Selling it is the easy half. This is the order things get done, who does each bit, and how long it should take before the job stops being profitable.
Macka is the face and has a phone. Andrés is the build and has the machines. Almost every problem comes from blurring that line.
| Macka | Andrés |
|---|---|
| Sends the outreach, runs the audits, takes the calls, answers the client, chases access, chases payment, signs things | Everything technical: the sprint work, the builds, hosting, deployments, the monthly SEO and reporting |
| Owns the relationship. The client should only ever hear from one person | Never contacts the client directly unless Macka asks. Two voices is how confusion starts |
Macka never promises a date without asking Andrés first. There's an eight-hour time difference, so "I'll check and come back to you within the hour" is always a better answer than a guess. Nobody minds waiting an hour. Everybody minds a missed deadline.
The moment that matters most, and the one most likely to be fumbled.
Speed beats polish here. A three-line reply the same afternoon lands better than a considered one two days later, because they're deciding right now whether you're the sort of outfit that gets back to people.
If they asked a question you can't answer, say you'll check and give a time you'll come back by. Then meet it.
The instinct is to send a quote. Resist it. First get them to say out loud what bothers them, because the thing they care about is rarely the thing highest on the audit.
One question does most of the work: "Out of everything in there, what would you most want fixed first?" Whatever they answer is what you quote.
£750 is small enough to approve without a meeting. £3,450 needs a decision, a think, and usually a conversation with a business partner.
Get the first one done, prove it with before-and-after numbers, and the second is a much easier conversation. Nobody buys the big thing from a stranger.
Four things, always, in this order. Skipping any of them is how jobs go bad.
Access is where sprints die. Not the work — the work is straightforward. What kills the timeline is waiting nine days for a WordPress login that the client's nephew set up in 2019 and nobody remembers.
Ask for all of it in one message, on day one, and be specific. A vague "can you send me access" gets a vague answer. The checklist below gets you logins.
Ask them to add hello@saltwork.co.uk as a user instead, which is safer for everyone and means access can be revoked cleanly at the end. If they insist on sending credentials, get them to use a one-time link rather than a plain email. And whatever arrives goes straight into the password manager, never into a chat thread.
The core product. Everything else grows out of getting this one right.
| # | What gets done | Time | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Measure and screenshot everything first. Full audit saved before touching a thing — this is the "before" half of the proof, and once it's changed you can't get it back | 20 min | Andrés |
| 2 | Full backup. Files and database. Non-negotiable, even on a small job | 20 min | Andrés |
| 3 | Images. Resize to what's actually displayed, re-compress, add lazy loading. Usually the single biggest win | 1.5 h | Andrés |
| 4 | Analytics. GA4 installed and firing, old dead tag removed, Meta Pixel if they want ads later. Confirm real data arrives before calling it done | 45 min | Andrés |
| 5 | The SEO basics. Meta descriptions, one H1 per page, structured data, Open Graph so shared links show a picture | 1 h | Andrés |
| 6 | Conversion leaks. Tap-to-call links, a working contact form, WhatsApp if it suits them | 45 min | Andrés |
| 7 | Whatever they said mattered most in step 2 of the reply, if it wasn't already covered | 1 h | Andrés |
| 8 | Re-measure and write the after report. Same tool, same page, side by side with the before | 30 min | Andrés |
| 9 | Send it and get paid. Report, remaining 50% invoice, and the upsell conversation | 30 min | Macka |
About 6 hours of work for £750, which is roughly £125 an hour. That comfortably clears the 60% margin floor the house runs on.
It stops being profitable past about nine hours. If a job is heading that way — a broken site, a hosting company that won't cooperate, a client who keeps adding things — stop and re-quote. Don't absorb it quietly, because that's how a good product turns into a bad habit.
They can't see faster loading; a page that takes four seconds instead of eleven just feels normal. What they can see is two numbers side by side, and that's what they'll remember, repeat to other people, and buy again.
Run the audit tool before and after and put both in one message. It takes ten minutes and it's the difference between "he did some work" and "he cut my page weight by 94%".
Right after sending the after-report is the best moment you'll get. They're happy, the proof is in front of them, and you've just been easy to work with.
Don't pitch the £3,450 rebuild. Pitch the monthly plan, because it follows naturally: "Now analytics is running, you'll actually have numbers next month. Want me to keep an eye on it and send you a summary?"
£3,450. Usually sold after a sprint, rarely before.
Get every page's text and images agreed and in hand before anything is designed. Building around placeholder text and then swapping it later is how a one-week job becomes a two-month one.
Booking systems, payment providers, stock feeds. Find out early whether they'll work on a new site. One prospect's booking system only allows embedding on their existing domain — that's a support ticket with a third party, on their timetable, and it can hold a whole project. The contract covers it, but you still want to know on day one.
Say this at the start, not when it's becoming a problem. "One round of changes included, anything after that is quoted separately." Written into the contract, so it's a reminder rather than a new rule.
Logins in their name, a short recorded walkthrough of how to change things, and the invoice for the remaining balance. IP transfers on final payment, so the handover and the payment happen together.
Where the real money is, and also where margin quietly dies.
Without a cap, "unlimited small changes" turns into a client who emails four times a week, and a £450 plan that eats twelve hours. This is a house rule from the Peru side, learned the expensive way.
| Plan | Per month | Hours cap | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Care | £150 | 2 hours | £75/h |
| Growth ⭐ | £450 | 6 hours | £75/h |
| Machine | £850 | 10 hours | £85/h |
Over the cap, it's quoted separately. Unused hours don't roll over — otherwise you end up owing someone thirty hours in month six.
| Week | Care | Growth and Machine |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Updates, backups checked, uptime reviewed | Same, plus the month's content or page work |
| Week 2 | — | Google Business post, review requests sent out |
| Week 3 | Client's change requests | Client's change requests, ad adjustments if on Machine |
| Week 4 | — | The report. Non-negotiable |
Retainers don't get cancelled because the work was bad. They get cancelled because nobody could remember what they were paying for.
Keep it to one page in plain English: what changed, what the numbers did, what's next month. Same date every month. If a month is quiet, say that honestly — silence is what gets you cancelled, not a slow month.
The £8k–25k work. Different rules, because the risk is different.
£1,000–£2,000, two or three sessions mapping how the job actually flows today, ending in a written spec they own and keep.
Three reasons it's non-negotiable: you can't price a build you haven't scoped, it filters out people who were never going to buy, and if they won't pay £1,500 to find out what they need, they were never paying £15,000 to have it built.
The contract says dates move by the length of any wait. Send a short, friendly note recording that you're waiting and the dates have shifted. Not a telling-off — a record. Then you're not the one who missed a deadline.
"Happy to do that — it's outside what we agreed so it'd be an extra £X, want me to add it?" No irritation, no lecture. Most people stop asking after the first quote, and the ones who don't are paying for it.
If it's something you did, fix it free and fast — that's how you keep a client for three years. If it's a third party or something they changed, fix it anyway on a small job and mention what it was. Arguing about blame over two hours of work is how you lose a retainer.
Friendly reminder, then statement of account, then letter before action, then Money Claim Online. It's in the paperwork page. Don't skip steps and don't chase over WhatsApp.
The one that actually costs money: agreeing to something over the phone and not writing it down. Every change, every new date, every extra — confirm it in an email afterwards. One line is enough. "Just to confirm what we said: X, by Y, for £Z."
Six months later that email is the only thing that settles a disagreement, and it takes twenty seconds to write.
Money before work. Access tested before dates. Measure before and after. Cap the hours. Write down what was agreed. Report every month whether or not there's news.