equivalent, so the rankings and links you already earned come with you instead of turning into 404s.

Old URLs mapped one-to-one to new ones
Every link and form tested on the draft
Performance budget met on mobile
Accessibility scan clean
Analytics, Search Console and sitemap live
Backups and SSL in place

Step five · Launch & after

It goes live, and we stick around

We put it live, then watch it closely for the first fortnight. That is when anything odd shows up. You get a short handover so you know how to do the things you will want to do yourself.

After that it is your call. A care plan covers hosting, updates and small changes if you want one. Plenty do not, and that is fine: the site is yours either way, and nothing stops working if you walk away.

Watched daily for the first two weeks
A handover walkthrough, recorded
Care plan optional, from £49/month
You own the domain, code and content
A real person to call, not a ticket queue

Step one · Process audit

We work out what to build, and what not to

A working session and a written document, normally £495 and free for a limited time. We sit with the people who actually do the job, follow one real case from the moment it arrives to the moment it is invoiced, and write down where the hours go.

The document says what should be built, what should be bought off the shelf, and what should be left alone, with a cost against each. It can still conclude “do not build this”.

Normally £495, free for a limited time
One real case followed end to end
A written recommendation you own
Build, buy or leave alone, costed
No obligation to go any further

Step two · Fixed quote

You get the number and the shape before anything is built

Scope, stages, dependencies, what you need to provide, and the price. In writing, before a line of it exists.

Scope changes get a number attached and are agreed before the work happens rather than invoiced after it. That is the same rule a website build runs on, and it is the one that keeps a systems project from becoming open-ended.

Fixed price, agreed in writing
Broken into stages, each priced
Dependencies named, including yours
Changes quoted before they are built
No hourly billing, no open meter

Step three · Built in stages

The piece that pays back fastest goes first

Each stage goes live on its own before the next one starts. You are never eight weeks in with nothing running.

It also means you can stop at the end of any stage and still own something that works, rather than half of something that does not. That is deliberate: it puts the risk on us to keep earning the next stage.

Highest-payback stage first
Each stage live before the next starts
Stop after any stage with a working system
Nothing depends on a later stage to run
Progress you can see, not a status report

Step four · Real data

Tested with your records, not sample data

A system that works on three tidy examples is not a system. We load real records, including the awkward ones your team already knows about, and run the edge cases before anything is signed off.

The duplicates, the half-finished jobs, the customer with two addresses and the invoice that was raised twice. Those are the cases that break an automation in week three, so they get found in week one.

Your real records, not fixtures
Edge cases agreed up front and tested
Failure behaviour defined, not assumed
The people who will use it try it first
Sign-off against a written test list

Step five · Handover

The code, the accounts and the documentation are yours

Written documentation of what runs, when it runs, and what to do when something fails. Not a video walkthrough that goes out of date.

Everything runs on your accounts and your logins, set up in your name from day one. You get the code, the data and the credentials, so nothing about this is a hostage. The one exception is the managed AI receptionist, which runs on our account so we can answer for it; your number and your call records stay yours.

Written runbook, not a screen recording
Your accounts, your logins, from day one
Source code and data handed over
A named person to call, not a queue
Nothing locked to us

Step six · Monitoring

Watched afterwards, on the same terms as everything else

From £49 a month, no contract, cancellable whenever you like. Failures are caught and dealt with before somebody in the office notices a job did not arrive.

It is not a condition of the build and the system does not stop working if you stop paying for it. That is the whole point of owning the thing.

From £49 a month, no contract
Failures caught before you notice them
Optional, and cancellable any time
The system keeps running either way
Changes quoted, never assumed

Where a project is both a website and the system behind it, the two run as one job with one quote, because the questions the enquiry form asks decide what the automation can route and what the application has to show. How the whole chain is scoped and priced

Your side of it

What we need from you.

Honestly, not much, and the slow part of most projects is not the build, it is waiting on these four things.

One hour

A proper conversation

We interview you about the business and record it. That call becomes your copy, so the site sounds like you rather than like a web designer.

Whatever you have

Photos of real work

Phone photos of actual jobs beat stock photography every time. If you have nothing usable, say so early and we will plan around it.

Between drafts

Unlimited revisions

Currently a live offer: as many rounds as it takes between the first and final draft. Everything in one list still beats a fortnight of drip-fed texts.

Ten minutes

Access, or permission to get it

Domain, existing hosting, Google Business Profile. If you have lost the logins, very common. We will help you recover them.

Timings

What happens at each stage, and where does the time actually go?

Website builds

The order is always the same. How long each stage takes moves a lot with the size of the build, so treat the durations below as a rough shape rather than a promise: you get a real date at quote stage, once we know what the site has to do. The price is fixed in writing before anything starts: from £995 for an entry build, £1,495 upwards for a multi-page site, and what each one includes is on the bespoke web design page. There is a fuller answer on timescales in the FAQ.

