Hi, I am Mac, and since 2016, I’ve had a front-row seat to the digital hurdles local businesses face. I have filled a lot of roles in my time, such as Graphics Designer, Web Developer, Project Manager, and Sales Engineer across over 150 websites, allowing me to learn the process from the first line of code to years of ongoing support and partnerships. As an entrepreneur myself, working alongside local owners turned a professional interest into a genuine passion!Â
Now I am excited to announce that I launched SQUIRE to do things differently! I spent the last few months deconstructing standard agency practices to build a new model that prioritizes businesses here in the Twin Cities.
Most agencies rely on high-volume “churn and burn” models, where you build websites as fast as possible to get to the next lead. This leaves business owners feeling rushed and misunderstood. At SQUIRE, we’ve flipped the script by lowering the barrier to entry with accessible price brackets and splitting payments in two, allowing us to focus on long-term partnerships, not just fast-paced transactions. When you grow, we grow. This core philosophy ended up causing a large ripple effect in how we approach our work!Â
Now that we’ve moved away from a “customer acquisition” mindset toward a “customer retention” model, we have refined our processes to specifically meet the needs of our Twin Cities and South Metro entrepreneurial communities.
You aren’t a template, so why should your website be? We believe the secret sauce to a high-performing website is a genuine connection. Because we are local, we prioritize meeting in person over a cup of coffee to truly get to know you, though we are always happy to connect online if that fits your schedule better. By taking the time to understand who you are, how you work, and what success means to you, we can grow to be better partners. This alignment allows us to build websites that complement your unique needs and create tools that fit into your workflow, saving you time and headaches. Ultimately, this all leads to fewer revisions, better website features, and a final product that truly hits it out of the park!
Through our work with new entrepreneurs, we realized that many businesses need more than just a website. To help bridge this gap, we’ve developed two foundational deliverables, included standard with every build, to ensure we start on the right foot.
The Adventure Map: Usually, detailed wireframes and project workflows are hidden behind extra fees. We’ve changed that by combining your Wireframe, Scope of Work (SOW), and Project Milestones into one cohesive Adventure Map. By providing this up-front, we eliminate guesswork and set crystal-clear expectations for your project’s journey. It’s an invaluable tool for effective communication and is now a standard part of our process!
The Adventure Compass: Many businesses haven’t had the chance to fully nail down their visual identity. To solve this, we created the Adventure Compass, a hybrid Style and Brand Guide. Included in every build, the Compass ensures we design with confidence and consistency. It also serves as our North Star, keeping your digital presence true to your mission and aesthetic as you grow both on your website and throughout other online content.Â
Technology moves fast, and we refuse to fall behind. We’ve spent months testing, deconstructing, and restacking the latest tools to ensure we are building both websites and partnerships that last!
For example, during this process, we actually migrated our hosting infrastructure three different times, at our own expense. It is almost embarrassing to admit, but finding servers that met our high standards for speed, stability, and security turned out to be harder than expected. Building on a shaky server is like building a house on sand, which is a surefire way to let our customers down. That is why we put in the extra work to ensure your foundation is rock solid, even circling back to provide free upgrades to all of our existing partners because we believe in doing right by people!
We also upgraded our “toolbelt” with industry leading-tools, allowing us to build stronger, communicate more clearly, and deliver more solutions than ever before! There are a lot of cool new tools we are using, and we are excited to cover them in more detail in future blog posts!Â
Web development is full of jargon and technical “noise” that can feel overwhelming. We believe it is important for you to know what you’re buying, see what decisions we are making along the way, and understand how the website is benefiting your business!Â
With this in mind, we’ve established a simplified communication process throughout our partnership that keeps you in the loop without getting lost in the technical weeds. No anxieties, no gatekeeping, just clear, approachable communication!Â
*And if you do want to geek out on the technical details, we are always excited to talk shop!
Let’s craft our digital adventure together!