Everything People Ask Before They Sign Up

Twelve things, bundled: a custom website that I host and maintain, readable in your customers' languages with one tap, your Google Business Profile set up and kept current, your business set up to be found in ChatGPT and other AI search, website chat, instant reply to web inquiries, missed-call text-back, automated Google review requests, online booking, one inbox holding every call, text and inquiry, your customer list and job history, and a dedicated business number. There's no setup fee and nothing else to buy. All twelve, explained →

Cheaper is real, and if a cheaper package does what you need then take it. Ask what's actually in it first — the three usually missing at that price are your Google Business Profile, online booking, and anything that texts a caller back when you miss them. And if anyone offers to keep bad reviews off your profile, walk away from that one: it breaches Google's policies, and it's your listing that gets suspended, not theirs. What a trades website should cost →

For most trades it's about what one recovered callout is worth — a single job you'd otherwise have lost to voicemail. I'm not promising you that job. I'm saying that's the number to weigh it against, rather than against nothing. If your average job is smaller than that, or the phone isn't ringing much yet, say so on the call and I'll tell you if it isn't worth it. The arithmetic on missed calls →

No. Month to month, cancel whenever you like with an email. No cancellation fee, no minimum term. The service has to be worth paying for every month, which I think is the right way round.

Because I build your demo website before you've paid me anything, so you've already seen the work by the time money changes hands. A setup fee on top of that is asking you to take a risk twice.

There isn't one, but there is a filter. I do a fifteen-minute call first to check you're a real local operator with work coming in and that $397 is realistic for you. If it is, I build the website. If it isn't, I'll tell you straight away rather than waste your afternoon.

Most of my clients already have one. I build you a new one as part of the service, and if the demo isn't clearly better than what you've got, don't switch. Your domain stays yours either way.

Nothing, until you've approved the new one. Before the switch I take a full backup of your old site and keep it stored safely. Your domain stays registered where it is now, in your name — I only point it at my server once you say go. The switch usually takes a few hours, and your old site stays up until the moment it happens, so nobody lands on a blank page. If you've got email on your domain, like you@yourbusiness.ca, I copy its settings across first so it keeps working exactly as before. Pages Google already shows from your old site are pointed at the matching new pages, so you keep your place in search. Once the new one's live you can cancel your old hosting or website builder — just keep paying for the domain itself, wherever it's registered. If you ever cancel, I'll restore your old site onto your own hosting as a courtesy, so you're never left with nothing.

The website is licensed to you while you're a subscriber, not sold to you — that's what makes $397 with no setup fee possible. If you cancel, the website comes down, and if you had a site before, I'll restore it onto your own hosting as a courtesy. Your domain name and your customer data are yours and always come with you.

No. It's built by hand — no page builder, no theme, no plugins to update or break. That's why it loads fast on a phone, which is where nearly all of your customers will see it.

Yes. If you've got branding already — van, shirts, a logo — the website is built to match it, and you don't need to know the colour codes, a photo of the van is enough. If you haven't got branding, I'll pick something that suits the trade and you tell me if you hate it. Either way you're seeing it before you pay, so there's nothing to agree in advance.

Yes. I add a language switch to your website's footer with any of 21 languages — Punjabi, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and more — each written in its own script so people spot theirs straight away. One tap turns every page into that language. It's Google's translation, so it reads naturally enough to get the job across, but it isn't word-perfect. And if you speak the language yourself, your website says so too, which is often what wins the call. Your website in their language →

Those give you a template you fill in yourself. This is built for your business — your services, your area, your photos, and copy written about what you actually do. It won't look like the outfit two suburbs over, because nobody else is running the same one. And the website is about a fifth of what this is; the rest is what happens when someone calls you.

Changes are included. Email or text me what you need changed and I do it. New photos, updated services, a price change, a seasonal message on the homepage.

It comes from a dedicated business number I set up for you, which rings and texts inside one app on the phone you already carry. Your personal number stays private, and every conversation with a customer stays in one thread. No second handset, no extra SIM.

Your choice. A local number has your area code, which some customers trust more for a business down the road. A toll-free number (800, 888 and so on) looks the same to everyone, wherever you work. Both ring and text the same way. The real difference is how long texting takes to switch on: before any business number can send automatic texts, the carriers have to verify it, and a toll-free number usually clears within one to three weeks. A local number goes through a stricter registration that usually takes longer, often several weeks, and it's more likely to be sent back for changes before it's approved. If you want the text-back running as soon as possible, go toll-free. If the local area code matters more to you, I'll start that registration the day you sign and keep at it until it clears.

