Learn · guides from shipped work

The work, explained.

Guides on the systems, sites and stores small businesses run by hand, written by the person who builds them. Every one comes from a project that shipped.

Latest guides.

A person at a laptop in front of a PageSpeed report for sealnlock.com dated 3 September 2026: mobile performance 94, accessibility 92, best practices 100, SEO 100Online stores · 11 min · Sep 8, 2026

How Seal 'n Lock's store went from 59 to 95 on mobile

Two people at a laptop, a path through code, design, testing and support, coins and rising bars, ending at a small shop with a revenue chartSystems and automation · 8 min · Sep 8, 2026

What custom software costs a small business

A laptop showing a storefront and a sales chart, with five cost tiles beside it: platform fees, marketing, domain and hosting, payment processing, plugins and extensionsOnline stores · 8 min · Sep 8, 2026

The real monthly cost of a small online store

Left, people buried in paperwork and broken tools; a light bulb with gears in the middle; right, a team around a working dashboard with charts risingSystems and automation · 12 min · Sep 8, 2026

When a small business should build custom software

A glass-walled back office with servers, a desk and customer records, and a person pointing at a wall of charts and a mapSystems and automation · 10 min · Sep 8, 2026

Own your customer data with a private back office

A person at a laptop with a loading cart, and a checkout path chained shut by plugins, forms, a database, an hourglass and a speedometer reading slowOnline stores · 9 min · Sep 8, 2026

Why your WooCommerce checkout is slow

Email, live chat, social media, Instagram and Messenger flowing into one inbox on a laptop, then splitting towards an AI reply and a human agentLeads and follow-up · 10 min · Sep 8, 2026

One inbox for every channel, and when AI should answer

A person thinking between two circles, a funnel of leads on the left and a calendar with a checklist on the right, joined by orange circuit lines under a question markSystems and automation · 8 min · Sep 8, 2026

What to automate first in a small business

Left, a stopwatch on a web page beside a calculator with a tick; right, a clipboard, a magnifying glass and a person waiting for a quote by email, a question mark between themLeads and follow-up · 10 min · Sep 8, 2026

Should your website give an instant quote

A phone on a kitchen table with a message just sent, and an orange route running across an evening suburb to a lit office with a service van outsideLeads and follow-up · 11 min · Sep 8, 2026

How fast should a small business reply to a lead

A service van on an isometric city map, an orange route running from it to three crews marked by orange pinsLeads and follow-up · 10 min · Sep 8, 2026

Route leads to the nearest crew automatically

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