It takes the quote requests. You stay on the tools.
zuoshi is Steve Jarvis's web studio in Oswestry. A website for a trade, with the admin behind it. Marrowby Heating is made up. The prices are ours, and they're real.
£2,945
A site like this one, with its admin, or £1,950 without.
Plus £45 a month care. No VAT to add.
What it does for you
- Someone tells a neighbour about you. They look you up and find your prices, your finished jobs and your number.
- One tap and they're ringing you.
- Quote requests come in with the job, the postcode and a photo, in one list instead of texts, Messenger and voicemail.
- Quotes go out priced from your own price list.
- Annual service reminders go out by email on their own.
- Invoices go as a link, and you can see who has paid.
- Somewhere for a Google search to land, with your prices and your number on it.
What it won't do: It won't answer an emergency call at two in the morning. That's still you, or your voicemail.
What it costs
The site and its adminWhat you've just seen
£2,945
The site you just saw, plus the admin behind it: quote requests in one list, quotes from your price list, service reminders, invoices as a link.
Paid in three stages: £1,472.50, £736.25 and £736.25. Year one with care £3,485, year two £540.
The site alone
£1,950
Up to six pages: what you do and what it costs, your finished jobs, reviews, tap-to-call and the quote form.
Paid in three stages: £1,000, £500 and £450. Year one with care £2,490, year two £540.
A holding page
£395
One page on your own web address with your number, what you do and a way to ask for a quote, while you decide.
The whole £395 comes off a full site signed within six months.
Care, £45 a month: hosting, updates, backups, a watch that the site is up, and a monthly security and search check. 12 months minimum, then a month's notice. Year one is the build plus 12 months of care; year two is care only.
Extras, if you want them: customers booking their own service online, £1,750. Each page over six, £195.
No VAT to add.
How it goes
- 1A first callWhat jobs you want more of, where you work, what you charge. We write the words from this.
- 2Your photosPhone pictures of finished jobs, sent whenever you have a minute. We pick and crop them.
- 3The previewYou look at it on your phone and tell us what's wrong. The second payment is due when it works.
- 4LaunchOn your own web address, in your name. The last payment.
- 5HandoverWe show you the admin: requests, quotes, reminders and invoices, on your phone.
Your start date and launch date go in writing on the quote, before you pay anything.
Is it worth more than Facebook?
Keep Facebook. It does a different job.
- When someone is told about you, they look you up. The site shows your prices, your finished work, your registration and a way to ask for a quote, in one place that doesn't scroll away.
- Not everyone looking for a heating engineer uses Facebook.
- A quote request on the site lands in your admin with the job and the postcode, not in Messenger between your mates' messages.
- Facebook can't send your service reminders or your invoices.
Facebook is for people who already know you. The site is for the ones who don't yet.
How many jobs pay for it?
Made-up example numbers. Put in yours.
Year one: 18 jobs. Year two: 3 jobs.
That's one or two a month in the first year.
- £400 a job, keeping 50%£200 a job
- Year one: the site and its admin, and a year's care, £3,485£3,485 ÷ £200, rounded up: 18 jobs
- Year one without the admin, £2,49013 jobs
- Year two: care only, £540£540 ÷ £200, rounded up: 3 jobs
Rounded up to whole jobs, and counting only work that came through the site: jobs you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Count in enquiries instead
One enquiry is worth about £80 to you, on average.
£200 kept a job, won 4 times in 10. So every enquiry you miss, from a number nobody could tap or a form that wasn't there, costs you about £80.
Your numbers, not ours. Nobody can honestly promise how many extra enquiries a website brings any one business.
Built here in Oswestry
What a customer checks before letting you in
Recent examples of similar work
Citizens Advice tells people to ask for two or three.
On the example site: Recent jobs, each photo captioned.
A written quote, at a fixed price
Citizens Advice says get written quotes from at least three traders, and that a quote is a fixed price where an estimate is a rough guess.
On the example site: Prices on the page and a quote form. Being easy to ask is how you get onto the list of three.
The right insurance
Citizens Advice says check it before saying yes to a quote.
On the example site: A line saying the firm is insured; a real site names the cover.
A gas engineer's Gas Safe ID
The Health and Safety Executive says anyone working on gas must be registered by law, and to check the ID card.
On the example site: The Gas Safe registration, with the number on a real site and a link to how to check any engineer.
Questions people ask
- What if I want to stop halfway?
- Under our standard agreement you can stop the build at any time by telling us in writing. You pay for the work done up to then, and never less than the stage payments already due.
- What does the care plan tie me to?
- 12 months at £45, so £540 in all, then a month's notice whenever you like. Without a care plan we hand the site over with its code, and you host it and keep it up to date yourself, at your own cost.
- Do I own it?
- Your web address, your accounts and your customer list are in your name from day one. Once the build is paid, the site is yours to use for good, even if you leave us and host it somewhere else: you get a copy of its code, which we keep the copyright in and license to you for good.
- Are there any other costs?
- The web address itself, which you pay for in your own name. Changes outside a care plan are £50 an hour. Anything else that would cost money, we price before you agree to it.
- How long does it take?
- We put your start date and launch date in writing on the quote, before you pay anything. Your part is a first call, your photos and a look at the preview on your phone.
- Who writes the words and takes the photos?
- We write every word, from the first call, at no extra cost. Photos are your own phone pictures of finished jobs, which is what customers want to see. We pick the best, crop them and say what each job was.
- What if zuoshi stops trading?
- The address and the accounts are yours already, and at launch you get a copy of the site's code to hand to another developer.
- Is the review a sale in disguise?
- The £295 review is a written report you keep, with what to fix in order, and some of it you can do yourself. If you do go on to build with us, the £295 comes off the price. Read a sample.
- Who will I deal with?
- Steve, every time. The studio does every build itself, from the first call to the care plan, and never subcontracts.
Want one for your business?
Send a few lines about your work and we'll reply within a working day. Or book a call, or email hello@zuoshi.co.uk.
Book a call