New practice, new website: Hillside Accountancy’s launch story
Starting a new business is nerve-wracking enough without worrying about whether your website for new business makes you look like you’ve been trading for five minutes (even if you have). When Hillside Accountancy came to us in late 2025, they needed a digital presence that didn’t scream “brand new startup”, they needed to look credible, approachable, and ready for business from day one.
Hillside Accountancy’s homepage – professional, approachable, and mobile-first
The Challenge
Launching a new accountancy practice in today’s market is like showing up to a party where everyone else has already made friends. You need to establish credibility quickly, stand out from the crowd and convince potential clients to trust you with something as important as their finances, all whilst just getting started.
Hillside Accountancy had no existing digital footprint. No website, minimal social media presence and a tight timeline before their official launch. They needed to compete with established firms who’d been building their online presence for years, all whilst working within a startup budget.
The accountancy sector presents its own unique challenges too. Most accountancy websites fall into one of two camps: either they’re stuffed with corporate jargon that makes your eyes glaze over or they’re so bland they could cure insomnia. Neither option helps when you’re trying to connect with modern business owners who want professional expertise without the stuffy office vibe.
What makes an effective website for new business?
What Hillside needed was a website that looked established without feeling corporate, showcased their services clearly without drowning visitors in technical terms and made it genuinely easy for potential clients to get in touch. Oh, and it had to work brilliantly on mobile, because let’s face it – that’s where most people would first discover them.
I knew I only had one chance to make the right first impression
Kayleigh Sojka, Hillside Accountancy
The Solution
We started where every good project should: by understanding who we were actually building this for. Hillside’s target clients are small businesses, sole traders, and growing companies – people who need solid financial advice but appreciate straight talking over corporate speak. That insight shaped everything that followed.
Design with purpose
The design needed to walk a fine line: professional enough to inspire confidence, modern enough to feel current, approachable enough to encourage that first contact. We used Hillside’s brand colours effectively but kept everything clean and uncluttered. No one wants to wade through visual noise when they’re trying to find out if you can help them with their tax return.
Typography choices leaned modern and readable, the kind of fonts that work just as well on a phone screen as they do on a desktop. And speaking of phones, we built mobile-first. Not “mobile-friendly as an afterthought” but genuinely designed for the device most visitors would use first.
Designed for every device – desktop browsing to mobile enquiries
Technical foundations
Under the bonnet, we built the site on WordPress. Not because it’s trendy, but because it makes sense for a growing practice. Hillside can easily add blog posts about tax deadline reminders, upload resources for clients or add to their team page as they grow – all without needing to call a developer every time.
We obsessed over loading speed, because no one sticks around for a slow website. Contact forms were integrated properly (nothing worse than sending an enquiry into the void). And crucially, we built flexibility in from day one. Today it’s a solo practice; in two years it might be a team of five. The website architecture supports that growth.
Navigation was kept straightforward – no one should need a treasure map to find your contact page. We made it obvious how to get in touch, with contact options visible throughout the site.
Clear navigation and prominent contact options throughout
Why these choices mattered
Every decision supported the central goal: help Hillside look established, feel approachable and make it genuinely easy for potential clients to reach out. We avoided the common traps (information overload, corporate stuffiness, hiding behind complexity) and focused on what actually matters to someone considering hiring an accountant: Can they help me? Can I work with them? How do I get started?
The Results
Hillside Accountancy launched with a website that looked like it belonged to a practice that had been trading for years, not days. The mobile-responsive design works beautifully whether someone’s checking it on their phone during their commute or pulling it up on their laptop at work.
The practice owner gained a platform she could manage herself – updating content, adding blog posts about tax deadlines, showcasing client wins. She was no longer dependent on a developer for every small change, which matters when you’re running a growing business.
Perhaps most importantly, she gained confidence sharing that URL. When networking, when posting on LinkedIn, when following up with potential clients – there’s a professional digital presence backing up every conversation. The website establishes credibility before the first meeting even happens.
We built it with room to grow. As Hillside expands (and they will), the website can expand with them. New team members, additional services, client resources – the foundations are there to support it all.
The client perspective
When I was starting Hillside Accountancy, my biggest concern was making sure my brand came across properly and that my website would genuinely stand out in a very competitive market. I also wanted to make sure the site was built properly from the start, with strong SEO so that people could actually find me through search engines. I knew I only had one chance to make the right first impression.
I decided to work with Steve after seeing other websites he had created – the quality immediately stood out. I also specifically wanted someone experienced with WordPress, as I believe it’s far superior for building professional, flexible websites. From our very first meeting, Steve took the time to really understand what I wanted to achieve, both from a branding and a business perspective.
The whole process was seamless from start to finish. Steve is incredibly professional and clearly takes real pride in his work. He kept in regular contact throughout, managed my expectations around timelines, and made sure I was happy at every stage. The impact has been priceless: I’ve had so many compliments on the website, and within just two months of launching I received my first lead through the site – with next to no advertising. If another business owner asked me whether they should hire Steve? My answer would be: yes, yes, yes!
Kayleigh Sojka, Hillside Accountancy
The Bigger Picture
Sometimes the best website for new business isn’t the flashiest or the most feature-packed. It’s the one that solves the actual problem you’re facing. For Hillside, that meant establishing credibility, making connections easy, and building foundations for growth.
Good design doesn’t need to shout about itself. It just needs to work, for your business, for your clients, for your goals. That’s what we built for Hillside Accountancy and that’s what we build for every client who works with kupu.
Need a digital presence that works as hard as you do?
Let’s talk about what kupu can build for your business.