Small Websites, Real Business Problems
A website doesn’t have to be large or technically complex to solve an important business problem. Over the past twenty-five years, we’ve designed and developed websites for independent businesses, established companies, creative professionals, charities and specialist organisations, each with their own practical requirements.
Sometimes the challenge is reaching customers beyond a traditional local market. Sometimes it’s replacing a time-consuming manual process, integrating an existing business system, making a large body of information easier to manage, or simply giving a client greater control over their online presence. The scale and technology vary, but the principle remains the same:
Understand the problem first, then build the website around what the organisation actually needs.
The projects below are some of our smaller websites, but each provides an example of a real world problem and the digital solution we developed to address it.
DJ Gemmill Training Services
Like many traditional farming businesses, DJ Gemmill has had to diversify to create additional sources of income and keep the farm commercially sustainable. Alongside its agricultural work and farm management services, the business now delivers accredited land-based machinery and arboriculture training, as well as a growing range of courses and experiences.
We built a WooCommerce based booking and payment system capable of accommodating the different ways these courses and experiences are delivered. The team can manage course dates, availability, bookings and products themselves, with customers able to choose and pay for what they need online. Where the standard booking functionality didn’t quite reflect how the courses operate, we adapted it accordingly. The result is a system that allows a relatively complex and evolving part of the business to be managed internally without creating an equivalent administrative burden.
Services: WooCommerce Development, Integrations & Automation
Emmett’s
Emmett’s has been producing ham and bacon from its shop and smokehouse in Peasenhall since 1820, using traditional methods that have attracted attention well beyond its Suffolk customer base. The challenge is turning that interest into something commercially useful: a physical shop can only reach so far, while Emmett’s premium products have a potential market across the country.
Their Shopify ecommerce site extends the reach of the shop nationally, allowing customers who discover Emmett’s through television, press, social media or word of mouth to buy directly online. It also gives us the flexibility to respond to the highly seasonal nature of the business, particularly the important Christmas trading period, with products, collections and content prepared around changing demand. In this case, ecommerce isn’t about replacing a traditional shop; it’s about giving a distinctive local business a much larger shop window.
Services: Shopify Development, Web Design & Ecommerce
Whirlwind Weddings
Wedding venues have a finite number of dates to sell and, unlike many products, unsold availability can’t be carried forward. Whirlwind Weddings was created to market a distinct range of fixed date, short lead time wedding packages, giving couples access to exclusive use venues at a lower price in return for embracing date specific availability
We developed a focused WordPress website around that proposition, supported by targeted Google Ads activity designed to reach couples actively looking for this type of wedding. Rather than trying to reproduce everything available through the main Country House Weddings websites, the site has a much simpler job; explain the offer, showcase the available venues and turn interest into enquiries that the wedding team can follow up directly.
Services: WordPress Development, Google Ads Management, Content Marketing
PenguinPak
Limehouse Paperboard Mills manufactures products for a broad range of industries, but PenguinPak addresses a very specific problem, providing effective thermal protection for temperature sensitive goods using a paper based alternative to conventional expanded polystyrene packaging.
We created a dedicated website that allows this proposition to stand independently from Limehouse’s wider manufacturing offer. Rather than trying to explain everything the parent company does, the site concentrates on the questions prospective PenguinPak customers actually need answered; how the insulation works, how it performs, where it can be used and how easily it can be tested in their own packaging. Clear routes to request samples, technical data or speak to the Limehouse team then turn that focused product information into qualified commercial enquiries.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design, Google Ads Manangement, Content Marketing
Holiday with Style
Holiday with Style was established around a small fleet of luxury motorhomes available for holidays throughout the UK and Europe. With three vehicles to manage, the website needed to do more than simply promote the business: customers needed to be able to see what was available, choose the right motorhome and make a booking online.
We built the site around a dedicated booking system that allows Holiday with Style to manage the availability of Rose, Lily and Poppy while giving customers a straightforward route from researching their trip to reserving a vehicle. It’s a relatively simple website solving a practical business requirement; helping a small fleet spend more time out on hire, without every booking having to be managed manually.
Services: WordPress Development, Integrations & Automation, Google Ads Manangement, Content Marketing
Oswicks Property Professionals
Oswicks brings together several different property disciplines under one business, including residential and commercial estate agency, lettings and property management, building surveying and architectural services. The website therefore needs to do considerably more than a typical professional services site, presenting that breadth clearly while also managing a constantly changing portfolio of properties for sale and rent.
