Client flow

Overview

1. 0 Setup, once

   The owner sees

   Nothing

   You do

   Name, email, filings, bank, Stripe, agreement

   Draft or tool

   §0

   Done when

   Each row done before it's needed

2. 1 Finding

   The owner sees

   Nothing

   You do

   Sweep by trade and town; score

   Draft or tool

   leads-template.csv

   Done when

   A scored row

3. 2 Preparing

   The owner sees

   Nothing

   You do

   Health check, or a demo

   Draft or tool

   /health-check; §2

   Done when

   Check verified, or demo up

4. 3 First contact

   The owner sees

   You at the counter, an email or a call

   You do

   Walk in, write or call; follow up

   Draft or tool

   §3 drafts

   Done when

   A reply, or the last note sent

5. 4 First conversation

   The owner sees

   30 minutes with you

   You do

   Ask, show, name the price

   Draft or tool

   sales-playbook.md §5

   Done when

   Walk-through booked, or a no

6. 5 Demo and changes

   The owner sees

   A link, a short video, a numbered list

   You do

   Send the demo; run the change loop

   Draft or tool

   /change-list

   Done when

   A yes to a list

7. 6 Saying yes

   The owner sees

   The proposal, the agreement, a payment link

   You do

   Walk through it; send the agreement and deposit link

   Draft or tool

   /proposal; DocuSeal; Stripe

   Done when

   Signed, deposit cleared

8. 7 Build and launch

   The owner sees

   A setup call, then their site live

   You do

   Accounts, build, DNS, launch checks

   Draft or tool

   delivery-runbook.md; /qa --launch

   Done when

   Live, balance paid, mail tested

9. 8 Handover

   The owner sees

   The handover packet

   You do

   Hand over, lower your access, ask for a review

   Draft or tool

   delivery-runbook.md §9

   Done when

   Packet delivered, review asked

10. 9 After launch

    The owner sees

    Fixes for 30 days, then a quote for any change

    You do

    Fix, quote, change

    Draft or tool

    /change-list

    Done when

    Each request done and paid

11. 10 Legal

    The owner sees

    Nothing

    You do

    Keep the checklist true

    Draft or tool

    §10

    Done when

    Each line done before its stage

Lead sheet stages (sales-playbook.md §1): Listed after 1, Contacted and Check delivered in 3, Discovery at 4, Proposal through 6, Won at the deposit, Live at launch.

0. Before the first outreach

In this order: rows 1–7 before the first cold email, 8–12 before the first deposit.

1. Finding clients

Where to look. Google Maps first, one trade in one town per session ("landscaping Goleta"), noted by hand; scraping breaks Google's terms (sales-playbook.md §2). Then the same businesses on Yelp, the South Coast Chamber directory, the city's monthly new-business list and new FBN notices (research/05-santa-barbara-market-and-admin.md §2). Walk State Street, Milpas, Haley and the Funk Zone, Calle Real and Hollister in Goleta, and Linden Avenue in Carpinteria. Referral partners get two coffees a week from the start (sales-playbook.md §3).

Qualifying in five minutes. Score the ten checks in sales-playbook.md §2: four or more points makes a health-check lead, no website a one-page-site lead.

The lead sheet. One row per business before first contact. Mark "Do not contact" the moment someone asks, and check it before every visit, call or email.

2. Preparing a lead

Run /health-check on every lead that scores, and verify each finding before anything goes out.

Alternate demo weeks and no-demo weeks; after week 8, keep demos only if they booked twice the conversations (PLAN.md decision 4).

Setting up a demo

1. Public facts only: name, hours, address, phone, services. Photo slots stay placeholders, since a photo belongs to whoever took it, even on Google (research/08-client-legal.md §8). No logo unless you ask.
2. Footer: "Concept by [studio name], not affiliated with [Business]." Add noindex in the page and in the response headers.
3. Deploy it as its own project at [business].[studio domain], an address that survives redeploys and a change of host. Never send a per-deploy URL.
4. No login in front of it: Vercel Authentication sends outside visitors to a Vercel sign-in page, so a protected Vercel demo needs a Shareable Link (research/07-client-ops.md).
5. Note the address and date in the lead sheet's "Demo shown" column.

