A few things only you can do.

Almost everything on your project is ours to handle. These are the handful of jobs that legally or technically have to come from you, because they are tied to your identity or your bank. Each one takes a few minutes. Do them whenever suits and tell us when they are done.

Nothing here needs you to understand any of it. If a step goes sideways, stop and email us and we will talk you through it.

1. Your Google Business Profile

Why it matters more than your website. When somebody searches your trade plus your town, Google shows the map before it shows any website. That map listing is free, and for most local businesses it brings in more calls than everything else combined.

Why we cannot do it for you. Google will not let anyone verify a business they do not own. They post a postcard to your address, or ring the number, or ask for a short video of the premises. That has to be you.

What to do: go to business.google.com/create, enter the business name and address, and follow the verification it offers. When it asks how to verify, pick whichever is easiest, usually the phone call.

Then send us: a note saying it is verified, and add info@fernvie.com as a Manager. Here is every click for that, about three minutes. We take it from there: categories, services, hours, photos, description and the weekly posts.

2. Your domain name

What we need. Either access to wherever the domain was bought, or five minutes of your time to change two settings yourself. Both work.

You keep ownership. We never move a domain into our name. Your domain stays yours the whole time, and you can pull our access whenever you want.

Walkthroughs: no idea where the domain lives · give us access at GoDaddy · change the settings yourself

3. Any website you already have

Do not send a password. Every one of these platforms lets you invite us as our own user instead, which is safer for you and takes two clicks to undo. Pick yours:

Wix · Shopify · WordPress · Squarespace

On something else? Tell us what it is and we will write the steps for it.

4. Your social accounts

Do not send us passwords. Facebook and Instagram both let you add somebody without one, and you can remove that access with two clicks whenever you like. Here are the steps for both. Do it on a computer rather than the phone app, which hides most of these settings.

5. Photos, logo and files

Whatever you already have, in whatever state. Phone photos are fine. Old logo files are fine even if you hate them. If you have nothing at all, say so, that is normal and we work around it.

6. Taking payment (online stores only)

Card processing has to be opened in your name with your bank details, because the money goes to you. Stripe or PayPal both take about ten minutes. We connect it to the store once it exists, and we never see your banking details.

7. The boring details

Opening hours, service area, license or insurance numbers if your trade has them, and how you want people to reach you. Small things, but they are what make a stranger trust the site.

Stuck on any of it?

Email info@fernvie.com and say which number you are stuck on. We would rather do a screen share for ten minutes than have you fight with Google on a Sunday.