A realistic look at pricing a simple local-business site — what actually moves the number, and how to say a price out loud without flinching.
Short answer: there's no single right figure, but a simple one-page site for a local business is usually priced as a modest one-off fee or a small monthly amount — not a four-figure agency invoice. You're competing with the business having nothing at all, and with cheap DIY builders, not with a branding agency. Decide up front whether you're charging once for a finished handover or a smaller ongoing amount for hosting and upkeep, and price accordingly.
Pricing is the part almost everyone starting this out gets stuck on — too high and a small local business won't say yes, too low and it stops being worth your evenings. There's no universal number, but there is a sensible way to think about it.
Separate the two things you might be charging for, because they're priced differently:
Decide which one you're actually offering before you say a number out loud — a business owner asking "is that a one-off?" and getting a vague answer is a common way a promising conversation stalls.
A few things move the price up or down in a way that's easy to explain to the business owner, not just to yourself:
Charging too little is a real trap, not a safe default — a price so low it reads as "I'm not confident in this" can put a business owner off more than a fair, ordinary one would. On the other side, quoting agency-level fees for a genuinely simple site to a business that has never spent money on web design before is the fastest way to get no reply at all. The useful middle is a price that reads as fair for what's actually being delivered, said plainly and without hedging.
State it directly, once, without a long justification attached — over-explaining a price tends to make it sound less certain, not more reasonable. If they push back, it's fine to explain what's included; it's not necessary to defend the number before anyone has objected to it.
What you charge the business is entirely separate from what Scoutline itself costs you — Scoutline is the tool that finds businesses with no working website and generates the real, ready-to-send preview you then pitch and, if they say yes, hand over. See the plans for what that costs on our side; see our guide on starting this as a UK side income for the fuller picture of the work itself.
There's no single right figure — it depends on your area, the business and what you deliver — but a simple one-page site for a local business is usually priced as a modest one-off fee or a small monthly amount, not a four-figure agency invoice. You're competing with the business having nothing at all, and with cheap DIY builders, not with a branding agency.
Both are common and suit different situations. A one-off fee fits a site you build and hand over; a small monthly amount fits ongoing hosting, updates, or a contact form you keep maintaining for them. Decide which you're actually providing before you name a number, and be clear about what the fee does and doesn't cover.
If your total trading income from it goes over £1,000 in a tax year, HMRC generally expects you to register for Self Assessment; below that, the trading allowance usually covers you. See our guide on starting this as a UK side income for the fuller HMRC picture — this isn't tax advice, check gov.uk before relying on it.