Starting something? Start here.

Start with who you are selling to and how they will find you, then build the smallest thing that lets them buy. For most new Australian businesses that is a clear one-page site, a way to take enquiries or payments, and a Google Business Profile. Branding, apps and content can wait until something is working. Spending on all of it before you have a single customer is the most common way founders burn a budget.

A simple professional site typically runs a few thousand dollars, an online store more, and a custom build more again. What actually drives the price is the number of unique page templates, whether you are selling, and how much of the content and imagery already exists. Be wary of anyone quoting before they have asked what the site has to achieve.

Yes, and for one reason: you do not own the audience on a social platform, and you cannot be found there by someone searching for what you sell. Social is where people who already know you keep up. A website is where people who have never heard of you arrive, and it is the only asset in that pair you actually control.

Ask what your own hours are worth. The founders who get somewhere spend theirs on product, suppliers and customers — not on learning page builders. A template can be made to look fine; making it actually convert is a different skill, and the gap between the two is the whole business. If you are early, talk to us before you build: we will tell you the smallest thing worth paying for, and what can wait.

Whatever shortens the distance between a stranger and a purchase: a site that explains the offer plainly, and one channel that brings people to it. Get those two right and everything else can wait. Most founders spend the first budget in the wrong order — a free call with us will tell you where yours should go before you commit any of it.