Most web developers show you a proposal. I show you your website — live, at a real address, with your name and your words on it — before any money changes hands.
It started as a way of doing right by people. It turned out to be the best sales pitch I have, so now it's just how every build works.
Five steps. The first two cost you nothing but ten minutes of answers.
The brief asks what you do, who it's for, your story, your colours, sites you love. Half-sentences and voice-notes-turned-text are perfect. It autosaves, so dip in and out.
Within days you get a link. Not a mood board, not a wireframe — a live website: your name, your story, your vibe, working forms. Anything you haven't told me yet appears as a clearly-marked space, so you can see exactly what your answers will unlock.
Still nothing to pay. If it doesn't make you feel something, walk away — no hard feelings, no invoice.Every prototype ships with a "leave a note" button in the corner. Tap it, type what you love or hate — attach a screenshot if it helps — and it lands straight in my inbox. Feedback usually goes live the same day, so the site becomes a conversation, not a reveal.
Real prices, your photos, your schedule drop in as you send them. And where there's something worth owning yourself — like your domain name — I don't do it for you: you get a plain-English walkthrough, you do it, and I'm on the end of a screenshot if you get stuck. My clients hold their own keys.
Before you commit, you get a private running-costs page: every pound you'll ever pay, researched against live prices — including the tricks to avoid, like first-year teaser pricing and checkout add-ons you never needed. One agreed build fee. No meter running.
These aren't marketing lines — they're on the private costs page every client gets, in writing.
Your domain, your accounts, your payments — registered to you, paid by you, owned by you from day one. Nothing is locked to Tailored Tools. If we ever part ways, you lose nothing.
Renewal price jumps, VAT quirks, currency fees, upsells at checkout — the traps are documented on your costs page before you meet them. Free tiers first; you only pay for tools once the business justifies them.
Every build teaches you to run what's yours — the same no-jargon approach as the Kent AI meet-ups and workshops. The goal is a business owner who can't be held hostage by a developer. Including me.
A recent build for a Kent yoga teacher, exactly as it happened.
She sends her twelve answers over — services, story, "calm, warm and playful", a couple of websites she loves.
The site is live. Her story near-verbatim, her logo drawn as a constellation in a night sky, working contact and mailing-list forms, and clearly-marked spaces for everything still to come.
Her first note arrives through the site's own feedback button: two new sections she'd love, plus things she's already sorted. All of it live by that evening.
Real timetable and prices on the page, and she's registering her own domain, in her own account, with her own card — from a step-by-step walkthrough written just for her.
About £12 — to her domain registrar, not to me. The build fee gets agreed once she's seen exactly what she's buying.
Twelve questions, ten minutes, nothing to pay. The worst case is you'll have written a really good brief.