Frequently asked questions
Questions founders ask before they start.
How long a launch takes, what you need to have ready, who owns what at the end, and what happens once the site is live. Answered properly, in the order people usually ask them.
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Before you start
How long does it take to launch a business website?
From your One to one strategy session to a live site, a SohoSumo launch usually takes about three days. Where a founder is quick to come back to us it has been done in one. The build itself is not the slow part. Waiting is. Waiting for you to react to the brand, waiting for a decision on the design, waiting for Google to post a verification postcard for your Business Profile.
The parts we control move quickly. The parts that depend on you move at whatever speed you can give them, and the parts that depend on Google or a domain registrar move at their speed, not ours. If you answer promptly, most of the work is behind you well before the listing finishes verifying.
What do I need to provide to get a website built?
Less than most people expect. To start, we need a sense of what the business does, who it is for and what you charge. That is genuinely it.
Helpful if you have them, but not required: a domain you already own, a logo, photographs of your own work, and a couple of websites whose look you like. If you have none of those, that is normal. Plenty of people arrive with a name and an idea, and the package exists to build the rest.
What we do need from you is responses. Everything is produced for your approval, so the process stalls if drafts sit unread.
Is an idea enough, or do I need to be trading already?
An idea is enough. Some people come to SohoSumo before they have sold anything; others have been trading from a phone and a personal email address for a year and want to look like a real business. Both work.
What does not work is an idea nobody has pressure-tested. Part of the Positioning stage is a strategist reading what you have written about your own business and telling you where it is unclear. If the offer is too broad or the customer is not obvious, better to hear it before there is a website built around it.
What happens in the One to one strategy session?
We go through your questionnaire answers, agree what the business is called and what it sells, and set the immediate priorities. It is a working session rather than a sales pitch. By the time it is booked, you have already decided to go ahead.
Can you help if I already have a name, logo or domain?
Yes, and we will use what you have where it makes sense. Your domain can be transferred across safely, and we can build around a logo you already own.
We will not ask you to start again for the sake of it. But if something is likely to hold the business back, we will say so and explain why. A name nobody can spell over the phone, for instance, or a logo that only exists as a screenshot.
What you get
What does a startup website package include?
Ours covers seven stages: your domain and a business mailbox, your brand and logo, your positioning and messaging, the website itself, the search set-up that makes it findable, your Google Business Profile, and twelve months of hosting and support afterwards.
The full launch package page lists every deliverable with its limits stated, including what is not included.
Who writes the words on the site?
We do. Every page is drafted for you and put in front of you to approve or change.
This matters more than it sounds. The usual reason a half-built website sits unfinished for months is that the writing was left to the owner, who is busy running a business and is not a copywriter. Handing someone an empty content management system is how a launch stalls.
Do I own my website if someone else builds it for me?
With SohoSumo, yes. Your domain and mailbox become yours at the end of month 12, once your first year is paid. Until then we hold and run them for you, and renewal is included for as long as you stay with us. The brand, the logo files and the website are yours.
This is worth checking with anyone you consider, us included. It is common for a supplier to register the domain in their own name, or to build on a platform you cannot take with you. If you ever leave, ask what you would actually walk away with, and get the answer before you start rather than after.
If you cancel after the initial twelve-month term, we provide a copy of the website files and your brand assets, plus reasonable handover guidance.
What happens to my logo files?
You get the full set: SVG for the web, PNG and JPG for everyday use, and print-ready PDF. That last one matters when a printer, a signwriter or a vehicle wrapper asks for artwork. A logo that only exists as a small PNG is no use to any of them.
You also get a brand guidelines book covering colours, fonts and usage, so anyone who designs something for you later stays consistent with what we built.
Will it work properly on phones?
Yes. Most people who find a new local business are on a phone, often standing somewhere inconvenient. Every site is built to work at that size first, and checked at desktop width afterwards rather than the other way round.
Do I need a Google Business Profile for a new business?
If you serve customers in a particular area, it is one of the highest-value things you can set up, and it costs nothing but the effort. For a lot of local businesses the map listing produces more enquiries than the website does.
