The Process

Phase 0 — Sale to Kickoff (Days -7 to 0)

You sign the contract. You pay the 50% deposit (ACH preferred — clears in 1–2 days; card OK — instant). Once the deposit clears in our bank account, the 30-day clock starts.

You receive a Welcome Aboard email, a Kickoff Intake Form, a calendar invite for your Day 1 Discovery Call, and access to a shared Drive folder where everything will live.

Phase 1 — Discovery & Direction (Days 1–5)

Day 1: 60-minute Discovery Call. We talk about your brand, your customers, your sales cycle, your existing systems, your goals. By end of day, you receive a Discovery Brief for sign-off.

Days 2–3: You deliver content (logo, photos, copy, testimonials, customer database for migration). The completeness of this delivery directly affects the timeline.

Days 4–5: Two design directions presented (homepage + one inner page). You pick one, or we mix elements. Direction is locked by Day 5 — no further direction changes after this point.

Milestone: Discovery Brief signed, brand direction locked, content received.

Phase 2 — Foundation (Days 6–18)

Heads-down build phase. Here's what's happening behind the scenes:

• Days 6–8: Infrastructure — managed hosting, CDN, SSL, email infrastructure, database schema
• Days 9–13: Core build — design system installed, homepage and inner pages, lead-capture forms wired
• Days 14–18: Sales engine — email sequences, CRM, customer portal, marketplace syndication

Milestone (Day 18): Soft-launch URL accessible. Real catalog populated. You receive credentials for an internal walkthrough.

Phase 3 — Review & Revisions (Days 19–24)

Day 19: You receive the staging URL, test credentials, and a structured review checklist. You have 5 days to review homepage, every inner page, every form, mobile rendering, and a test email send.

All change requests go in one place — a single revisions form. Day 24: we batch-process all change requests in one consolidated revision round (per the contract — one round). Out-of-scope requests get a change-order quote, your call to approve or defer.

Milestone: Client signs off on revisions. No further changes accepted without change order.

Phase 4 — QA & Launch Prep (Days 25–28)

This is where most agencies cut corners. We don't.

• Day 25: Full QA pass — every form, every email, every device, every browser. Lighthouse score must be 85+ across the board.
• Day 26: Security pass — Wordfence scan, HTTPS enforcement, 2FA on every admin account, backup test (a backup that hasn't been restored is no backup).
• Day 27: Pre-launch runbook — DNS cutover steps documented, monitoring wired, final pre-launch backup.
• Day 28: Training call — recorded video walkthrough for your team, plain-English admin guide handed off.

Phase 5 — Launch (Days 29–30)

Day 29: DNS cutover during a low-traffic window. Monitored for 4 hours minimum. Final invoice sent.

Day 30: You're live. Send the URL to your customers. Take a breath. The work is real.

Phase 6 — Hypercare (Days 31–60, Included)

For 30 days post-launch:

• 4-hour-business-time response on production issues
• Free fixes for any functionality not working as specified
• Reasonable small content tweaks done as goodwill
• Weekly 30-min check-ins for the first 4 weeks

After Day 60, the warranty expires. You can transition to month-to-month retainer (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) or wave goodbye with a clean handoff.

What You Bring

• One designated point-of-contact with decision-making authority
• Content (logo, photos, copy, testimonials) within 7 days
• Response within 2 business days when we ask for input
• Clear answers to "yes/no" decisions, on time

If those slip, the timeline pauses. We're not in breach for delays you cause — but we'll wait, fix, and resume cleanly.

What We Bring

• Daily progress visible in your shared folder
• Weekly status update every Friday by EOD AZ time
• Same-business-day reply on every email
• Honest answers when something is hard or behind — never silence

Book a 20-min walkthrough