Livery is the old word for how a company shows itself to the world. Its colours, its mark, its face. For most businesses round here that is now a website nobody has touched since 2015, and it is the only one your customers ever look at.
A real business, shown here with the owner’s permission.
Demonstrations, not clients. None of these six businesses exists, and I would rather say so than dress them up.
Each one is a real working site on the internet, built the same way yours would be. Open them on your phone, because that is where nearly everyone will see yours.
First, what I found over and over loading 262 of them one evening. Then the same business, built this year.
Built for a desktop monitor in 2015 and squeezed onto a phone since. Text you have to pinch to read, a phone number you cannot tap, and everything shouting at once.
One thing to read at a time, a number that rings you when it is tapped, and your prices where people go looking for them. On the screen in about a second.
Four steps, about a fortnight, and you are not chased for anything in between.
On the phone or in your shop, whichever suits. I want to know what you actually sell, who rings you, and what people ask before they book. Not a brief, a conversation. You get a straight price at the end of it and no follow-up unless you ask for one.
I build the front page properly, with your words and your prices, and send you a link. Not a wireframe or a mock-up in a PDF, the real thing on a real phone. If you do not like it, you have lost nothing and you keep it.
The rest of the pages, your domain registered in your name, the certificate, the maps listing, and two rounds of changes if you want anything moved. I test it on an actual phone before it goes anywhere near live.
Hosting, backups and monitoring so I usually know it is down before you do. An hour of changes a month whenever you want them, and a full refresh once a year at no extra cost. This is the part almost nobody else does, and it is the reason half the sites round here say 2015 at the bottom.
And, just as usefully, what you will not be sold.
Not a list of features. The things a customer standing outside your shop actually does with it.
They fill it in on the pavement and it is in your inbox before they have put the phone away. Nothing to log into, no messages sitting somewhere you never look.
Nearly everyone finds you on a phone. Tapping the number rings you. Making them write it down and try later means most of them do not.
Your hours, your address and a map that opens directions in one tap. It is what people check most often and it is wrong on most sites round here.
What you charge, on the page, so nobody rings to ask and then does not book. When they go up you text me and they are changed that day.
A gallery of jobs you have actually done, and it can pull straight from your Instagram, so posting once puts it in both places without you thinking about it.
Google Business set up properly, your details identical everywhere they appear, and pages written around what you do and the town you do it in.
On a normal phone signal, not on your office wifi. A slow site does not irritate people, it loses them before they have read your name.
Hosting, an SSL certificate that renews itself, and every version of your site kept so an earlier one can go straight back. When it breaks you ring me on my mobile rather than raise a ticket.
Being honest about where each one wins, including where I do not.
| Do it yourself | Livery & Co | A design agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| To get started | £0 plus your evenings | Quoted after a call | £4,000 to £10,000 |
| How long it takes you | Weeks of your own time | One twenty minute call | Meetings, briefs, revisions |
| Who fixes it at 8pm | You do | Me, on my mobile | A ticket, in the morning |
| Changes later | You, if you remember how | Included, ask me | Billed hourly, minimum charge |
| Who owns the domain | You | You | Usually them, check |
| Where it is better than me | It is free, and it is yours | — | Bigger jobs, brand work, e-commerce |
If you need a shop that takes payments, a booking system with staff rotas, or a full rebrand, an agency is the right answer and I will tell you that on the call rather than take the job.
Every job is quoted on its own. A one page site for a dog groomer and a fifteen page site for a dental practice are not the same work, so they are not the same price. No VAT on top, no setup fee, and you have the number in writing before I start.
Half when you approve the first version, half the day it goes live. Two rounds of changes in between.
What it costs depends on how many pages you need and how much of the writing and the photographs you already have. You get the number in writing before anything starts, never after.Hosting, your domain, the certificate, backups, monitoring, an hour of changes, and a refresh every year. Twelve months minimum, then thirty days' notice.
Cancel and the site is still yours. So is the domain.I build the first version before you pay anything. If you do not like it, you owe me nothing.
This is not an introductory offer and it does not run out. I would rather spend the hours building something you can actually look at than spend them talking a stranger into handing over four figures. So I do the work first. You open it on your own phone, in your own time, and if it is not right you say so and that is the end of it. Nothing owed, and I will not chase you afterwards.
Putting the risk on my side is the point of it. You should not have to pay to find out whether I am any good.
Written down here so there is nothing to discover later.
You pay nothing until the first version is built and you are happy with it. Not a deposit to get started, not a fee to see a mock-up, not a charge for the call. Nothing.
Once you have looked at the first version and want it, half the build fee is due. An invoice, paid by bank transfer, and I carry on with the rest of the site.
The balance is due when the site is live and working on your own domain. One more invoice, thirty days to pay it, and no charges bolted on at the end.
The monthly begins the month after the site goes live, never before, by Direct Debit. Twelve months minimum, then thirty days' written notice and it stops.
It is bought at cost and registered in your name from the first day, not in mine. If you ever leave, it goes with you, and so does the site.
The things people actually ask, answered the way I would answer on the phone.
Because a website is not a thing you finish, it is a thing you keep. The hosting has to be paid, the certificate has to be renewed, and your prices change. The firms that charge you once and disappear are why so many local sites are broken. If you would rather pay once and never see me again, I am the wrong person and I would rather say so now.
Not because I promised it. What I will do is the part that genuinely matters for a local business: your Google Business listing set up properly, your address and hours consistent everywhere, a site that loads fast on a phone, and pages that actually say what you do and where. That is most of local search. Anyone quoting you a guaranteed position is quoting you a guess.
The Care Plan runs for twelve months from the day the site goes live, then thirty days' written notice whenever you like. I am straight about that rather than burying it: the build is priced knowing the plan follows it, and a site nobody maintains is the problem I am selling against. You keep the site files and you keep the domain, which is registered to you and transfers within five working days of asking, whether or not we have fallen out. What stops is the hosting, the backups and me.
Then it is the same job and the same price. I rebuild it properly rather than patching it, keep whatever is worth keeping, and point your existing address at the new one so nobody who has bookmarked you gets lost. If your current one is fine and just needs the hours changing, I will tell you that too.
I am starting out, and I would rather you heard it from me than worked it out. What that gets you is my full attention and a price that will not stay this low once I have a waiting list. What it costs you is a portfolio you cannot inspect. So open the demonstration sites at the top of this page instead, and judge the work rather than the reputation.
Your logo if you have one, a few photographs if you have them, and half an hour of answering questions. If you have none of that, I will write it from the conversation and take the photographs on my phone, which for most shops is genuinely better than stock images of someone else's premises.
A name, a face and a number that rings a person. You should not have to work any of that out before you spend money.
No charge, no obligation, and you keep the mock-up whether or not you go ahead. If I do not think I can improve on what you have, I will say so.
I build the first version before you pay anything. If you do not like it, you owe me nothing.
You can also find me on Instagram at @liveryandco
