"Hey tradies! Have you ever wondered how a web design agency builds your website before transferring ownership to you? And then once it's built, how do you maintain it, keep it up to date and secure online?

Well, that's what I’m going to break down for you in this video. Hopefully, in a way that's simple and easy to understand.

First off, Hey, my name is Guy, and I'm the founder of tradienet, we’re a local brand design agency based in Auckland, New Zealand that specialises in helping tradies all over Australasia get started online to grow their business and customer base. All to a point where they can put their focus back into working ON their business, instead of FOR their business. At the end of the day, none of us built our business to be its most overworked and underpaid employee. We did it for the exact opposite.

So let's dive in, first off, most web design agencies today will use a platform like Shopify or something similar to design and build your website. Shopify is a powerful e-commerce platform that's great for creating and managing online websites and it has a lot of built-in features and partner support to help your business run smoothly.

To help our merchants here at tradienet wrap their heads around this a bit better, we tell them to think of Shopify like Facebook and their website is like their business profile on the Shopify platform, except there's no mention of Shopify anywhere on your website and you can give the profile a .co.nz or .com.au domain name for your potential customers to visit directly.

Now, if the agency you decide to work with is any good, then once your website is built and paid for, the agency should then transfer ownership of the account to you. This means you will now have full control over your website and can take it with you to any Agency or Partner of your choosing should you decide to discontinue working with your current agency.

Seeing as Shopify has over 4 million merchants worldwide and counting, making up just over 20% of the websites you see online today (at the time of writing this blog post), most reputable agencies will be registered Shopify partners.

Now, as the new owner of your newly built website, you become liable to pay your monthly subscription directly to the web provider platform. In our case here at tradienet, that’s Shopify. At the time of this blog, the basic Shopify plan costs $39USD/month. This is the plan we sign all our merchants up to here at tradienet as we don't see any reason a tradie working in a service-based industry should need access to any of the higher Shopify plan features.

But don't worry, if you chose to work with a great web design agency, they won't just build your website and transfer the ownership to you, leaving you hanging. They’ll also provide their own paid maintenance and protection plans to have access to the back end of your website to ensure it's always up-to-date and secure.

To give you an example, our maintenance and protection plans start at $15NZD/month here at tradienet. If you're then also wanting a custom work email and domain name for your store we offer additional hosting plans that when added to one of our maintenance and protection plans are discounted to provide even more value for our merchants.

In summary, a reputable web design agency will use a platform like Shopify to build your website, before transferring ownership of the website to you. Once complete, with the benefits of using a world-renowned platform like Shopify and receiving ongoing support from a great agency like tradienet that continues to provide great support through maintenance and protection and hosting plans that suit your unique business needs. Your business's online presence will be in great hands moving forward. I hope this video helped grow your understanding of how this process works, if you made it to this stage of the video then thank you for watching and if you have any further questions feel free to reach out!

You’re putting in the hours, doing the graft, but still finding it hard to keep the pipeline full of good, high-paying jobs. Between quoting, running sites, and keeping on top of admin, there’s barely time to breathe — let alone figure out why your network’s drying up or how to find a new one. So, you start quoting lower just to keep things moving, blaming “quiet times” when chatting with the boys at the pub. Meanwhile, the bigger companies with flash systems and full-time marketing teams keep raking it in — building demand like they’re developing entire suburbs.

We’re tradienet. — and we’re not some ex-tradie turned digital “expert.” We’re a team of trained professionals with over 16 years of experience in eCommerce, branding, marketing, and sales. For the past four years, we’ve focused specifically on helping Kiwi and Aussie tradies get the most out of what’s available today — so you don’t get left behind and can compete confidently on the new digital stage.

We believe it’s time to level the playing field. Local, quality-focused trade businesses deserve a fair go — to compete for the same high-value work as the big players, without needing massive budgets or fancy sales teams. The market should reward skill, craftsmanship, and reliability — not just who shouts the loudest online.

That’s why we give tradies the tools, systems, and strategies to build their own steady pipeline of high-quality leads. Using modern tech and proven marketing systems, we help your business look, run, and sell like a professional operation — even while you’re on the tools. From branding and websites to automated proposal systems, we’ll help you attract higher-paying customers who value the quality of your work, not just your price. You’ll go from being the quote provider to being the consistent job winner.

💪 Ready to stop chasing work and start choosing it?

Check out our plans and packages at tradienet.nz and see how we can help your trade business take the next step.