For new Gold Coast businesses, from a home office in Robina to a nature tour in the hinterland or a mobile service that crosses into Tweed: a first site built from your own words and photos, a .com.au registered to you and email set up on it. You see the draft before you pay anything.
The Gold Coast is a long, narrow city with a state border at its southern end and a different council up the range. A new business here may be chasing locals in a few suburbs, visitors who don't know the suburb names, or customers over the border whose clocks run an hour ahead for half the year. The first site needs to work for the people you're after and be plain about where you stop.
NSW moves to daylight saving each October and Queensland doesn't, so from October to April Tweed Heads is an hour ahead of Coolangatta. If you answer calls or take bookings from both sides, write your hours as Queensland time and add a short line explaining it for summer.
Calendly shows times in each visitor's own time zone unless the event is locked to one, and for in-person events it recommends locking to the event's location. For a class in Burleigh, that means locking it to Queensland time, so someone booking from Kingscliff in December turns up at the right hour.
From Ormeau and Pimpama in the north to Coolangatta in the south is a long drive. Name the suburbs you'll really reach. If you also go up to Tamborine Mountain or across to Tweed, list them in their own line: one is in the Scenic Rim, the other is in NSW, and people there search by their own town names.
A new tour, class or experience is usually bought by someone who's never heard of you and is reading on a phone in a hotel room. Put the meeting point, duration, what's included, any age or fitness limits, what happens if the weather turns, and the booking or enquiry form on the same page.
Stock shots of Surfers Paradise tell a stranger nothing about you. Clear phone photos of your vehicle, equipment, workspace or a real session in good light do far more. You send the photos; we arrange them into the pages and tell you honestly which ones work best.
Under City Plan, an office or a shop isn't a home-based business. If you run from home and go to your customers, the site shows the area you cover. If people do come to you, for a fitting or a lesson, the address and parking notes sit on the contact page.
The Queensland-wide help, Business Launchpad for working out your licences and permits and the state's Mentoring for Growth sessions once you've started trading, is set out on our page for new Brisbane businesses. Business Queensland brings some of it to the coast: one of its three Queensland Small Business Expos in May 2026 was held on the Gold Coast, with free 30-minute one-on-one sessions with business mentors, independent financial counsellors and cyber-resilience advisers. Business Queensland's events calendar lists what's coming up if you'd like to talk the business through in person.
If you're starting from home, City of Gold Coast's home-based business page says you don't need a development approval when the property is in a residential zone, the business meets the accepted development requirements of the City Plan Home-based business code (table 9.3.11-1) and any other zone code that applies, and it isn't a bed and breakfast. The category doesn't include an office or a shop, a City Plan overlay can trigger the need for approval, and some activities, such as preparing food, may need a food permit. City Plan's interactive mapping shows your zone and overlays, and council takes questions on 1300 465 326.
The border shapes more Gold Coast businesses than people expect. The NSW Government lists this season's daylight saving as running from 4 October 2026 to 4 April 2027, and notes that Queensland doesn't take part, so twin towns Tweed Heads and Coolangatta sit an hour apart through summer. If you'll take work south of the border, the site should treat Tweed as its own area; for trades, our Gold Coast tradies page covers licences for jobs over the border. Inland, Tamborine Mountain is about 35 kilometres from Surfers Paradise but sits in the Scenic Rim, so its rules and permits come from a different council.
For tourism start-ups, the City runs a Nature-based Tourism program that encourages new products and experiences built around the coast's natural environment. Travel Weekly reported that it reopened on 1 May 2026 for emerging and existing operators of low-impact, immersive experiences, that past recipients included eco-accommodation, wildlife conservation, nature tours and First Nations cultural experiences, and that each proposal goes before a panel with tourism, environmental and First Nations members. This year's small-grant round closed on 30 June and the large-grant round on 31 July. Whether or not you apply, an experience that sells to visitors needs a page that answers their questions and a clear way to book, which is where we come in.
We're an Adelaide team, and we work with Gold Coast businesses by phone and email; none of the client sites below is on the coast. Because Queensland's clocks stay put all year, the half-hour gap between us flips sides in October and April. Either way, we reply within 24 hours, and the draft arrives as a link you can check on your phone between customers.
Neither of these is a Gold Coast business, and we don't know how long each had been trading when it came to us. One is a charter operator that takes booking requests from people planning a day out; the other is a Queensland sole operator whose single page covers the lot.
Full-day fishing charters from Cape Jervis in South Australia, for beginners through to experienced anglers. The one-page site has a booking request form, gift voucher requests, a catch photo gallery, an FAQ, customer reviews, an embedded map and tap-to-call: much of what a new tour or charter on the coast would want.
Visit the Cape Fishing Charters site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
A licensed Queensland plumber and gas fitter. One page covers six services, with a 13-photo gallery that swipes on mobile, client testimonials, a protected contact form and tap-to-call.
Visit the M.J. Debney site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“My website is exactly how I wanted. I highly recommend Salem for any business wanting a professional website without the bull.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
Where most new businesses start
$399
Your services or experience, the suburbs or meeting point you cover, hours in Queensland time, your ABN and a contact or booking-request form, with the .com.au and email set up together.
$899
A home page, a page setting out each service or tour with what's included, and a page for FAQs, getting there and how bookings and cancellations work.
$1,499
Separate pages for each tour, service line or part of the coast, a news section for seasonal updates, and Google Analytics visitor stats.
List your Tweed towns in a line of their own, give your hours as Queensland time, and explain that NSW is an hour ahead from October to April. If people book online for in-person sessions, lock the booking tool to Queensland time. If your work needs a licence, check what applies on the NSW side before you advertise there.
Often not, according to the City: no development approval is needed in a residential zone if the business meets the Home-based business code and other zone codes, isn't a bed and breakfast, and no City Plan overlay triggers the need for approval. An office or a shop doesn't count as home-based. Council answers questions on 1300 465 326; we stick to the website.
Yes. We build online booking and payment systems into sites, quoted for each job, or we link a booking tool you already use. If you'd rather confirm each booking by hand while you find your feet, a booking request form like Cape Fishing Charters' sends the date, group size and contact details straight to your inbox.
Everything happens by phone and email. One call to talk through what you'll offer, then you email your words and photos, and we send a draft link. You ask for as many changes as you like and pay once you approve it; if you don't go ahead, you owe nothing.
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 you're aiming at the school holidays or a launch weekend, tell us the date at the start, and we'll register the domain first so it can go on signs and flyers.
Send us the business name, what you'll offer and the stretch of coast you'll cover. We'll check the .com.au is free, quote the site and build your draft; you pay only once you approve it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au