How working together actually runs.

Email arrives at rich@flexiweb.digital. It goes straight to me — not a shared inbox, not an assistant, not a CRM queue. I read every one properly and reply inside one working day, usually the same morning.

The reply is short and honest. Usually it’s some version of “yes, this sounds like work I can do well — here are the two or three things I’d want to understand before we talk properly,” or “this isn’t quite my lane — here’s someone I’d genuinely recommend instead.” No long brochures, no “our team will be in touch.”

You send

A paragraph or two about what you’re trying to do and roughly when.

You get

An honest first read inside a working day, including whether I’m the right person at all.

Costs

Nothing — ever. The first conversation is always free.

If the email exchange suggests we’re a fit, the next step is a 30-minute conversation. In-person is always my preference if you’re within reasonable reach — Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester — and I’ll come to you at no charge. Video call (Google Meet or Zoom) is the easy default when travel isn’t practical, especially for a first introduction. For prospects further afield in the UK who’d like me to come to them in person, that becomes a paid discovery session — with the fee credited against the project if we go ahead.

The point of the call is to get to a sensible scope, not to sell. I want to understand the business behind the website, what success actually looks like for you, what’s working with the current site (more often than people expect), what isn’t, and what would have to be true for you to consider this engagement a good use of money in twelve months’ time. No deck, no “capabilities overview”, no five-people-on-the-call. Just a conversation.

By the end of the call we’ll both have a clear sense of whether to go further. About a quarter of these calls end with both of us politely concluding that I’m not the right consultant for the work — and that’s a good outcome, because the alternative is taking on the wrong project and underdelivering.

You bring

Roughly where the business is, what the site needs to do, and any rough budget shape if you have one.

You get

An honest read on whether this is a fit, what good next steps would look like, and any recommendations either way.

Costs

Still nothing.

Within a week of the discovery call, you get a short written proposal — usually one to three pages, never the twenty-slide deck most agencies send. It covers exactly what I’d do, what it costs, how long it would take, and what I need from you for it to work. Fixed fee where the scope allows it, monthly retainer for ongoing work, day-rate only when the shape of the job genuinely needs it.

For one-off fixed-fee builds, payment is 30% to start, 70% on launch — clean, easy to track, and well-suited to a project of known scope. That said, about seven in ten Flexiweb engagements aren’t one-off builds at all — they’re monthly retainers (SEO, AEO, or maintenance), billed in advance on the same date each month, cancellable on one month’s notice. Day-rate work, when the shape of the job genuinely calls for it, is invoiced fortnightly. Whichever model fits the work, it’s named clearly in the proposal so there are no surprises later.

The proposal is also the contract. If we both agree, you sign it (or email back “yes, proceed” — both have the same legal weight in practice for a small engagement) and the first invoice goes out. From this point onwards there are no surprise costs — if anything changes during the work, we agree the change and its cost in writing before doing it. Scope creep is a managed conversation, not an end-of-project shock.

You receive

A short, plain-English proposal that doubles as the contract.

Decision

You say yes, no, or “can we tweak X” — all three are fine.

Then

First invoice, kickoff date in the calendar.

Engagements come in four shapes and run on different clocks. A standard 5–15 page WordPress build runs four to eight weeks from kickoff to launch; bigger or more bespoke jobs can stretch to twelve. An AI-powered website on a similar page count usually sits at the upper end of that range — six to twelve weeks — because the AI features (conversational search, on-page assistants, generated answer surfaces) need prompt design, evaluation, and testing alongside the build. A bespoke AI web app is more variable: a focused tool like a quote generator or lead qualifier is typically four to ten weeks; an internal dashboard with multiple integrations can run a full quarter. And retainers — SEO, AEO, maintenance — run monthly on an indefinite basis, with the first month being groundwork-heavy and quieter from there.

Once we’re in flight, the rhythm is genuinely calm. Most weeks, I’m the one doing the work, you’re the one running your business, and the only contact is a short Friday update from me telling you what’s done, what’s next, and what (if anything) I need from you. Inboxes do not need a daily standup. Trello boards do not need to be kept warm.

Decisions happen by email or on a 20-minute call when there’s something genuinely worth deciding — usually two or three of those per build. Everything we agree gets recorded in a single shared doc so we can both look back at what was said in March without trying to remember. No ticketing system, no client portal, no “please log it in Asana.”

From me

Weekly Friday update. Decision-prompt emails as and when. Drafts and previews on a staging URL.

From you

Quick responses to decision prompts (a working day or two is fine). Source content where I’ve flagged that I need it.

Where it lives

Email, one shared Google Doc, and a private staging URL only we have.

Launches happen mid-morning on a Tuesday or Wednesday by default — never Friday afternoon, never Monday before nine. The mid-week morning gives us the rest of the week to spot and fix anything odd while everyone is at their desks. Anybody who launches a small business site at 5pm on a Friday is taking an unnecessary risk for no real benefit.

Practically, launch day means: a final pre-flight check on a staging copy of the site, DNS update on your domain, monitoring for the first few hours, and a short note to you confirming we’re live. Old URLs get 301 redirects to the new ones where the structure has changed, so nothing externally linked breaks. Search Console and analytics get updated to track the new property.

The first thirty days after launch are a settling-in period: any genuine bugs, broken links, or small content tweaks are fixed at no extra cost. You also get a one-hour training session walking your team through the things you’ll actually do routinely — publishing posts, swapping images, editing key pages — plus a short written handover doc covering credentials, hosting, where the backups live, and the bits worth knowing six months from now. After the thirty days, anything beyond a tiny tweak either falls under a maintenance retainer or is quoted separately.

Timing

Mid-morning, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Included

Redirects, monitoring, search-console setup, and a calm post-launch first week.

You receive

The keys — domain, hosting, and all credentials in your own accounts, not mine.

After launch, most clients move onto one of the three website maintenance tiers — the boring monthly work that keeps the site healthy: updates, backups, security patching, the occasional “could you just” tweak. Same person doing it, same known day each month, known monthly figure. Or, if the original engagement was SEO/AEO, the retainer continues on the same monthly cadence covered in those service pages.

Ongoing isn’t compulsory. Plenty of clients launch a site, take it away, and run it themselves — or hand it to a different developer entirely. The site belongs to you, the hosting account is in your name, the codebase is in a repository you can access. If we ever stop working together, nothing breaks and you don’t need permission from me to do anything with the site.

For clients who do continue, the relationship typically lasts several years. The longest current maintenance client has been with me since 2018. That kind of continuity is, honestly, the entire point of the small-list, personal-service model — you’re not handed off to a junior the moment the launch invoice clears.

Cadence

Monthly retainer or pay-as-you-need — your call, no pressure either way.

Cancellation

One month’s notice from either side, no penalties.

If you leave

You keep the site, the hosting, the domain, and all credentials. No exit fee, no held-hostage hosting.