For new businesses in and around Ballarat: a maker selling from a home workshop in Wendouree, a first shop on Sturt Street, a potter or tutor starting classes, or a founder in an incubator. We build the first site, register your .com.au and set up email on it, and you see the draft before you pay a cent.
Ballarat is big enough that a new name isn't known to everyone, and connected enough that early customers usually arrive through someone they know, a market table, or a post in a local group. They'll look you up after hearing about you, and the site has to confirm the story: what you make or do, where, and how to buy or book.
For makers, the product is the pitch. Clear phone photos of finished pieces in daylight, with a line on materials and where they're made, do more than any description. You take them; we arrange them so they load quickly on a phone.
Ballarat's home-based business conditions say goods sold online can't be collected from the home. If you sell from a home workshop, the site needs postage or delivery options and should say so plainly, with your street address left off.
Pottery, woodwork, music, tutoring, fitness: anything run as sessions needs the next dates, the price and an enrolment or booking form on the page, not a note asking people to message you.
If you sell through markets or a stockist on Sturt Street or in Daylesford, list them. People who want to see a piece before buying it will go there, and a stockist list shows a new maker has been taken seriously.
For a mobile service, "Ballarat" is vague. Say whether Buninyong, Creswick, Ballan or Smythesdale are in or out, so someone 20 minutes away knows before they ring.
A photo, your name and a few lines on how the business started. For a new maker or teacher, that short story is often the reason someone chooses you over a bigger name.
The Victorian basics, from Business Victoria's free advice and Small Business Bus to the Clause 52.11 planning rules for home businesses and FoodTrader for market food stalls, are set out on our page for new Melbourne businesses. This section covers Ballarat.
The City of Ballarat runs a free business concierge service for people starting, expanding or buying a business, covering advice and mentoring, workshops, grant information and licensing. Its Business Engagement Officer is on 03 5320 5500 at 25 Armstrong Street South and can help with registrations, permits and compliance. Call them before you sign a lease or set up a workshop; we look after the website.
The council's home-based business requirements matter most to makers. Under them, a home business may only sell goods manufactured or serviced in it, has to store its materials and goods inside a building, can't display them on site, and can't have goods sold online collected from the home. It's limited to two workers who live elsewhere and one commercial vehicle; three outside workers, more floor area or a second vehicle may need a planning permit. So a maker working from a shed in Alfredton can sell what they make through the website, but the site should offer posting or delivery rather than pick-up, and point people to markets or stockists to see the work in person.
Making things is a big part of the city's identity. In 2019 Ballarat joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Crafts and Folk Art. For a new ceramicist, furniture maker or textile artist, a website with your own photos is the shopfront people outside the city will see first.
The main business network is Commerce Ballarat, formed in 2002 when the Ballarat Retail Board and the Ballarat Chamber of Commerce merged, with more than 650 members. Its initiatives include a month-long B31 August Business Festival and the Federation University Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards. For start-ups, the Geelong-based Runway incubator set up in Ballarat in 2018, teaming up with Federation University and LaunchVic, and the City of Ballarat backed its program in 2023; check its current intake before you plan around it. We're an Adelaide team and work with Ballarat businesses by phone and email; none of the clients below are in Ballarat.
We don't call these clients start-ups, since we don't know how long each had been trading when they came to us, and neither is in Ballarat. They're here because they do two things new makers and teachers often ask about: take enrolments for classes, and take booking and gift voucher requests from a single page.
A dance school on Brisbane's Bayside. Twelve pages, one for each program and the diploma, with a weekly class timetable, a filterable photo gallery, FAQs and an online enrolment form.
Visit the Qld Performing Arts site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Full-day fishing charters from Cape Jervis in South Australia. A single page with a booking request form, gift voucher requests, a catch gallery, an FAQ, reviews, a map and tap-to-call.
Visit the Cape Fishing Charters site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“…Salem walked us through everything, gave us a fixed quote so we knew exactly what we were paying, and turned around the build faster than we thought possible.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
$399
A sole trader or a mobile service: what you do, the towns you'll cover, a few photos and a contact form, with your .com.au and business email set up together.
Our suggestion for makers and teachers
$899
A home page, a page for your work or your classes with dates and prices, and an about page with your story, stockists and markets. Enrolment or enquiry forms included.
$1,499
For a business with several product ranges or class programs: a page for each, a gallery, and a news page for market days and new work. Need to sell online? Ask about our stores.
Yes. We're an Adelaide (South Australia) web design team working with businesses Australia-wide by phone and email, with current clients in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. You send your words and photos, we send a draft link you can check on your phone, and you pay once you approve it. We reply within 24 hours.
Yes. A small range can sit on a normal page with an order form, or we build an online store: $799 for up to 25 products with one payment gateway, or $1,999 for unlimited products, multiple payment options, customer accounts and advanced shipping. Because the City of Ballarat's home-business conditions rule out customers collecting online orders from the home, we set up postage or delivery and leave your address off.
Yes. The simplest version is an enrolment form that lands in your inbox, as on the dance school site above. We can also link a booking tool you already use, or build online booking and payments into the site, quoted for your job.
A line about making your work in a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art is fine if it's true of you. The title belongs to the city, though, so word it so it doesn't suggest UNESCO has recognised your business, and leave UNESCO's logo off unless you've been given permission to use it.
The City of Ballarat's business concierge, through its Business Engagement Officer on 03 5320 5500. It's free and covers registrations, permits and compliance. We stick to the website: arranging your words and photos into the pages, registering the domain and setting up email.
Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos; bigger sites (up to 8 pages) take 2–3 weeks. If there's a market, a class term or the August festival you want to be ready for, tell us the date at the start.
Tell us what you'll make, teach or offer, and where people can find you. We'll check the .com.au is free, quote the site and build a draft; you pay only once you've approved it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au