about
a studio of one, on purpose
The person you brief is the person who builds it, hosts it, and picks up the phone when something breaks two years later.
background
I was born in Godalming and have lived here all my life, give or take a year and a bit in Kent. I built my first website for somebody else while I was still at school, and have been doing it ever since.
I build websites and business applications, and I look after the hosting, email and networks behind them. Clients range from sole traders to an international tax consultancy, taking in solicitors, architects, roofers, a distillery and a charity along the way. None of them have an IT department, and most have no wish to start one. A firm with a website problem usually also has an email problem, a device problem, and a "nobody knows where that spreadsheet lives" problem.
You speak to the person doing the work. Nobody sells you one thing and builds you another, and nothing gets lost between the meeting and the build.
Some of that IT I look after myself. Where a firm wants the full managed service, a helpdesk, device management and someone on the end of the phone all day, I point them at MFC IT Services. I have worked with MFC for over six years and I work there myself, so it is not a referral into the unknown. It is the same people, with more of them.
Outside work there are two dogs, Norman and Linda, a reef tank that demands more attention than most of my clients, and a house with rather more automation in it than strictly necessary.
how I work
understand the problem first
01The first conversation is about what is going wrong, what you want to change or what isn't working, not about what you would like built. The brief often changes.
quote properly, once
02A fixed scope and a fixed price, with the assumptions written down. If the scope changes we talk about it before the work happens, not on the invoice.
build to be handed over
03Documented, standard technology, and no dependency on a framework I happen to like this year. You should be able to hire someone else to work on it, if you want to.
stay available
04The majority of my clients have been with me for years. The build is the beginning of the relationship, not the end of the transaction.
start with the problem
Tell me what you are trying to fix and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it. No obligation, and no sales call.
The fact find takes about five minutes and means I can quote properly.
