Small-business starter: website, Shopify shop, inbox, care

Your website, a Shopify shop and a customer inbox on your phone, set up properly and then looked after. From CA$1,500 to set up; care from CA$120 a month.

• Today: nothing to pay. Answer five questions, talk for twenty minutes, then get one written quote with a price and a launch date.
• One owner: you. Shopify, the domain and every account are opened in your name.
• Looked after: updates, checks and small changes every month, with a short note of what was done.
• See the work first: vaultrec.com is our site and this is our shop: the same pair we would set up for you, in your name. Walk The Vault.

Start here: about a minute, and nothing is charged.

Why VaultRec

• Quoted before you pay. The price and the launch date are in writing first.
• No resold fees. Shopify, payments and the domain are billed to you directly, so there is nothing hidden in our number.
• Someone answers. A real person looks after the shop every month, in English or French.

What you get

• A website on your own domain
• A Shopify shop, set up and connected to the site
• A customer-messages inbox that lands on your phone
• A monthly care plan: we keep it running and up to date

Why a quote, and not a price

A crest is a crest and a page is a page, so those two have fixed prices. A shop moves with what you sell: ten products or four hundred, one currency or three, pick-up at the counter or parcels to three provinces, taxes that differ by what you ship. Guessing at that on a product page would make the number wrong for everyone. So we ask five questions, talk for twenty minutes, and send you one written quote with a price, a launch date and what is in and out. You decide with the whole picture in front of you.

How it works

• Request. Answer the five questions below and press the button. Nothing is charged.
• Call. Twenty minutes, in English or French, on a day that suits you.
• Quote. A written quote within two working days of the call: price, launch date, what is in, what is out, and the care plan's terms.
• Deposit. After the written quote, a deposit starts the build.
• Build. Site, shop and inbox, built and connected.
• Review. You try every part before your customers do.
• Delivery. Launch, a written handover, then care every month.

The five questions

Copy them into the request with your answers. Short answers are fine; we will ask the rest on the call.

• What do you sell, and to whom? One or two lines. If you sell more than one kind of thing, say which one pays the rent.
• What do you have today? A domain, a site, a shop, social accounts, a logo, a payment terminal. List what exists, even if it is not working.
• What should a customer be able to do on day one? Read about you, book, buy, message you, pay a deposit, find your hours. Pick the two that matter most.
• When does it need to be live, and is there a date it must not miss? A market, a season, an opening, a launch.
• Who answers when a customer writes, and on which phone? The inbox has to land somewhere that is read.

If you have a budget in mind, say so. It shortens the call.

The care plan

From CA$120 a month, set in the quote. It covers what a small business should never have to think about: Shopify theme and app updates applied and checked, the domain and its records watched, a monthly check of the site, the shop and the inbox on a phone, small changes to words and prices within a set number of hours, and a short written note every month of what was done. It runs month to month and can be stopped with thirty days' notice; the site and the shop stay yours and keep running, and the handover notes tell the next person what to do.

Money

• The quote names the price. Setup starts at CA$1,500 and the care plan at CA$120 a month; most quotes land above the floor because a shop is more than a page.
• A deposit, set in the quote, starts the build. The balance is due at launch, by invoice.
• Shopify's own monthly fee, payment processing fees and your domain are paid by you, directly, in your own name. We do not resell them, so there is nothing hidden in our number.
• Prices in Canadian dollars. Taxes, where they apply, are shown on the quote and the invoice.

What it is not

Not a marketing agency. No ads, no posting for you, no promises about search rankings. We build the thing and keep it standing; what you say on it, and where you say it, stays yours.

Questions

Why Shopify? Because it does payments, taxes, shipping labels and receipts without us building any of it, and it will still be there in ten years. The account is opened in your name, so the shop is yours the way your bank account is yours.

Is the website the same as the shop? No, and that is on purpose. The site is yours to say who you are, built the way our front door is: static, fast and private. The shop is where things are bought. They share a domain and a look, and each does the one job it is good at.

What does "inbox on the phone" mean? Customer messages from the site and the shop land in one place on a phone that is actually read, within the minute, with a reply address attached. No logging in to a dashboard to find out someone wrote on Tuesday.

Can I stop the care plan? Yes, month to month, with thirty days' notice. Nothing switches off. The site, the shop and the inbox stay yours and keep running; the handover notes say what to do and when.

Where are you, and do we have to meet? Nova Scotia, Canada, and no. The whole starter is done remotely, in English or French, across time zones. If you are nearby, coffee is not out of the question.

Quoted in writing before anything is paid. Prices in Canadian dollars. VaultRec is a studio name, not a registered company (yet).