It is included in the launch package and we set it up for you. Google runs its own verification, usually by posting a code to your address, and it decides that timing rather than us. You will need to respond to it when it arrives.
Money
When do I pay, and what does it buy?
On the package page, before the questionnaire opens. You see the full price first and choose how to pay: £379 upfront then £25 a month, or £59 a month, paid securely by card. It buys your readiness report, your Founders Deck, your one to one strategy session, and then the build itself: domain, mailbox, brand, words, website, search and your Google listing, supported for a year.
How much does it cost to launch a business online in the UK?
It depends entirely on how you do it, and the range is enormous. Assembling it yourself means a domain, a mailbox subscription, a website builder subscription, a logo from somewhere, hosting, and your own time across all of it. Hiring a freelancer usually covers one discipline well and leaves you to arrange the rest. A full agency engagement is a different order of cost again, normally with a retainer and a minimum commitment.
SohoSumo is £379 one-off plus £25 a month for months 2 to 12, including VAT. How that compares to the alternatives goes through each route honestly, including where another one would suit you better.
What does the £379 cover?
The build: your domain registration for the first year, your Google Workspace mailbox set up, your brand and logo produced in every format, your messaging and competitor scan, a website of up to three pages with the words written for you, the search set-up, and your Google Business Profile.
What does the £25 a month cover?
Everything that keeps it running after launch. Fast, secure Cloudflare hosting, security and maintenance updates, your dashboard for enquiries and site status, enquiry delivery, changes to the site when you need them, and someone to ask when something is not working.
What is not included?
Any advertising spend is paid by you, direct to the provider, and we add no margin. Your domain renewal is included for as long as you stay with us. Google Workspace is included for one user with as many email aliases as you like. Any additional user is £10 a month, which we add for you.
Online shops, booking systems, customer logins and custom software sit outside the package, as does a complete redesign once the site is live. Those are quoted separately and agreed in writing first.
Do I have to commit for twelve months?
Yes. The monthly plan runs for twelve months from launch. That covers the period when most changes happen: prices settle, the offer sharpens, a service gets added. It is the reason changes are included rather than quoted one at a time.
What happens after twelve months?
The plan becomes a rolling monthly agreement. Nothing changes about what you get; you are simply no longer committed to a term.
How do I cancel?
After the initial twelve-month term, thirty days' notice. The one-off launch fee and the twelve-month commitment are not automatically refundable once work has started, except where the law requires it or we have agreed otherwise in writing. The terms set this out in full.
After launch
What happens after my website launches?
You get on with the business, and we keep the site running. Practically, that means the hosting is handled, security updates happen without you thinking about them, and enquiries arrive somewhere you actually check.
Launch day is not the end of anything. Forms break, hosting lapses elsewhere, an enquiry goes to a mailbox nobody reads. The most expensive lead is the one that arrived and was never seen.
Who fixes things when they go wrong?
We do, and it is covered by the monthly plan. You do not need to know whether a problem is hosting, the domain, the form handler or the site itself. That is the point of one arrangement rather than six suppliers.
How do I request a change?
Send us a line describing what you want changed, or make the change yourself. The site can be edited without code. Both are included. Changes mean the content, images and pages of your existing site; building a new major feature or replacing the site with a fresh design is separate work, quoted first.
What does the dashboard do?
It shows the things you would otherwise have to go looking for: enquiries that have come in, whether the site is up, and whether Google has indexed it. It exists so you can check the state of things in a few seconds rather than logging into three different services.
Where do enquiries go?
Every enquiry from every form on your site arrives in one inbox, so nothing depends on remembering to check a form provider's dashboard.
Will this guarantee me customers?
No, and nobody can honestly promise that. Be wary of anyone who does, whether about customers or about ranking positions.
What the package does is remove the reasons a good business stays invisible: no credible website, nothing findable in search, no listing on the map, no way for an enquiry to reach you. Whether the offer then sells is down to the business.
Still wondering
Ask us the one that isn't here.
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Ready to start?
Tell us about your idea and we’ll take you to the packages. Choose how to pay, give us your details, and the questionnaire opens on the other side.