Website budget planning for service businesses
How to think about website budget in terms of scope, content, approvals, and risk before you ask for proposals.
Read articleAbout - Small enough to stay close to the work
Martins Works helps UK teams turn an underperforming website into one that explains the business more clearly and is easier to keep in shape.
The starting point is the problem visitors are having: what they cannot understand, what they struggle to trust, and where the route to action becomes unclear.
One lead from first conversation to launch
Martin leads the work and brings in trusted specialists when the brief needs them. You are not passed from strategist to designer to developer with the story changing each time.
That keeps accountability obvious, decisions faster, and the final site more consistent.
Who we are - A small studio by design
Martins Works is led by Martin and kept intentionally small. That suits businesses that want clear thinking, direct communication, and fewer layers between decisions and delivery.
The work stays close to the source. We sort out structure and content first, then design and build around what buyers need to understand quickly.
- Direct, senior contact. You deal with the person leading the work, which means fewer handovers and less room for drift.
- Content-first structure. Content is organised before visuals are pushed too far, so pages are built around what needs explaining and proving.
- Practical craftsmanship. Design and build decisions are made with usability, performance, and long-term upkeep in mind.
Where the work starts - Three common signs the website is getting in the way
The visible problem is rarely just an old design. It is usually a gap between what the business now does and what the website helps people understand.
- The offer takes too much explaining. The services make sense inside the team, but visitors have to piece together who they are for, how they work, and what to do next.
- The site describes an older business. The offer, audience, or priorities have changed while the pages and navigation still reflect an earlier version of the work.
- Nobody agrees on the right fix. The team knows the site needs attention but not whether to make focused improvements, commission an audit, or plan a full rebuild.
Built into the work - Quality is part of the structure, not a final tidy-up
A clearer message still needs pages that work reliably for visitors and remain straightforward for the team to look after.
- Mobile-first and fast. Pages stay readable, quick, and easy to use on phones first, then scale cleanly on larger screens.
- Search-ready structure. Information architecture and metadata are handled so the site makes sense to search engines and to the people using it.
- Accessible by default. Typography, contrast, and interaction patterns are treated as part of the job, not a late clean-up task.
From the blog
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