About the studio

A small studio, with your name on the door.

I'm Dom. I run Sort My Website out of Leigh on Sea, Essex. I build websites for small UK businesses, one at a time, end to end. No account managers, no offshore developers, no platforms you don't understand. Just me and the work.

Send Dom a message See how we work

Why this studio exists.

I spent years building software for large companies. Big teams, long meetings, lots of process. I watched small business owners pay agencies thousands of pounds for websites that arrived late, looked generic, and stopped getting attention the second the invoice cleared.

At the same time, I watched friends running plumbing companies, planning consultancies, beauty salons and shops fight with website builders on the weekend. Templates that almost fit. Buttons that did the wrong thing. The constant low hum of "I should sort the website out at some point."

A proper website should feel like the front door of your business. Quiet, confident, and unmistakably yours.

So I built the kind of studio I'd want as a customer. One person, one phone number, one client at a time. A clean private portal where everything for your project lives. No big agency overheads. No upsell on the third call.

I treat every project like it's my own. If I wouldn't be proud to send the link to a friend, it doesn't go live. That's the only quality bar that matters.

The journey

How we work together.

Structured, friendly progress from first conversation to launch. How long each step takes depends on the size of your project. We agree the dates on our first call and I stick to them.

Step 1 . Discovery

A real conversation, not a brief template.

We start with a proper chat. A phone call, a video chat, or a coffee if you're nearby. Not a slide deck, not a creative brief form. I want to understand what your business actually is, who buys from you, what's working, and what isn't. I'll ask annoying questions like "who's the one customer you'd happily clone." That's the point.

At the end I send you a short written summary of what I heard. If anything's wrong, we fix it before we build. This document becomes the spine of the whole project.

Step 2 . Design

Direction, not surprises.

I lay out the structure of the site, write a first draft of the words, and put together a visual feel. Not a polished mockup. A direction. We look at it together, on a screen, and you tell me what feels right and what doesn't.

This is where we lock in tone of voice and personality. If something's too corporate, too cheeky, too quiet, now is when we change it. It saves a fortune in rework later.

Step 3 . Build

Quiet, focused craft.

This is the part you don't need to be involved in. I'm writing real code, not assembling blocks in a builder. Every page is hand built, tested on phones, tablets and laptops, and tuned for speed.

You can message me any time through your portal with a thought, a photo, a worry. Otherwise, the best thing you can do is run your business. I'll send a check in midway through so you know it's going well.

Step 4 . Review

The honest read through.

You get a private preview link inside your portal. I want you to read every word out loud. I want you to click every button. I want your partner, your business partner, and the friend who's good with their phone to give it a go.

You send me the list of changes, however long. We work through it together. Nothing goes live until you'd happily send the link to your best customer.

Step 5 . Launch

I take care of the unglamorous bits.

Domain pointing, SSL, redirects from your old site, Google Business Profile, analytics, search indexing, social previews. All the things that make the difference between a site that exists and a site that gets found.

Then you're sharing the link with customers. We celebrate, quietly, by getting on with the next thing.

Aftercare

The bit other agencies forget.

A website isn't a project, it's a living thing. New service, new offer, new opening hours, new photo from a job last week. Most updates land the same day you ask for them. Some within the hour.

You'll never have to log into a CMS, watch a tutorial, or ring a support line. You'll send a quick request through your portal and the change will be live before you've finished your tea.

Why me

What you're really paying for when you work with me.

Anyone can put a website on the internet. The reason to work with a small studio like this one is the things you don't see on the homepage.

You get the same person all the way through.

From the first call to the launch and beyond, you're talking to me. No handoff to a developer in a different time zone. No "I'll need to check with the team." The person who hears what you want is the person who builds it.

Hand built, not assembled.

I write real code, not page builder blocks. Your site loads faster, ranks better, and won't quietly break next time a platform pushes an update. It also means I can change anything you want, anytime, without fighting a template.

No big agency overheads.

I don't have a London office, an account team, or a project management layer to fund. Every pound you pay buys actual design and build time. That's why a small studio can produce work that competes with much bigger agencies.

I treat your site like my own.

I think about it in the shower. I notice when the homepage feels off six months after launch and message you about it. I'm not running fifty accounts. I run a handful, properly, and I'd rather turn work away than spread myself thin.

Real availability, not a portal.

You get a clean inbox in the client portal with threaded replies, and a real human reply from me, usually within the hour. No corporate queues, no out of office bot, no "your dedicated account manager will respond in three working days."

You own the work.

Your domain, your content, your site files. If you ever decide to take the whole thing somewhere else, I'll hand over a clean folder of code and walk you through the move. That's how it should be.

Who I work with

Trades, planning consultancies, professional services, local shops, anyone in the UK running a small business that deserves a proper website.

Currently working with The Plan Company on their new home online.

Questions

Things people ask before booking.

How much does it cost?

It depends on the shape of your business and how much there is to build. Some sites are a single confident page, some are a dozen pages with a booking system. I price each project on its own, and I'd rather talk it through with you on a call than print a number out of context.

The 15 minute discovery call is the right place to get a clear, honest answer. No pressure, no quote on the spot, no obligation.

How long does the whole thing take?

It depends on the size of the project. A small focused single-page site can launch in a couple of weeks. A bigger build with bookings, multiple services and lots of content takes longer. We agree a realistic timeline on the first call and I stick to it.

What do you need from me?

An hour for the discovery call, a few hours across the project for reviewing drafts, and your honest reactions. That's it. You don't need a brief, a brand book, or a list of competitors. If you have them, great. If not, we work it out together.

What if I don't have logos, photos or content?

Most clients don't, fully. I'll help you take good phone photos of the bits we need, source stock imagery for the rest, and I'll write the first draft of every page myself. You read it, mark it up, we refine. By the end you have words that sound like you, not like a template.

Do I own the site at the end?

Yes. Your domain stays in your name, your content and photos are yours, and if you ever want the full set of site files I'll send them over. There's no platform that owns you and no "your data lives in our system."

What happens after launch?

You stay on a small monthly care fee covering hosting, your domain renewal, SSL, daily backups, monthly health checks, and small content updates whenever you ask. New pages, blog posts and bigger changes are quoted on top before any work starts.

Can you handle SEO?

Yes, properly. I build sites that load fast, use clean semantic markup, and have proper page structures. For local businesses I set up Google Business Profile and the structured data Google needs. For businesses where search matters more, we plan a sensible content programme together.

What if I'm not technical?

Good. You shouldn't have to be. That's what I'm for. You'll never see code, never log into hosting, never deal with DNS. If you can send a message through the site, you can run your website forever.

Can I leave if it isn't working out?

Yes, once the minimum term is up. The care arrangement runs for a minimum of 12 months from launch so I can plan around it properly. After that it goes month to month, cancel any time with one month's notice in writing. Your domain, your content and your site files all come with you. I'd much rather you stay because the work is good.

Right, let's have a proper chat.

Tell me a bit about your business. I'll reply by email within a few hours, often the same evening. No slides, no pitch, no obligation.