Questions I get asked before we start.
You're busy running a business and you don't have time for guesswork. Here are the questions I hear most often, answered straight: no sales spin, no "depends on your needs" cop-outs.
What it costs, and how I quote it.
Every business has different needs, so I don't believe in one-size-fits-all pricing. A basic site for a local startup needs a different strategy than a complex platform for a growing corporation. I provide custom quotes based on the specific goals we set together, so you only pay for the features that will actually drive bookings, calls, or foot traffic for your business. Think of it as an investment in a tool that earns its keep every month.
Not as a pricing menu. Every quote is custom because every business is. That said, most engagements fall into one of three shapes: an essentials site (~6 weeks), a brand + site bundle (~10 weeks), or a full engagement with SEO and support (~12 weeks and ongoing). I quote a flat fee after discovery, no hourly billing, no surprise add-ons.
How a project actually goes.
Most projects run six to twelve weeks from kickoff to launch. A focused essentials site for a single-location business is closer to six weeks. A full brand identity paired with a larger website, custom photography, and content development runs closer to twelve. I give you a real timeline at the start, not a guess. If something is going to push the date, I tell you before it happens.
Most involvement happens at the start (discovery, content) and at the design review stage. Build and launch require less from you. Plan for a few hours per week during active phases, much less during quiet phases.
We talk about it. If it fits the timeline and original scope, we add it. If it doesn't, I tell you what it would take to add it as a phase two. Either way, the scope only changes after we've talked it through.
Two rounds of revisions are built into every project. If the first direction isn't working, we course-correct early. I'd rather adjust at the mood stage than discover a mismatch at the comp stage.
What happens once the site is live.
Yes. Every site I build runs on a content management system you can log into and edit yourself: text, photos, blog posts, services, all of it. I walk you through it after launch and leave you with a written guide. If you'd rather not touch it, my Ongoing Support plan covers updates for you.
Launch is the start, not the finish. My Ongoing Support and Hosting plans cover security updates, backups, plugin maintenance, small content edits, local SEO monitoring, and Google Business Profile work. Every plan runs on dedicated virtual cloud servers with premium plugins included. You get a real person to email (me) during business hours, Mon–Fri 8:30am–4:30pm. And if you ever decide to leave, the site is yours once paid in full. I hand it over clean.
Most of my clients stay on for years after launch. The Ongoing Support plans are the most common arrangement, but I also do one-off project work for past clients when they need an update, a new section, or a refresh. The work stays with me. The client list stays small on purpose so I can actually keep that relationship real.
Whether we're a good match.
Most of my clients are in Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus because being local is part of how I work: coffee meetings and site visits, with a face across the table. But I've built sites for businesses across Ohio and a handful beyond it. If you're a brick-and-mortar that values a real partner over a vendor, location isn't a dealbreaker. We just do a few more video calls instead.
A freelancer typically works alone with limited resources. An agency typically has a team but adds account managers, junior staff, and overhead to your invoice. Designed by John is a third option. One ex-agency designer with 13+ years of experience, agency-level craft, no handoffs, and trusted partners brought in only when a project needs specialized expertise.
A few common signals: your site is more than four or five years old; mobile traffic shows up but doesn't convert; you feel embarrassed sending people there; the business has changed but the site hasn't; or you can't find your business on Google for searches that should be easy. If you want a more tailored answer, I built a two-question quiz that takes about a minute.
What's under the hood.
WordPress, in most cases. It's the most flexible content management system for the kind of small business work I do: easy to edit, well-supported, deep plugin ecosystem, no monthly platform fee tied to a closed system. I host every site on dedicated virtual cloud servers (not shared hosting) and bundle premium plugins into every Ongoing Support plan, so the site stays fast and secure without you having to source those plugins yourself. If your project has a specific reason to use something other than WordPress (a headless setup, a static site, a specific eCommerce platform), we talk it through during discovery.
Content writing is part of every custom project. I draft from our discovery conversation, you edit and approve. If you already have copy written, we work with what you have and only touch what needs adjusting. I'm not a separate copywriter or a content factory, but writing is part of building a custom site that actually communicates what you do, and I have been doing it for 13+ years. If a project needs heavier content production (long-form articles, regular blog posts, video scripts), I bring in a trusted partner.
Depends on what's wrong and how the site was built. If the foundation is solid and you just need updates, polish, or new features, I can usually work with what you have. If the foundation is the problem (broken structure, no real SEO, hard to update), a rebuild is often faster and cheaper than fixing piece by piece. I'll tell you honestly which one applies after looking at your site.
That's a real option. I do standalone SEO engagements when the existing site is good enough to work with. If the site is the bottleneck, I'll say so up front instead of taking the SEO money and getting limited results.