We developed a bespoke content management and property system that gives the Oswicks team control over both sides of the website. Alongside managing their wider services and content, they can publish residential and commercial properties, upload photographs and documents and handle enquiries, while customers can search and filter available properties using criteria including location, price and number of bedrooms. The complexity sits largely behind the scenes, giving Oswicks a system built around the different ways their business actually operates.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Integrations & Automation, Google Ads Manangement, Content Marketing
Jones Forestry & Timber
Jones Forestry & Timber works with farms, estates, woodland owners, wildlife trusts and forestry consultants on everything from woodland management and tree surgery to timber extraction, milling, fencing, biomass and firewood. Much of that work is connected by a straightforward principle of managing local woodland sustainably while making productive use of the timber it generates.
We created a simple WordPress website that brings those different services together, explains the specialist equipment and capabilities behind them, and gives prospective customers a clear route into the part of the business relevant to them, making it easy for them to get in touch.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Kersey Freight
Kersey Freight is a national road haulage specialist operating a large modern fleet from depots in Suffolk and Yorkshire. Alongside general distribution and container transport, the company specialises in areas including hazardous cargo and fertiliser, where experience, compliance and the right equipment are particularly important.
We have designed and developed several generations of the Kersey Freight website, with the current site bringing together its haulage capabilities, fleet, industry accreditations and recruitment activity in a straightforward and easily managed format.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Digital Strategy
Nic Webb
Artist and maker Nic Webb creates work in wood and clay that is exhibited internationally. With a substantial and growing body of work to present online, the website needed to function as a portfolio without its design competing for attention with the objects themselves.
We developed a bespoke PHP website around a deliberately minimal interface, giving individual works the space and prominence they need while providing a simple structure through which Nic can present his wider portfolio and exhibitions. The result is an intentionally understated website where the technology and design sit quietly behind the work.
Services: Bespoke Web Development
Percival & Company
Percival & Company is an independent family run firm of property professionals, with its property portfolio already managed through REAPIT Property Sales Software. Rather than asking the team to maintain a separate set of property listings on their website, we developed the site to use their existing property management system as its source of information.
A bespoke integration automatically synchronises sales and lettings data from REAPIT with the website throughout the day, including property details, prices and availability as well as photos, floorplans, brochures and virtual tours. Changes are made once, in the system Percival already uses to run its property business, and the website is kept up to date automatically, reducing duplicated administration and the risk of information becoming inconsistent between systems.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Systems Integration & Automation
Timberscape
Timberscape is a family run Suffolk business providing professional tree surgery and arboricultural services alongside fencing, hedge maintenance, site clearance, milling and other specialist tree and garden services.
We have worked with Timberscape for a number of years and developed several iterations of their website as the business has evolved. The latest is a straightforward WordPress site that clearly presents the growing range of services available, provides space to showcase recent work and gives prospective customers an easy way to find the service they need and get in touch.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Belchamp Hall
Belchamp Hall is a historic Suffolk country estate offering accommodation, private tours and events, with an unusual screen history of its own. It appeared regularly as the fictional Felsham Hall in the BBC series Lovejoy, and more recently provided a filming location for Downton Abbey: A New Era.
The WordPress site brings together its history, accommodation, events and filming connections while giving the Belchamp Hall team control over content as the estate’s offering develops. Accommodation is presented through the site, with bookings handled separately by its specialist booking partner.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Sewfine
Sewfine has been manufacturing, supplying and installing commercial curtains, blinds and upholstery since 1976, working with hospitality businesses and major brands across the UK. As the company has grown, its offer has expanded into new areas including commercial exterior products and bespoke furnishings for domestic interiors.
We developed a flexible WordPress website that has been able to grow alongside the business, giving each of these areas its own space while keeping them connected under the Sewfine brand. The site now accommodates an extensive portfolio of completed projects, specialist product ranges and services, allowing Sewfine to continue expanding its online presence as new areas of the business develop.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Brickwall Farm
Brickwall Farm is a working family farm that has diversified into a number of different areas, including self-catering holiday accommodation, weddings and events, business premises and the sale of produce from the farm itself. As those activities have developed, the website has needed to accommodate an increasingly varied mix of customers and requirements.
We developed a WordPress and WooCommerce website that brings those different parts of the business together in one place. Visitors can explore the holiday cottages and their facilities, check availability through an integrated third-party booking service, enquire about weddings and events, or buy products including pasture fed meat, rare breed wool and yarn, timber products and firewood online. The site provides a flexible platform that can continue to accommodate new activities as the farm finds further ways to make productive use of its land, livestock and facilities.
