Most new businesses think about their website after they open. Folks did it the other way round, and it's one of the smartest calls we've seen a client make.
Here's how the project came together, what we focused on, and what any new business can take from it.
The brief: open the doors already booked
Folks is the first shop of its own for a well-established Brighton barber. It's built on craft, community and a welcome that's genuinely for everyone. The shop's own line says it best: "We are the company we keep."
Opening day was coming. Folks needed a website that was live, polished and findable before the doors opened, with as much personality as the shop and booking just a couple of taps away.
We are the company we keep.
Working with a brand that already existed
The Folks identity came from a local freelancer, and it was good. Our job wasn't to reinvent it. It was to do it justice online, carrying the look and the attitude into every page.
We built the site from scratch around that brand, with "We are the company we keep" running through every page as a moving ticker. No template, nothing that could belong to any other barber.
Designing for the phone in someone's hand
New customers look up a barber on their phone, usually when they're deciding where to go that week. So we designed for three questions: how much, where, and how do I book?
Book Now sits on every page. Every cut, fade, beard trim and kids' option is on one clear prices page, alongside the shop's own grooming products and tees. And a Find Us page gives routes from Aldrington station and Westbourne Street, so first-timers walk straight in.
Words in the Folks voice
We wrote the copy across the whole site: friendly, unhurried and free of waffle, just like the shop. A barber's website shouldn't read like a bank's.
Good words do two jobs. They make people feel at home before they've walked through the door, and they tell Google exactly what the business does and where.
A barber's website shouldn't read like a bank's.
Search-ready before day one
Page titles, descriptions and local content aimed at people searching for a barber in Brighton and Hove were all live before opening. That meant Google had time to find the site and start showing it while the shop was still being fitted out.
Launching early is the bit most new businesses miss. A website that goes live on opening day starts from zero. One that's been live for a few weeks already has a head start.
What happened next
Folks opened with a website already live and optimised, so it was found and booked from the start instead of playing catch-up. Today it's the main way customers book, and it pulls in high traffic every month.
We host the site and keep it sharp every month, handling updates, security and changes so the team can stay focused on the chair.
Folks proves a simple point: the best time to launch your website is before you need it.
Opening something new in Brighton, Hove or anywhere in Sussex? STKR Studio designs and builds websites from scratch, writes the words and handles the local search setup, so you open the doors already found.