For Mandurah people starting out from home in Halls Head or Meadow Springs, teaching or cutting hair by appointment in a spare room, baking for the markets, or opening a shopfront: a first website built from your own words and photos, with a .com.au in your name and email that matches it. You see the draft before you pay anything.
The City of Mandurah is specific about what a business run from home can do, and that decides what your website should promise: whether customers come to the house, what they'll see out the front, and what you're allowed to sell. Matching the site to your category from the start saves a rewrite later.
The City sorts home-based work into a home office, a home occupation and a home business, and only the last needs development approval before you start. A bookkeeper working as a home office sees no clients at the house, so the site shows a suburb and a phone number, not a street.
A home occupation, such as a hairdresser or a music teacher, can have limited client visits by appointment. A booking form, or a link to the tool you already use such as Fresha, keeps visits to set times, and the street address goes in the confirmation rather than on the page.
A home occupation is allowed one sign of no more than 0.2 square metres, which won't say much to someone driving past. The website carries what the sign can't: what you do, your prices if you publish them, and how to book.
Larger text, strong contrast, a phone number at the top and prices in plain words suit customers of any age. In a city whose median age at the 2021 Census was nine years above neighbouring Rockingham's, they're worth more than a clever layout.
Jams, sauces and cakes without cream made at home for sale need the City's health approval. List what you're approved to make and nothing else, and leave the order form off until the approval comes through.
If the plan is a studio or shop once trade builds, start small and add a location page, opening hours and a map when you sign a lease. New pages are quoted first; changing text and photos on the pages you have is covered by hosting.
The statewide parts are the same as in Perth: free advice from the Small Business Development Corporation on 133 140, WA's standard definitions of home-based businesses, and WA Health's rule that food made at home for sale has to be registered with or notified to your local government. Our page for new Perth businesses sets those out. What follows is what the City of Mandurah adds.
The City's home-based business guidance treats work done entirely inside the house, with no clients visiting, no signage and no change to how the home looks, as a home office; consulting and bookkeeping are its examples. A home occupation uses no more than 20 square metres, has limited client visits by appointment that don't add to traffic in the street, and can show one sign up to 0.2 square metres; hairdressers and music teachers are the examples there. Neither needs planning approval. A home business can have up to two people from outside the household working on site and use up to 50 square metres, and it needs development approval before it starts operating. The planning team is on (08) 9550 3748 if you're not sure which describes you.
On food, the City says that making things such as jams, sauces and cakes without cream at home for sale requires health approval, and that home kitchens are generally limited to low-risk foods because most don't meet the standards for anything riskier. The order matters: sort out planning approval first, then lodge the health application through City of Mandurah Online. Health Services are on (08) 9550 3777. On the website, the product list should match what you're approved to make, and pre-orders open after the approval, not before.
Free advice on the business itself comes from IPS Management Consultants, the state-funded SBDC Regional provider for Peel, covering Mandurah, Pinjarra, Waroona, Boddington and Serpentine-Jarrahdale (1300 275 477). The City also runs StartUp Smart, a free eight-week course with IPS that's open only to people who live in the City of Mandurah, with one-on-one advice sessions during and after it. The 2026 intake met on Tuesday mornings at the Dawesville Community Centre from 21 July to 8 September, and the application form asked for attendance at all eight sessions, so watch the City's website for the next round. Its setting-up-a-business page also points to the Peel Chamber of Commerce and Industry and to WOTSO Mandurah, a co-working space with drop-in and flexible office space and meeting rooms, which helps when a home office can't take visitors.
Two more local details shape the design. At the 2021 Census the City of Mandurah's median age was 45, against 36 in the neighbouring City of Rockingham, so we set text larger than usual and keep the phone number easy to find. And your customers may not live under the same council as you: Pinjarra and North and South Yunderup are in the Shire of Murray, and Secret Harbour and Golden Bay are in the City of Rockingham, each with its own planning rules. We're an Adelaide team and work with Peel businesses by phone and email. We haven't built for a WA client yet, so the examples below are from South Australia. Mandurah keeps Perth time, 1.5 hours behind Adelaide, or 2.5 during South Australian daylight saving.
We don't label these clients start-ups, since we don't know how long each had been trading when they came to us. Golden Years Aged Care Support was built for older readers, which fits a Mandurah audience; Cape Fishing Charters is a coastal operator taking booking requests from a single page.
In-home support for older people across Northern Adelaide. Six pages with large, readable text, nine services explained on one page, a founder about page, an enquiry form that lets aged care providers refer clients, and tap-to-call on every page.
Visit the Golden Years Aged Care site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Full-day charters out of Cape Jervis, seven days a week. One page holds a booking request form, gift voucher requests, a catch gallery, an FAQ, customer reviews, an embedded map and tap-to-call.
Visit the Cape Fishing Charters site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“From day one he was very professional and patient when making my website.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
Our suggestion for most home-based starts
$399
For a home office or a by-appointment studio: what you do, your suburb, prices if you publish them, a booking link or enquiry form, larger text and tap-to-call, with your domain and email set up.
$899
A home page, a services or products page, and an about page that tells people who you are, which is the part a small sign out the front can't. Useful once you offer more than one kind of service.
$1,499
For a business opening with staff, several services, or a shopfront alongside home-based work: a page for each, opening hours and a map, and Google Analytics visitor stats.
We'd show your suburb and send the street address with each booking confirmation. Under the City of Mandurah's guidance a home occupation can have limited client visits by appointment, so a site that asks people to book ahead fits the rules and keeps drop-ins away. If you use a booking tool such as Fresha or Calendly, we link it from every page.
After the City's health approval. The City says food prepared at home for sale needs health approval, lodged once planning is sorted, and that home kitchens are generally limited to low-risk foods. We can put the site up beforehand with your range and a sign-up for launch news, then switch ordering on when you're approved. For a larger range, our online stores start at $799 for up to 25 products with one payment gateway.
The website doesn't, but the business might. In the City of Mandurah a home office and a home occupation don't need planning approval, while a home business needs development approval before it starts operating. Ask the planning team on (08) 9550 3748 if you're unsure, and keep what the site says about visits and staff in line with your category.
Yes. IPS Management Consultants gives free, state-funded advice across Peel as the SBDC Regional provider (1300 275 477), and the City runs StartUp Smart, a free eight-week course with IPS for Mandurah residents. The website is our part: arranging your words and photos into pages, registering the domain and setting up email.
Only if you'll really work there. People in Secret Harbour or Pinjarra may search for a Mandurah business, so naming the suburbs you'll travel to helps, and saying where you stop saves a wasted call on both sides. Adding a suburb later is a text change covered by the $30 monthly hosting; a page of its own is quoted first.
Yes, by phone and email. We're an Adelaide (South Australia) web design team working with businesses Australia-wide, with current clients in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. You send your words and photos, we send a draft link to check on your phone, and you pay once you approve it. We reply within 24 hours, and most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos.
Tell us what you'll do, whether customers will come to you, and which suburbs you'll cover. We'll check your domain, quote the site and build a draft that you pay for only once you've approved it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au