Services: WooCommerce Development, WordPress Development
Ava Lee
Ava Lee is a musician, songwriter and performer whose growing catalogue of music and live performances is distributed across a range of different platforms. We created a simple WordPress website that brings those different strands together, providing a central home for her music, videos, live dates, photography and latest activity.
The site connects listeners directly with Ava’s music on services including Spotify and Apple Music, while providing mailing list sign up, booking contact details and a downloadable press kit for promoters and other industry contacts. It is designed to be easily updated as new music is released and new performances are announced.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Steven Hartley
Steven Hartley has worked extensively across television, film, theatre, voice acting and video games during a career spanning more than 40 years. With such a long and varied body of work, information about his career is inevitably spread across broadcasters, production companies, entertainment databases, fan sites and other sources over which he has little control.
We developed Steven’s official website to give him his own authoritative record of that work and greater control over how information about his career is presented online. The site brings together his television, film, theatre, voice and video game credits, alongside showreels, photography and details of current projects, with selected roles explored in greater depth. It provides journalists, casting professionals, fans and anyone searching for Steven’s work with information published directly through his own online presence.
Services: Bespoke Web Development
Take A Pew
Take A Pew specialises in restoring and reupholstering 20th century furniture, selling individually refurbished chairs alongside a bespoke upholstery service for customers with furniture of their own.
We developed a WordPress website that allows Susan to keep the collection up to date as newly restored pieces become available, while using previous work to showcase the quality and variety of her upholstery. The site brings together chairs currently for sale, bespoke services and a wider portfolio, giving customers inspiration as well as a straightforward way to enquire about a particular piece or their own furniture.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
Lesley Teare
Textile artist and cross stitch designer Lesley Teare sells her patterns to customers around the world, but fulfilling digital orders manually had become an increasingly time consuming part of running the business. We developed a bespoke ecommerce website to automate that process, allowing customers to browse and purchase designs online without each order requiring Lesley’s involvement.
Behind the shop is a custom ordering and digital fulfilment system integrating PayPal payments with customer accounts, order histories and protected pattern downloads. Once an order has been completed, the purchased designs are made available securely through the customer’s account using controlled download links. This substantially reduces the administration involved in each sale, allowing the website to handle much of the process automatically while Lesley concentrates on creating new designs.
Services: Bespoke Ecommerce Development, Automation
Warbirds in my Workshop
David Glen is a model maker and writer whose large scale scratch-built aircraft are internationally admired for their extraordinary level of craftsmanship and detail. His work is documented just as meticulously, with extensive workshop diaries, photography and articles recording the techniques and processes behind models that can take years to complete.
Our work with David extends beyond the website to the design and publication of the books he has written about his models and their construction. We developed Warbirds in my Workshop as an extensive online archive of that work and a platform through which the books can be sold, bringing together detailed build diaries, technical articles and large photographic galleries with an ecommerce system for ordering books, including international delivery calculations and online payment through PayPal.
Services: Bespoke Web & Ecommerce Development, Book Design & Print
The Essex Society for Archaeology & History
The Essex Society for Archaeology & History collects, studies and publishes material relating to the archaeology and history of Essex, with a substantial archive of publications, documents and specialist research accumulated over many years. Its previous website had grown increasingly difficult to navigate and manage, with valuable information buried within a complicated Joomla installation and an extensive collection of third-party plugins.
We redeveloped the site from the ground up around a bespoke content management system and a much clearer information structure, making its resources easier for both visitors and the Society itself to navigate and maintain. Alongside publications, documents and general Society content, the website incorporates a specialist Essex Place-Names research database, allowing researchers to search historical records using criteria including place names, parishes, personal names and dates, and examine individual records in detail.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Bespoke Systems Development
The Lady Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust
The Lady Ryder of Warsaw Memorial Trust was established to continue the work and preserve the legacy of Sue Ryder, supporting charitable projects in the UK and internationally while maintaining links between the family of foundations she established around the world.
We developed a WordPress website that brings Sue Ryder’s remarkable history together with the work the Trust continues to undertake today. It provides a home for information about supported projects, grants, medical scholarships, international partner organisations, lectures and news, while allowing designated members of the Trust to publish and maintain new content themselves as that work continues.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
The Monumental Brass Society
The Monumental Brass Society promotes the study and preservation of monumental brasses and incised slabs, with its website serving both as an introduction to the subject for new visitors and a growing resource for Society members and others with a specialist interest.
