Porto, a small dog and why local work comes first

The photo at the top is Porto at the end of a working week. That is the Douro river behind me, the rooftops running down to the water and a church tower against the low sun. The small fluffy brown thing in my arms is my Pomeranian, who has firm views about cameras and was talked round with a treat.

People ask two things about a photo like that. The first is whether I was working. I was: the laptop was in the flat round the corner, and that week's changes for clients went live from there exactly as they would have from my desk in Portobello.

The second question is the one this post is about. If I can do the work from Porto, why is the business called WebLothian?

Yes, I work with people outside the UK

Nothing about building a website needs anybody in the same room. The work happens by email, on a video call over Zoom, and in a written plan that we both agree before anything gets built. That works the same way for somebody in Cardiff or Lisbon as it does for somebody in Dalkeith.

So if you are outside Scotland, or outside the UK, and you have found your way here, the answer is yes. The consultation is free wherever you are. The quote is written down before anything starts, and the site is built and looked after in exactly the same way.

I spent years building software for companies in other countries before I set this business up, often without ever visiting their offices. That taught me how remote work goes right and where it goes wrong. It goes wrong when nobody writes anything down, and it goes right when one person owns the job from start to finish and answers when you ring.

But the point of the business is local

Here is the honest bit. WebLothian exists for Edinburgh and the Lothians, and the name is not decoration.

I grew up in East Lothian, and I work two streets from the beach in Portobello. The businesses I know best are the cafes, garages, salons, joiners and small shops in the towns around me. They are also the businesses most likely to be stuck with one of three things: a website nobody has looked after since it was built, an agency quote they cannot justify, or no website at all.

Those are the businesses that make a place worth living in. When a good local cafe closes because the chain down the road was easier to find on a phone, the street is worse for it. Helping the local ones keep up is the reason I started, and it is still the thing I most want this business to be good at.

What local first means in practice

It is more than a feeling. It changes how the work is done and what it costs.

• The local rate. Businesses in Edinburgh and the Lothians get a heavily discounted local rate. There is no travel to pay for, and helping local firms is the whole point.
• Meeting in person. For a local business the first conversation happens in your shop, your office or your kitchen, not on a screen. You learn more about a business in ten minutes standing in it than in an hour on a call.
• Knowing the place. I know which towns people search for by name, where the mobile signal drops off in rural East Lothian, and that a customer in Bonnyrigg will not drive to Livingston for a haircut. That knowledge ends up in the site.
• Being around afterwards. The person who built your site is a short drive away, and he answers the phone.

If my diary is full, I would rather make room for a business a few miles from the desk than take on another project from far away. That is a choice, and I am happy to say it out loud.

Why local comes first for me

Partly it is simple sums. A business in Musselburgh or Penicuik that gets one more booking a week from a website that finally works is a business that stays open. That money gets spent in the same towns, and the next recommendation I get is usually from the shop next door.

Partly it is about the kind of work I want to do. A website for a large company is one project among hundreds, and nobody notices when it improves. A website for a family business on a Lothian high street is often the only one they will ever have, and when it starts bringing in enquiries the owner notices within a month.

And partly it is that local work keeps me honest. If I build a site for somebody I might bump into in the queue at the bakery, I am going to make sure it works.

When I am not the right choice

The unwelcome part, for anybody reading this from further away.

If you need someone in your time zone all day. Porto is on the same clock as the UK, so a week there changes nothing. But if you are on the west coast of America, my working day ends around the time yours starts. For a website that is mostly fine. For a business that needs a developer on call through its own working hours, it is not, and somebody local to you would serve you better.

If you want a team. I am one person. A large international business that needs a designer, a developer, a project manager and a support desk should hire an agency with all four.

If you need lots of in-person work far away. I can build and run your site from anywhere, but I cannot train your staff in Toronto. If most of the job is people in a room, hire people near that room.

None of that applies to a small business in Edinburgh or the Lothians, which is rather the point.

Wherever you are, start with a conversation

If you are a local business, you get the local rate, a meeting in person and a developer who lives nearby. If you are further away, you get the same work and the same care over Zoom. Either way, you can read how I approach website creation and redesign, and see the areas I cover in person. The first step is the same for everybody, and it is free: book a free consultation (opens in a new tab).