Most web design “portfolios” show you a screenshot and ask you to take their word for it. This is the opposite. Here is a real project we were hired to do, start to finish, in our own words: what the client needed, what we actually built, and the one thing we got wrong the first time.
The client is Clubhouse Edina, a premium, members-only space in Edina, Minnesota. They came to us for a website. They left with a new front desk.
The problem: a great room, a site that didn’t match it, and a front desk doing too much by hand
Clubhouse Edina is a high-end space, and the feel in the room is a big part of what members pay for. The old website didn’t carry any of that. Worse, the day-to-day was manual: member questions came in by call and message, and when the front desk was busy, things slipped. For a members’ space, a dropped question isn’t a lost lead, it’s a member who feels ignored. That was the real problem to solve, and it wasn’t really about the website at all.
What we built
We designed and built a five-page custom WordPress site in a dark, editorial style that matches the room instead of fighting it. The hardest call was what to leave out. For a premium, by-invitation space, restraint reads as confidence, so we cut pages rather than adding them, and kept pricing off the site entirely.
Then we handled the part most web designers never touch: the front desk. We set up a branded member portal on their own subdomain, and put systems in place so member questions get answered fast instead of piling up when the desk is busy. Nothing falls through the cracks anymore, because it doesn’t depend on someone remembering to circle back.
Then we stayed
A lot of agencies hand over a site and disappear. We did the opposite. We stayed on to run their managed IT – the computers, the email, and the systems that keep the day moving – so the owner has one person to call when anything breaks, instead of a different vendor for every problem. That ongoing relationship is the whole point. The website was day one, not the finish line.
What we’d tell you if you’re weighing the same thing
Here’s the lesson we’d hand any small business owner: the website is usually the smallest part of the problem. The money leaks at the front desk – the calls that go to voicemail, the questions that wait, the follow-ups that never happen. A prettier site doesn’t fix that. Wiring the site into a front desk that actually responds does. If we could do one thing over, we’d have led with that conversation on day one instead of treating it as an add-on.
“Travis rebuilt how our front desk works. Members get answers fast, and nothing falls through anymore. He just handles it.”
– Zack B., Clubhouse Edina
That’s the kind of work we do, and we do it for businesses in every state. If you want to see the rest of our builds, take a look at our work. If you’d rather just see what we’d build for you, we’ll put together a free website preview – a real site on a real link – before you pay a dollar.