Stage	What happens	Rough share of the job	What we need from you	If it slips
Stage one Discovery and structure	Recorded interview about the business, keyword and intent mapping, then the page list and the name of every page agreed.	About a sixth of the project	One hour on a call, plus the domain and Google Business Profile logins, or permission to recover them.	Nothing is built yet, so a late call moves the whole schedule back day for day. This is the cheapest stage to lose.
Stage two Design and build	The homepage built early as a real page you can open on your own phone, with your own words in it, reworked until you are happy, then the rest of the site built around it.	Roughly half of it, and the part that varies most	A decision on the homepage design, and phone photos of real jobs if you have them.	The pinch point. Every day the homepage sits unanswered is a day nothing else can be built on top of it.
Stage three Content and review	Copy written from the interview, images sized and converted, forms and tracking wired in, then a private link to the real site.	About a sixth, plus your reading time	Feedback sent as one list per round, from one named person who can decide.	Feedback drip-fed over a fortnight, or four people with four opinions, is what stalls a launch.
Stage four Final checks and go live	A draft copy on the real hosting, every old address pointed at the right new one, speed and accessibility checked and the reporting connected, then it goes live.	The shortest stage, and never skipped	Your go-ahead in writing, and DNS access if the domain is moving.	A lost registrar login can hold a finished site for a week. Worth checking at the start, not on launch day.
Entry build Start to finish	The same stages in one pass: one call, one design, one review round. From £995.	Days rather than weeks	Same call, faster answers, and your text or photos ready on the day.	There is no slack in a job this short. A day of silence is a day later, with no way to make it up.

Applications and automations

A system is priced by stage, so the clock starts and stops with you.

There is no equivalent table, because there is no standard shape. What there is instead: the systems audit is a twenty-minute interview, with the written document back within a few working days. Each build stage after it is quoted with its own duration, and each one goes live before the next begins, so the honest answer to “how long” is the length of the next stage rather than the length of the project. Most first stages run three to six weeks. The thing that decides it is access: to the data, to the accounts, and to the person who actually knows how the current process works.

A project that is both a website and the system behind it runs the two tracks in parallel rather than end to end, because the site cannot be finished until the enquiry it captures has somewhere to go. How that is scoped as one job

The unglamorous bit

Where projects actually go wrong.

Not in the design. When a project runs late, it is almost always one of these reasons, so it is worth naming them before we start.

Content that never arrives

The most common cause by a mile. It is why we write the copy from an interview instead of sending you a blank document.

Feedback by committee

Four people with four opinions and nobody who can decide. Pick one decision-maker before we start, even if the rest have views.

Scope that grows sideways

"While we are at it, could it also do bookings and a members area?" Fine, but it becomes its own quote and its own timeline, not a free extra.

Expecting SEO overnight

A new site can move quickly on brand and long-tail terms, but competitive local rankings take months. Anyone promising page one in four weeks is selling you something else. The local SEO services page sets out what those months are spent on.

Read this before you enquire

When this is not for you.

We would rather lose the enquiry now than the money later. Five situations where you should hire somebody else.

You want a committee to sign off every stage

This works because the decisions are made by the people doing the work. If four people need to agree on the homepage before anything moves, the unlimited revisions between drafts turn into an unlimited project, and you will be better served by an agency with an account manager whose job is chasing that sign-off.

You need a multi-page site live next week

A single page can be done in days. A multi-page build is measured in weeks, not days, and we will not hit a shorter date by dropping the search work, which is the part that makes the site earn. If you have a fixed deadline, say so on the first call and we will tell you honestly whether it is doable.

You want a stripped-down version of a bigger build

A focused, smaller build starts at £995 and we will steer you to it when it is the right size for what you are doing. What we will not do is quote a thinned-out multi-page build that does half of each job, because one page done properly beats six done badly. You get told that on the first call, not after the invoice.

You need cover, a rota or a two-hour response

We are a small team. We take holidays and we get ill. If your site takes bookings overnight and an hour of downtime costs you real money, an agency with a support desk is the better buy.

You want the site built exactly as you have specified it

We will argue about page structure and wording, because that is the part you are actually paying for. If you have the plan settled and want hands on a keyboard, a freelance developer will be quicker and cheaper.

Next step

Sound like a way you would like to work?

Tell us what the business does and what you want more of. You will get an honest answer and a fixed price.

Start a project → Read the FAQ

Paying for it

Three payments, and you know all three before we start.

Roughly a third of the project cost books the work, a third is due when the first draft is delivered, and the balance is due on delivery of the final draft, before the site goes live. The full price is fixed in writing before anything begins, so the final invoice matches the quote. If the scope genuinely changes mid-project, we price the extra and get your agreement before doing any of it.

How payment is staged across a Werehouse Media project
Stage	Roughly	What it buys
Booking	A third	Your slot in the schedule and the discovery call. Work starts once it clears.
First draft delivered	A third	A real draft on a real URL, not a picture of one. Unlimited revisions run from here.
Final draft delivered	The balance	Due before launch. On the final payment the site becomes yours outright, code, content and accounts.

Bank transfer or card. No retainer required to have a site built, and no subscription that switches something off if you stop paying it.