Taking it down. After 30 days without interest, the day they pass, or when they ask: delete the project and the subdomain's DNS record, and note the date. If they sign, it stays up until their site launches.

3. First contact

No cold texts. Under the TCPA a marketing text to a cell number needs consent first, and each one can cost $500, or $1,500 if willful (research/08-client-legal.md §3). Text only people who asked you to.

Walk-in. Scripts: sales-playbook.md §10. For a demo-first lead, the offer line becomes: "I made a sample homepage for [Business]. Can I show you on my phone?"

Phone call and voicemail. If they say no, mark the row and don't call again.

Hi, is this [first name]? This is Jasper Meller. I build websites here in Santa Barbara. Did I catch you at a bad time?

[If not]
I looked up [Business] on Google this morning, and [the one thing you checked: there's no website on your listing]. I wrote up a free one-page check of what customers see when they look you up. Can I email it to you, or drop it off on [day]?

Hi [first name], this is Jasper Meller. I build websites in Santa Barbara. I looked up [Business] on Google, and [the one thing you checked]. I wrote up a free one-page check of what customers see, and I can email it to you. I'm at [phone]. Again, that's Jasper, at [phone].

Audit-first email. sales-playbook.md §10, with its follow-ups.

Demo-first email. The footer goes on this email and on every follow-up.

Subject: A sample homepage for [Business]

Hi [first name],

I build websites for local businesses in Santa Barbara. I made a sample homepage for [Business] from your Google listing: your hours, your phone number and [one more public fact]. The photos are stand-ins.

Only you have this link, and Google won't show it: [link]

If it's worth ten minutes, I can walk you through it by phone or in person on [day] or [day].

Jasper Meller
[studio name], Santa Barbara
[phone] · [studio email]

This is a sales email from [studio name], [postal address]. If you'd rather not hear from me, reply "no thanks" and I'll take the sample down and won't write again.

Follow-ups, in the same thread. On day 7, stop by or call instead: "Did you get a chance to look at the sample?"

Hi [first name],

I wasn't sure about one thing on the [Business] sample: [do you still do irrigation repair, or only new installs]? If I got it wrong, tell me and I'll fix it. [link]

Jasper

[footer]

Hi [first name],

If you wanted the sample live on your own domain, it would be $400, with no monthly fee, and the domain, hosting and Google listing all in your name. The sample is still here: [link]

Jasper

[footer]

The last note, day 21

Hi [first name],

I'll stop writing about the sample so I'm not filling up your inbox. Should I keep it up for you, or take it down?

Jasper

[footer]

4. The first conversation

Shape. 30 minutes, at the business if they'll have you, otherwise by phone. The agenda and the 23 questions are in sales-playbook.md §5; question 8, whose name the domain is in, decides most of §7.

Recording. Ask before you start: "Mind if I record this so I get your words right when I write the site?" Record only after a spoken yes, noted in the lead sheet; otherwise take notes. California requires every party's consent (Penal Code §632; research/08-client-legal.md §1).

What to show. Their demo or health check first, on your phone. Then two templates, the one nearest their trade and one other, introduced as samples for made-up businesses; keep all ten on the demo host at one noindex address. The MedCenter comes out only with that practice's permission, with the family connection said up front (PLAN.md).

Price. Say it before they ask: "A one-page site is $400. Up to five pages is $700. You pay once, and there's no monthly fee. Which is closer to what you had in mind?" Use their numbers in the proposal, such as what a job is worth, and never supply your own.

Next step. Book the proposal walk-through before you leave, within 3 business days.

