For Melbourne sole traders, side projects going full-time, market stallholders, new cafés still waiting on permits and founders with a product to explain: a first site built from your own words, a .com.au registered to you, and email that matches it. The draft comes first, and the invoice only after you approve it.
A lot of new Melbourne businesses don't start behind a shopfront. They start at a kitchen table in Preston, in a shared studio in Collingwood, or under a gazebo at a weekend market. The first website has to make a small operation easy to place and easy to trust, and it shouldn't promise anything the business can't do yet.
A mobile massage therapist based in Brunswick probably doesn't want calls from Pakenham. Name your home suburb and the regions or councils you'll travel to, and leave the rest out, so the people who do get in touch are ones you can reach.
If you sell online from a house, Victoria's no-permit conditions for home-based businesses say goods sold online can't be collected from the dwelling. The site says how orders reach people (posted, delivered, or collected at a market) and never shows your street address.
A café or shop still in fit-out can have a page up now: what you'll sell, the street you'll be on, and a sign-up for opening news. The date goes on when the permits and the builders are finished, as a text change under hosting.
Consultants, coaches and practitioners leaving an employer are usually chosen for their background. A short about page with your qualifications, the places you've worked and a real photo gives a stranger something to go on before any reviews exist.
A discovery call booked online, an enquiry form, or tap-to-call for someone who's out on jobs all day. We can link the booking tool you already use, such as Calendly, or build booking and payments into the site, quoted for your job.
Stallholders and pop-ups need a short list of upcoming markets and dates near the top of the page. Send us the next month's list by email and we'll update it; that's a text change covered by hosting.
For free advice on the business itself, Victoria's starting point is Business Victoria, on 13 22 15. When the state's Small Business Bus visits a council area, it offers a free one-on-one 45-minute mentoring session, booked ahead, with one session per business; council listings describe advice on developing the idea, writing a business plan, marketing and cash flow. Councils post the bus's visits, and the contact centre can tell you about upcoming ones. That's the place to pressure-test a plan; the website is our part.
If you're opening in the city centre, the City of Melbourne runs a Business Concierge service (hotline 03 9658 9658) that gives free start-up advice and information on permits and registrations. Inside Local Government reported in May 2024 that the service had run in the CBD since 2020 and was being extended to neighbourhoods beyond the Hoddle Grid, and that in the previous year it had helped 74 traders open, cutting the typical time to open from eight months to four. Even four months is a long time to have no web presence, which is why we suggest a holding page and no fixed date until your approvals are through. Other councils run similar services; Whitehorse, for example, has a free Business Permit Support Service.
Many first-year businesses run from home, and in Victoria that's governed by Clause 52.11 of the planning scheme. Whitehorse's summary is typical: no permit is needed if you live there, no more than two people who live elsewhere work in the business, the business uses no more than 100 square metres or a third of the dwelling's floor area, whichever is less (garages and sheds count), and goods sold online aren't collected from the dwelling. Preparing food at home for sale brings in the Food Act, which means registering with your council (or, for the lowest-risk class, notifying it), and beauty therapists and tattooists need registration under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act. Market stalls and food vans register through FoodTrader and, as Boroondara explains, lodge a statement of trade each time they operate. If your plans don't fit, ask your council; on the website, it all points the same way: no street address, and a clear note on how orders reach the customer.
For tech and product founders, the state's start-up support changed this year. Innovation Victoria launched on 1 July 2026, bringing together LaunchVic and Breakthrough Victoria, with programs, advice and investment for businesses at each stage. Program staff, mentors and early customers all look a start-up up online, so a plain page that says what the product does, who it's for and who's building it is worth having before you apply for anything.
We're an Adelaide team and work with Melbourne businesses by phone and email. Our Victorian client is Dr Tabara Dione Coaching in Melbourne. Metropolitan Melbourne also spreads across around 30 of the state's 79 council areas, so we lay out your service area by the suburbs and regions people actually type, not one long list of postcodes.
We don't describe these clients as start-ups, because we don't know how long each had been trading when they came to us. Dr Tabara Dione's site is our Melbourne example of a practice built around one person's expertise. Golden Years Aged Care Support shows how a founder's own story can carry a small service business.
Confidential coaching for doctors, led by a Melbourne specialist anaesthetist. The site sets out the services, gives her credentials an about page of their own, and links online discovery-call booking from every page, alongside a contact form.
Visit the Dr Tabara Dione site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
In-home support for older people in Northern Adelaide. Six pages, with nine services explained on one of them, a founder about page, an enquiry form that lets aged care providers refer clients, large readable text and tap-to-call throughout.
Visit the Golden Years Aged Care 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.
$399
A home-based maker, a stallholder or a sole trader: what you offer, the suburbs you cover or the markets you'll be at, how orders reach people, and a contact form, with your domain and email set up.
Our suggestion for a new practice or consultancy
$899
A home page, a services page with prices if you publish them, and an about page with your background and credentials. Online call booking can be linked from every page.
$1,499
For a launch with several service lines, a team, or more than one part of Melbourne to cover: a page for each, a news page for openings, and Google Analytics visitor stats.
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, including Dr Tabara Dione Coaching in Melbourne. 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.
Under Victoria's home-based business rules (Clause 52.11), goods sold online must not be collected from the dwelling if you're relying on the no-permit conditions, so check with your council before offering it. We set the site up to show posting, local delivery or market pick-up instead, and keep your address off it. If you want a proper shop, our online stores start at $799 for up to 25 products with one payment gateway.
Usually, yes. A one-page site with what you'll serve, the street you'll be on and a sign-up for opening news lets people find you while the fit-out runs. If you're in the City of Melbourne, its Business Concierge can help with the permits. When the date is firm, we add it; that's a text change covered by the $30 monthly hosting.
It's optional. .melbourne is Victoria's own web address ending, managed for the State of Victoria and open to registered businesses and residents with a Victorian address, among others. We'd still make a .com.au your main address, registered in your name for about $20 a year with email on it. If you like how a .melbourne looks on a van or a stall banner, it can point at the same site; it's priced separately, so check the cost first.
Business Victoria (13 22 15) is the place to start, including a free 45-minute session when the Small Business Bus visits. Your council may also run a concierge or permit service. We stay with the website: arranging your words and photos into pages, registering the domain and setting up email.
One clear page: the problem and who has it, what the product does, the founders with photos, and a form for early access or partner enquiries. You write it; we arrange it and set up the form. Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos, so leave room before an application closes.
Tell us the business name, what you'll offer and which part of Melbourne you'll work in or sell to. We'll check whether the .com.au is free, quote the site and build your draft. You pay only once you've approved it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au