Opening on Dean Street, starting a mobile trade out of Thurgoona or launching something from home in West Wodonga: we build your first site, register the domain in your name and set up email on it. Nothing is due until you've approved the draft.
A new business here is starting in two states at once, even if it only ever trades from one bank of the river. Customers cross the bridge without thinking about it; the paperwork doesn't. The site should be as relaxed about the river as your customers are, and as precise as the rules need you to be.
Say where you're based and whether you'll take work on the other side. A mobile dog groomer in Lavington who happily goes to Baranduda should say so; one who doesn't should say that too, before someone in Bandiana fills in the form.
People type Glenroy, Springdale Heights, Killara or Leneva, not a region. Name the eight or ten places you'll really reach, plus Jindera or Howlong if they're in range.
Defence postings, hospital jobs, the ATO and the two universities bring a steady flow of people who know nobody locally yet. A short line on who you are and how long you've worked in the trade does the job a neighbour's recommendation would do for an old local.
Both cities run on eastern time, but if you take bookings from interstate or list phone hours, state them plainly. It saves an awkward call from a customer in South Australia or Western Australia.
Your licence or registration, the chamber you've joined, photos of real jobs or products, and the years you spent working for someone else before going out on your own. Put them high on the page until Google reviews arrive.
Plenty of Border businesses start in one city and open a second spot in the other. With hosting, edits to existing pages are unlimited, and a new page for a second location is quoted before we build it.
The state rules depend on which bank you set up on. In Albury, NSW applies: the free Service NSW support and the state rules that let many home businesses run without council approval are set out on our Sydney new-business page. In Wodonga, it's Victoria, where home businesses come under Clause 52.11 of the planning scheme and Business Victoria is the first call; our Melbourne new-business page covers both. An ABN and a business name are national, so those don't change at the river. What follows is the local part.
Both councils give a new business one person to deal with. AlburyCity runs Easy to do business with Service NSW, a free service that links you with a Business Concierge to work through the licences and permits you need, and names cafés, small bars, restaurants, tradies and builders among the businesses it helps. Wodonga Council's Small Business Wodonga service has a Business Concierge Officer as a single point of contact, an online assessment tool that shows which council permits you may need, and one online form to request all of them. Until the permits are through, we'd leave an opening date off the site and put up a page that says what's coming and collects email addresses.
Each city also has its own business network. Albury Business Connect describes itself as the voice of the Albury business community, reports more than 400 member businesses from sole traders up, and runs workshops and events, including a 2026 Sharks on the Murray night where finalists pitched ideas to a panel of investors. Across the river, Business Wodonga has members run workshops, offers After Hours showcases and holds a month of Business Festival activities, and Albury Business Connect says it works closely with it. AlburyCity's business support page also points start-ups to Enterprise Plus for advice and mentoring; it has delivered government business advisory services across regional NSW and the ACT for more than 30 years. If you're going to stand up at a pitch night or a showcase, have the site live first, because the people you meet will look you up the next morning.
The customers are a moving population as well as a settled one. Invest Albury Wodonga says more than 1,000 Australian Taxation Office staff are based here and that the Army Logistics Training Centre is headquartered at Bandiana, and Albury Wodonga Health is the region's largest employer. New arrivals choose a hairdresser, mechanic or café by searching, which suits a new business with no word of mouth yet, provided its site comes up with the suburb in it. Invest Albury Wodonga also lists contact details for both councils' economic development teams.
We're an Adelaide team and work with Border businesses by phone and email; your clocks are half an hour ahead of ours all year. We have current clients in both NSW and Victoria, though none in Albury-Wodonga yet. You send your words and photos, we send a draft link to check on your phone, and you pay only once you approve it.
Neither of these businesses is on the Border, and we don't describe either as a start-up, since we don't know how long each had been trading. They show what a small first site can hold.
Confidential coaching for doctors, led by a Melbourne specialist anaesthetist. The site has a services overview, an about page setting out her credentials, a contact form and discovery-call booking linked from every page: credentials doing the work that a long review history would otherwise do.
Visit the Dr Tabara Dione site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
A NSW voiceover artist working from a home studio, so there's no street address on the page. Four demo reels play straight from the site, and the enquiry form asks what kind of project it is.
Visit the Fiona Dixon site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“They were very helpful and envisioned exactly what I was wanting for my website. They created the site very promptly and cost efficient.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
Where most new Border businesses start
$399
One page with what you offer, the suburbs on each side of the river you'll cover, your licence or credentials, and a quote or contact form. An email sign-up can sit there too until you open.
$899
Home, services and about: enough to keep two service lines apart, or to give a café its menu and a trade its gallery.
$1,499
For a business opening in both cities, or with several services: a page each, so someone searching in Wodonga lands on the Wodonga page.
By phone and email. We're an Adelaide (South Australia) web design team working with businesses Australia-wide, and our current clients are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. A call to start, your words and photos by email, then a draft link you can check on your phone. We reply within 24 hours, and you pay only once you approve the draft.
Not for the site itself: a .com.au works the same on both banks. What matters is saying clearly where you'll go. List the Wodonga suburbs you serve alongside the Albury ones, and if you hold a state licence for your trade, say which state issued it.
No need to wait for the site, just for the date. Talk to the Business Concierge at AlburyCity or Wodonga Council about permits, and meanwhile put up a one-page site with the menu idea, the location and a sign-up for opening news. Adding the date later is a text change covered by the $30 monthly hosting.
If you've joined, a line on the about page or in the footer gives a stranger a reason to trust a new name. Check with the network before using its logo.
Yes. We can link a booking tool you already use, such as Calendly or Fresha, or build booking and payment into the site, which we quote per job. If you want to sell products, online stores are $799 for up to 25 products or $1,999 for unlimited products with customer accounts.
Tell us what you're opening, which side of the river and which suburbs you'll cover. We'll check the domain, quote the site and build a draft that you pay for only once you're happy with it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au