Turning a lead down. Pass on anyone who wants guaranteed rankings (contracts.md #14), health details taken through a web form (delivery-runbook.md §4), or the same scope for less money, or who's tied to a marketing contract for months yet. Tell them within a day:

Subject: Your website

Hi [first name],

Thanks for your time on [day]. I don't think I'm the right fit for [Business]: [the reason in one sentence, e.g. you need an online store with 400 products, and I build small sites]. [One useful pointer, e.g. call me again in [month], when the [vendor] contract ends.]

The fixes on the website check still apply if you want to make them yourself.

Jasper

5. Sending the demo and collecting changes

Before the deposit, make one pass on the demo with what they told you, inside the original 90 minutes. The included rounds start after the deposit.

The email, with a one-minute screen recording from your phone or Loom (free for 25 videos).

Subject: [Business] sample, with what we talked about

Hi [first name],

Here's the sample again with the changes from [day]: [link]. This one-minute video walks through it on a phone: [video link].

Reply, text or call [phone] with anything you'd change. I'll send it back to you as a numbered list, and I won't touch the site until you've said yes to it.

Jasper

The change loop

1. However the reply comes in, run /change-list on it with the client folder. A recorded call needs the spoken yes from §4.
2. It writes a numbered list by section of the page, in the owner's words, flags questions and anything that would invent a fact, and drafts the confirmation email. You send it.
3. When the owner says yes, to all of it or to some numbers, run /change-list again with their reply. It makes only the confirmed changes, checks the page and drafts a short note. You deploy, then send the note.
4. An owner who'd rather point at the page can mark it up in Pastel: free for one review at a time, and the owner needs no account, which Vercel Comments requires (research/07-client-ops.md).

A round is one list from one person (offer-and-pricing.md). Past the included rounds, a change order says what, the price and the effect on the launch date, and gets signed before you start.

6. Saying yes

Prices (offer-and-pricing.md). Paid once, with no monthly plans for now.

Both undercut Santa Barbara Web Design's $599 for one page and $999 for five (research/05-santa-barbara-market-and-admin.md §1.1). Hosting is free in the owner's own Cloudflare account and the domain renews on their card, so nothing needs a subscription. Revisit the prices and monthly plans at the 90-day review (PLAN.md).

The proposal and agreement. Draft with /proposal, walk through it live, and send the agreement through DocuSeal that day (terms: contracts.md).

The deposit. Half the price, through a Stripe Payment Link that takes ACH and card. A Payment Link adds no fee; a hosted Stripe invoice adds 0.4%, capped at $2. On a $200 deposit, ACH costs you $1.60 and a card $6.10. Don't ask a new client for Zelle: a completed payment can't be disputed, which is what a careful owner worries about with someone new (research/07-client-ops.md).

Subject: [Business]: deposit to hold [start date]

Hi [first name],

Thanks for signing. The deposit is $[amount], half the price, and it holds [start date] for you: [payment link]. A bank account or a card both work.

Once it comes through, I'll send times for the setup call, where we open the accounts in your name.

Jasper

If the deposit doesn't come. Nothing starts until it clears. On day 3, one line: "Checking the payment link reached you. I'm still holding [start date]." On day 14 the proposal expires: release the date and ask, "Should I close this out, or update it?" (sales-playbook.md §8).

What's due when (offer-and-pricing.md).

7. Build and launch

Intake. At the business, before any copy: client-intake.md, then /new-client.

The setup call. 30 minutes, the owner's screen shared and their phone in hand for two-factor (delivery-runbook.md §1). Never take a password.