We developed a bespoke content management system around the way the Society’s information is organised, allowing an expanding collection of articles, records, images, documents and other resources to be structured and published consistently. Careful information architecture keeps that material navigable as the site continues to grow, while the Society can manage and extend its own content without the underlying structure becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Bespoke Systems Development
Friends of Essex Churches
Friends of Essex Churches Trust raises funds to help preserve and improve Christian churches and chapels across the historic county of Essex, supporting the buildings themselves while helping them continue to play an important part in their local communities.
We developed a website that allows the Trust to manage a busy and continually changing programme of activity itself. Alongside showcasing projects that have received funding, the site supports events and fundraising initiatives including Ride & Stride and the Essex Gift Fair, provides information for churches applying for grants, and gives supporters clear ways to join, donate or get involved. A straightforward content management system allows the Trust to keep all of this information current as new projects and events are added.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Web Design
Cogent Automation
Cogent Automation designs and delivers industrial process automation and control systems across applications ranging from individual machinery to water treatment, aircraft manufacturing, hydroelectric generation and metal refining. Its work brings together electrical, instrumentation and software engineering with project management and specialist consultancy in functional and machinery safety.
We developed a website that makes that breadth of technical expertise easier to understand, while providing the evidence and reassurance required for the safety-critical environments in which Cogent operates. Individual service areas explain its capabilities in more detail, supported by relevant standards and accreditations and case studies demonstrating how those skills have been applied to complex industrial projects.
Services: Bespoke Web Development
Brett Valley Landscapes
Brett Valley Landscapes has provided landscaping, garden design and specialist tree services to private, commercial and local authority clients since 1986, working across Suffolk, Essex and the surrounding counties.
We developed a straightforward website that clearly presents the company’s different services and the experience behind them, with galleries, case studies and customer testimonials providing prospective clients with examples of completed work. Specialist capabilities including tree planting and AirSpading are given their own space alongside the broader landscaping offer, with clear routes for visitors to discuss a potential project with the team.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Web Design
Rupert Brown
Artist and designer Rupert Brown founded the design studio from which Brown & Brown developed, following a career in advertising and graphic design that included work for organisations including Ford, Kodak, The Observer and the BBC. Alongside his design and publishing work, Rupert has continued to paint throughout his career, producing an extensive and varied collection of landscapes, still lifes and other work.
We developed a bespoke portfolio website to provide a permanent home for that growing body of work, with paintings organised into distinct collections and individual pages that allow each piece to be presented in its own right. A custom content management system allows new work to be added easily as it is produced, while a dedicated section identifies works currently available for sale.
Services: Bespoke Web Development
Versa Clean
Versa Clean is a family run business providing chimney, flue and specialist cleaning services to homes and businesses across Suffolk, Essex and the wider East Anglia region. For a service that depends heavily on trust and professional expertise, the website brings together clear information about the work available with qualifications, customer testimonials and practical advice that helps prospective customers understand what they may need.
We developed a straightforward website around those requirements, with dedicated service information and an extensive collection of frequently asked questions covering many of the issues customers encounter with chimneys and flues. Clear contact details and geographic information then make it easy for people searching locally for those services to take the next step.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, Web Design, Google Ads Manangement
Hannah Tabram Sports Massage Therapy
Hannah Tabram Sports Massage Therapy is an appointment based business offering sports massage and related treatments. With a finite number of appointments available each week, the objective isn’t simply to generate as much website traffic as possible, but to reach the right people locally, help them find the treatment relevant to their needs and make it straightforward to turn that interest into a booking.
We developed a website that integrates with Ovatu, allowing clients to check availability and book appointments online, while giving Hannah control over the services and information presented on the site. Our work has continued beyond the initial build, using search and website performance data to understand how prospective clients find and use the site, identify opportunities for relevant content and continually improve its visibility and effectiveness.
Services: Bespoke Web Development, SEO Management, Content Marketing
W.A. Church (Bures)
W.A. Church is an independent family run seed business established in 1902, supplying agricultural and specialist seed to customers across the UK, Europe and further afield. Its range spans conventional agricultural crops, grasses and environmental seed, alongside specialist services including seed processing, laboratory facilities and growing contracts for farmers.
We developed a straightforward WordPress website that brings those different parts of the business together in a structure that customers can navigate easily, while giving the Church team control over products, technical information, news and seasonal content. A searchable Knowledge Hub provides a home for more detailed guidance, while prominent seed brochures and information on schemes such as Countryside Stewardship give customers direct access to the resources they are likely to need.
Services: WordPress Development, Web Design
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