I've been the small business owner staring at a website quote and thinking: I can't afford this.
That's why I built SME Shack.
How I got here
I ran a merchandise business called Merch Street for years. We sold branded merchandise and handled e-commerce, which sounds straightforward until you're actually doing it and realising that your website is costing you sales, your checkout is leaking customers, and no one at the agency you called last month has got back to you.
I wasn't a developer. I was a business owner who needed things to work. So I started figuring it out myself — websites, online stores, digital tools, the lot. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to.
Later, I built a wholesale operating system for Aykiz, a fashion and wholesale business. They needed inventory management, order tracking, and client portals. The kind of system that would cost tens of thousands at a big agency, if a big agency would even take the call. I built it properly, at a price that made sense for a small business.
And somewhere in all of that, I noticed something. Every problem I'd had to figure out for myself — every late night trying to work out why the checkout was broken, every conversation with an agency that either quoted me into oblivion or didn't really understand what I needed — other small business owners were going through the exact same thing.
The agencies that could do the work well weren't interested in businesses our size. The cheaper options cut corners you'd only discover six months later. And everyone seemed to be charging for complexity that wasn't actually that complex.
So I started SME Shack. Not to disrupt anything. Just to do the work properly, at a price that makes sense for a five-person business, not a five-hundred-person corporate.
How I think agencies should work
On pricing
Pricing should be on the website. If something has a standard cost, there is no reason to make you fill out a form to find out what it is. That's a sales tactic, not a service. At SME Shack, every package has a price. You know what you're looking at before you get on a call.
On who you're talking to
You should be able to speak directly to the person doing the work. Not an account manager who passes your notes along. Not a project manager who's never touched your code. When you contact SME Shack, you get me. I'm the one who builds it, I'm the one who answers your questions, and I'm the one who's accountable if something's not right.
On what a website is actually for
A website is not a digital trophy. It is not there to win awards or impress other designers. It's there to turn people who find you online into people who contact you, buy from you, or trust you enough to walk through your door. Every decision I make about your site — the layout, the copy, the speed — is about making that happen.
On using AI
I use AI tools in my work. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. They help me work faster, which is part of why I can offer the prices I do. But AI doesn't replace thinking about your business, understanding your customers, or making the right call on what to build. It just means I'm not spending three days on something that should take three hours.
What working with me looks like
SME Shack is a solo operation. I run it, I build it, and I handle the client relationship from the first call to the finished product.
I use AI-assisted tools to build faster and keep costs down — which is how I can offer websites at prices that would make most agencies uncomfortable. You get quality work without paying for a layer of account management and overhead on top of it.
Every project starts with a call. You tell me what you need. I tell you honestly what I'd do and what it would cost. If I can't help, I'll say so.
If that sounds like the right fit for your business
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll talk about where you are, what you need, and whether SME Shack is the right option. No pitch, no pressure.
Book a free 30-minute callYou'll be talking to Ali — the person who'll actually build your site.