• Cloudflare. The owner signs up with their own email (Cloudflare's terms bar you from doing it for them) and invites you as Administrator. They also make a free GitHub organization and invite you to a private repo.
• A new domain. The owner registers it in that Cloudflare account on their own card, auto-renew on: about $10.46 a year for a .com. You never hold a billing role.
• A domain they already have. The registration stays put; you only need DNS access in Cloudflare, and the owner changes the nameservers on a short call at cutover. A GoDaddy owner can add you through Delegate Access instead, at a level without purchase rights; test a nameserver change together (research/07-client-ops.md).
• Google Business Profile. The owner stays primary owner and adds you as Manager: More, Business Profile settings, People and access, Add. Managers can't remove users or the profile. If the owner has to take ownership back first, allow 7 days.

Hosting and email, by what the owner already has

Moving DNS (delivery-runbook.md §3). Copy every record into Cloudflare, MX and other email records included, and compare line by line. Lower the TTL 24 to 48 hours ahead, turn off DNSSEC at the old host, and keep the old site up until the new one resolves. Then test mail in and out, leave the old zone for 14 days, and never cancel mail.

Launch checks, then the balance. On the preview: node tools/slop-lint.mjs [client folder]/index.html --launch at 0 errors, node tools/qa.mjs [client folder]/index.html --launch with no FAIL and the screenshots checked, and the owner's approval of every page and fact. Then send the balance as a Payment Link, and point the domain only after it's paid.

If the owner goes quiet. Anything 10 business days late moves the launch date; 30 days of silence pauses the project and invoices the work done (offer-and-pricing.md; contracts.md #4).

Hi [first name],

I'm waiting on [the truck photos / your yes to the change list] before I can keep going on [Business]'s site. Could you send it by [day]? If a call is easier, I'm at [phone].

Jasper

Subject: Pausing [Business]'s site

Hi [first name],

I haven't heard from you since [date], so I'm pausing the site, as our agreement says. [If the work so far comes to more than the deposit: the invoice for the difference is here: [link].] The site and every account stay in your name, and I'll pick it back up when you reply.

Jasper

The launch email

Subject: [Business] is live at [domain]

Hi [first name],

The new site is live: [domain]. The domain, hosting, analytics and your Google listing are all in your name. I'm added to each so I can help, and the handover packet I'll bring on [day] shows how to remove me.

Please open it on your phone and try [the call button / the booking link]. If anything looks wrong or doesn't work the way we agreed, reply or call [phone]. For the next 30 days I fix those free.

Jasper

8. Handover and final payment

Payment and access. The balance came in before the domain moved (§7). Have the owner lower your Cloudflare role to Workers Platform Admin plus DNS (only they can), and stay a Business Profile manager only if they want you making changes there (delivery-runbook.md §1).

The handover packet, as a PDF and on paper (delivery-runbook.md §9):

• each account: who owns it, the login email, where the backup codes are kept
• a DNS zone export and a ZIP of the site's code at launch
• the copyright assignment, signed at final payment or already in the agreement (contracts.md)
• font, photo and other licenses, from CREDITS.md
• how to ask for changes, and what they cost after the first 30 days
• how to remove the studio from Cloudflare, GitHub, the Business Profile and Search Console
• two or three videos under five minutes: asking for a change, updating Google hours, where everything lives

Reviews and referrals. The review ask on day 7, the referral ask and case-study permission on day 30: "After launch" in sales-playbook.md §10.

9. After launch

The first 30 days. Anything that doesn't work as agreed gets fixed free, as the launch email says.

Changes after that. There are no care plans or monthly fees for now. Quote each change flat at $60 an hour before you start, and send a Payment Link when it's done (offer-and-pricing.md). Requests come by email, text, call or Pastel, and go through /change-list (§5).

Renewals. The domain renews on the owner's card with auto-renew on, and Cloudflare Free sends no bill. Ask clients with a .com domain to renew before November 1, 2026, when the wholesale price rises 7%.

Your access. Keep it only as long as the owner wants your help. When they'd rather you step away, they remove you from each account as the handover packet shows, and you confirm it by email.

10. Legal checklist

Not legal advice; 08 marks what needs a lawyer.

Before first outreach

Before the first deposit

Per client

Ongoing