Usually, yes — but it has to move into the system rather than point at it. If your number is on your van and your Google listing, that's worth doing: I transfer it across, it still rings the phone in your pocket, and the text-back then works on the number your customers already dial. It takes a few days and I handle the paperwork. The one I'd talk you out of is your personal mobile, because moving that means your handset ends up needing a new number of its own — most trades would rather keep the two apart.

Most of my clients do, and that's the point. The automatic text buys you the twenty minutes you need to finish the job and call back properly. Without it, they've already called the next name on the list.

Yes, any part of it, any time. Some clients run the text-back only during work hours. Some turn review requests off during a busy stretch. It's your system.

Nothing happens. The number lives in the app, not in the handset. Install the app on the new phone and carry on.

No, and I won't. Screening reviews by expected rating breaches Google's policies — when they catch it, reviews get stripped and profiles get suspended, and it's your listing that goes down. In Canada it's also a problem under the Competition Act. The system asks every customer instead. Why reviews decide who Google shows →

No, and I won't. Screening reviews by expected rating breaches Google's policies — when they catch it, reviews get stripped and profiles get suspended, and it's your listing that goes down. It's also a problem under the FTC's rule on consumer reviews. The system asks every customer instead. Why reviews decide who Google shows →

Occasionally, yes. But most of your customers are happy, so asking all of them still lands most businesses in the high fours. The problem was never bad reviews — it was that nobody was asking, so your rating rested on a handful of people motivated enough to write unprompted.

Some of them. I can't make Google delete a review just because it's bad or unfair — nobody honestly can, and anyone who promises to is either guessing or breaking Google's rules. What I do is go through your 1–3 star reviews and report every one that breaks Google's own rules: fake reviews, competitors, people who were never your customers, and anything abusive or off-topic. Google takes those down. The rest get a calm, professional reply, which matters more than you'd think — people judge you by how you answer. And because every finished job asks for a review, new five-star ones keep pushing the old ones down the page.

Separately, and earlier. I run a private check-in after the job so you hear about a problem while you can still fix it. That's the legitimate version of what review gating pretends to do.

Yes, and that's what the tap cards are for. You get a set when you start — one for everyone on the job, on a badge clip, printed in your colours with your review link already on them. Your customer holds their phone against the card and your review page opens on their screen; there's a code on the back for anyone whose phone won't tap. They're a bonus, not an add-on, and there's nothing to pay for them or renew. They run off the same review link as the automatic text, so it makes no difference which way a review arrives. One rule: show the card to every customer, not the ones who seemed pleased. That's review gating, and it's the same reason I won't filter reviews.

It's the other bonus when you start, beside the tap cards. I also run EveryLocal (everylocal.ca), a directory homeowners use to find a well-reviewed trade near them. For your first three months, your business sits in the sponsored spot above the list on your trade's page for your town, labelled as sponsored. It does not move you up the ranked list itself. Nothing can, and that's what makes the list worth being on. When the three months are up, your regular listing stays where your reviews put it, free, like everyone else's. EveryLocal covers BC for now, so this one's for businesses in BC.

Your website is live within about 48 hours of you approving the demo, along with the chat, online booking, your inbox and your customer list. Two things then wait on other people, and neither can be rushed by me or anyone else. Anything that sends a text automatically — the missed-call text-back, the instant inquiry replies and the review requests — waits on your business number clearing carrier verification for business messaging. That's usually one to three weeks for a toll-free number, and often several weeks for a local one. Your Google Business Profile waits on Google's own verification, which normally takes about the same. You're not stuck in the meantime: calls ring your phone as usual, and everything that comes in through the website lands in your inbox. I start both the day you sign and switch each part on the moment it clears, so nothing sits waiting once it's approved.

Yes — that's my customer reactivation add-on, and it's usually the fastest work a business can win. Canadian anti-spam law lets you email people who used you within the last two years, and people who inquired within the last six months. I sort your list by job date and only contact those; anyone older gets left alone. It's $697 one time, and afterwards the ongoing service reminders run as part of your monthly. How reactivation works →

Yes — that's my customer reactivation add-on, and it's usually the fastest work a business can win. US law doesn't make you collect permission first, but it does require your real postal address on every message, an honest subject line, and an unsubscribe link that works — all of which I handle. I still sort your list by job date and concentrate on the last two years, because that's where the replies are and old addresses only damage your sending reputation. It's $497 one time, and afterwards the ongoing service reminders run as part of your monthly. How reactivation works →

Your customer list with the date of each job, and an email address where you have one. The dates matter — without them I can't demonstrate who I'm allowed to contact, and the penalties for getting that wrong fall on you. If most of your list is older than two years I'll say so rather than take your money.

