About
I'm Jake. I build the websites myself.
Firstlight Web Co is one person in Sydney who builds websites for trades and small businesses. When you call, I answer. When something breaks, I fix it. There is nobody else.
Why I started this
I grew up around software — my dad runs a software company — so I've watched how this industry talks to small business owners for a long time. Mostly it talks down to them.
Agencies quote $8,000 for a five-page site, take four months, hand it to a junior, and then charge again every time a phone number changes. Meanwhile the bloke paying for it is a plumber who just wanted people to be able to find him.
Then there's the other end: a $10 template that looks identical to nine hundred other businesses and breaks the first time someone opens it on an iPhone.
There's a large gap in the middle, and that's where I work. Proper sites, fixed prices, built fast, by someone you can actually get hold of.
What working with me is like
- You text me and I text back. Not a portal, not a ticket.
- You see a mockup before you're asked for money.
- The price is fixed before I start and doesn't move.
- If I think you don't need a website, I say so.
- If something's outside what I'm good at, I say that too.
- You own everything — the domain, the files, the log-ins.
- No contracts, no lock-in, no cancellation fees.
The catch, since there always is one: I'm one person, so I take on a limited number of builds at a time. If I'm full, I'll tell you when I can start rather than promising a date I'll miss.
Where I work
All of Sydney. Most of the work happens over the phone and by text, so where you are matters a lot less than whether we get on.
Western Sydney
Parramatta, Blacktown, Penrith, Liverpool, Fairfield, Merrylands, Campbelltown, Auburn, Seven Hills.
Southern & the Shire
Bankstown, Hurstville, Sutherland, Cronulla, Caringbah, Miranda, Revesby, Padstow.
Eastern & Inner West
Maroubra, Randwick, Pagewood, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Summer Hill, Five Dock.
North & the Hills
The Hills District, Castle Hill, Ryde, Epping, Chatswood, and the Northern Beaches.
What I believe about websites
Fast beats fancy
A site that loads in one second and says clearly what you do will out-earn a beautiful one that takes six seconds, every single time. Speed is a feature, not a technical detail.
Most businesses need less than they're sold
Three good pages beats twelve mediocre ones. If you don't need a blog, don't pay for a blog. I'd rather build you the $799 site you actually need than talk you into the $3,500 one.
The phone number is the most important thing on the page
People looking for a tradesperson at 8pm with a burst pipe are not reading your About page. They want a tap-to-call button and proof you're real. Everything else is secondary.
Nobody should be locked in
If a web company makes it hard to leave, that's because they know you'd want to. You should be able to take your site and go, on any given Tuesday, with no argument.
Let's start with a free mockup.
Tell me about your business and I'll design your homepage. No cost, no obligation, no pushy follow-ups. If you like it we'll talk. If you don't, you've lost nothing but ten minutes.
Get my free mockup