Your customer list with the date of each job, and an email address where you have one. The dates decide who's worth contacting — a customer from last spring is a live prospect, one from eight years ago is a spam complaint waiting to happen, and complaints are what get your domain blocked. If most of your list is older than two years I'll say so rather than take your money.

It would be if I blasted everyone. I don't. I contact people who paid you within the last two years, from your own name, about work you actually did for them, with a working unsubscribe on every message. Most of them are pleased to hear from you — they've usually just forgotten your number.

Yes, once you're set up for it. You send the invoice as a text before you leave and they pay on their phone — card or Apple Pay — straight into your own account. It's $147 one time to set up rather than part of the monthly, because it needs a payment processor in your name. How Text-to-Pay works →

Yes, once you're set up for it. You send the invoice as a text before you leave and they pay on their phone — card or Apple Pay — straight into your own account. It's $97 one time to set up rather than part of the monthly, because it needs a payment processor in your name. How Text-to-Pay works →

Yes, and it's the one part I can't do for you. Stripe takes about fifteen minutes and asks for photo ID and the bank account you want paying out to, because it's your money and your business it attaches to. I'll stay on the phone while you do it. After that the money goes straight to you — I never hold it, never see the card, and refunds are yours to issue.

Yes — that's my AI receptionist add-on. Your own phone rings first for the usual twenty seconds; only the calls you don't reach get picked up. It answers in your business's name from what's on your website, handles the questions you get asked every week, and books the job straight into your calendar. It's $197 a month on top of your monthly rather than a one-time fee, because unlike the other two add-ons it's working every day. How the receptionist works →

Yes — that's my AI receptionist add-on. Your own phone rings first for the usual twenty seconds; only the calls you don't reach get picked up. It answers in your business's name from what's on your website, handles the questions you get asked every week, and books the job straight into your calendar. It's $147 a month on top of your monthly rather than a one-time fee, because unlike the other two add-ons it's working every day. How the receptionist works →

If they ask, it tells them it's the assistant and offers to put them through or take a message. It never claims to be a person, because a business caught pretending looks far worse than one that just said so. It also won't quote a price on a job it can't see, and anything you've told it counts as an emergency — flooding, no heat, gas — gets transferred straight to your mobile instead of booked. Every call is recorded and written up into the same inbox as your texts.

Three things, and none of them are part of the monthly or needed to make it work: a one-time campaign to your past customers, an AI receptionist for the calls you can't take, and text-to-pay invoicing. They're for later — once your website is live and you know what's actually missing. I don't sell any of them on a first call. What each add-on does →

Set it up properly once, then change it whenever you need it. Properly means the right primary and secondary categories, which is the single biggest thing most listings get wrong; your services filled in to match your website; hours right, including the holiday hours nobody remembers; a written description; your service area set as the places you actually work rather than a circle on a map; and your photos and the link to your new website in place. After that, anything that changes — new hours, a service you've dropped — you text me and it's done the same day. The part that keeps working on its own is the review requests: every finished job asks the customer for a review, so the listing keeps building without either of us thinking about it. And when a bad review lands, I report it to Google if it breaks their rules and write a calm reply if it doesn't.

An hour, roughly, spread over a couple of days. What you do, where you work, photos of your work if you have them, and your domain login. If you've already got a Google Business Profile I'll need access to it — and if you haven't, that's one of the first things I sort out for you. I handle the rest.

Anywhere. Everything is done remotely, and the system works the same in any city in Canada or the United States — the calls, the texts and the reviews all behave identically wherever your customers are. I never need to visit your shop.

Yes. Up to four months in a calendar year, and it costs you nothing while it's paused. Your website stays live the whole time, so your Google listing still has somewhere to point, and your business number stays yours — that's the important part. Cancelling releases the number, and once it's gone I can't promise to get it back; by then it's on your van, your invoices and in your customers' phones. Pausing means you keep it. Nothing needs switching off either: the missed-call text-back and the review requests just have nothing to fire on until you're working again. Tell me when you're stopping and when you're back, and I'll start you up again.

Tell me by email and it stops at the end of your billing month. I release your domain, export your customer data to you in a standard format, release the business number so calls go back to your own mobile, and if you had a website before you joined, I restore the backup I kept of it onto your own hosting. That's it. No exit fee, no last-minute retention call.