A small studio in Ludhiana, working with Melbourne
First, the honest part. Acroxcreation is based in Ludhiana, in Punjab, India. We have no Melbourne office, no Melbourne phone number, and no staff in Victoria. We work with Australian businesses remotely, over video calls, email and WhatsApp, and we quote and invoice in Australian dollars.
Why would a Melbourne business work with a studio in India? Usually because they want a well built site at a small business price, and they want to deal directly with the person doing the work. We are founder-led, so that is how it runs.
Hospitality: what a venue website actually has to do
Melbourne's food and drink scene is famous, from laneway cafes in the CBD to the restaurant strips of Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, Brunswick and Footscray. Most of those venues get found through Google Maps, Instagram and word of mouth. The website is where people go to check three things before they turn up.
- Are you open right now? Trading hours need to be correct, easy to find, and easy for you to change on a public holiday.
- What is on the menu? A real text menu, not a blurry PDF that takes ages to open on a phone. Text is also readable by search engines, which a photo of a menu is not.
- Can I book? If you take reservations, the booking button should be visible on every page. We can link your existing reservation platform or set up a booking system for functions and events.
For venues that change menus often, a WordPress site you can edit yourself makes sense. Swapping a seasonal special should take you two minutes, not an email to your web designer.
Gift cards, merch and online orders
Some venues sell gift vouchers, coffee beans, sauces or merch. A small shop section can sit inside the main site. If online sales are a bigger part of the business, our e-commerce builds cover product pages, payments and shipping options properly.
Creative businesses and the portfolio problem
Melbourne has a large creative community: photographers, architects, interior designers, tattoo artists, florists, makers and small design studios. Their websites usually live or die on the portfolio, and the most common problem we see is the same every time. Huge image files, slow galleries, and no words at all.
Pictures sell the work, but words are what get the page found. We build portfolios that load quickly on mobile, use properly compressed images, and give each project a short written description: what the brief was, where it was, what you did. That gives Google something to index and gives a potential client the context they need to pick up the phone.
We also keep design restrained. If your work is the product, the website should frame it, not compete with it.
Working across the time gap
Melbourne follows the same clock as Sydney. On AEST it is 4.5 hours ahead of India (IST, UTC+5:30). During daylight saving, from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, Victoria moves to AEDT and the gap becomes 5.5 hours.
What that means day to day:
- Your afternoon overlaps with our morning, so most calls happen between about 1pm and 5pm Melbourne time.
- For hospitality owners who are flat out during lunch service, a mid afternoon call between services often suits well.
- We keep working for several hours after your day ends, so feedback you send in the afternoon can often be worked on before you are back the next day.
- Early Melbourne mornings are our middle of the night. Leave a WhatsApp message and we will reply when our day starts.
What it costs
All prices are in AUD and are starting points. Every project gets a written quote before work begins, and the full breakdown sits on our pricing page.
- Starter Website from A$899: up to 3 pages with 1 revision. Good for a single venue or a sole trader.
- Business Website from A$2,199: up to 7 pages with 2 revisions.
- CMS Website from A$2,999: for owners who want to edit menus, news and pages themselves.
- E-Commerce Website from A$4,999: includes up to 20 initial product uploads.
- SEO Growth Package from A$299 per month.
- Digital Ads Campaign Setup A$399 one-time. Monthly Performance Marketing from A$699 per month.
Getting found in a city of neighbourhoods
People in Melbourne often search by neighbourhood. 'Brunch Northcote', 'florist South Yarra', 'physio Box Hill'. That is good news for small businesses, because you are not competing with the whole city, only with the businesses near you.
The basics matter most here: a correct and complete Google Business Profile, your suburb and street mentioned naturally on the site, consistent contact details everywhere, and pages that load fast on a phone. Beyond that, our SEO services can help with ongoing content and technical fixes. We do not promise positions, and we will tell you plainly if a keyword is unrealistic.
If you would rather get bookings moving quickly while organic search builds, Google Ads pointed at a focused landing page is an option worth talking through.
Not a cafe or a studio? That is fine too
Melbourne has plenty of businesses that are neither hospitality nor creative: physios in the eastern suburbs, builders working the growth areas in the west and north, accountants, cleaners, mechanics and small retailers. The approach is the same. We work out what your customers need to know before they contact you, put that information where they will see it, and make getting in touch as easy as possible.
For trades, our tradie websites page explains what we include. Clinics can look at healthcare websites. If your current site is old but still gets some traffic, a redesign can modernise it while keeping the pages and links that already work.
A note on looks
Melbourne is a design-conscious city, and plenty of owners have strong views on fonts, colours and photography. Good. We would rather work from a clear brief than guess. Send us sites you like, even from other industries, and tell us what you like about them. We will also tell you when a design idea is likely to hurt how the site works on a phone, because a beautiful page that nobody can read on a small screen is not much use.
Getting a quote
Tell us what kind of business you run, which suburb you are in, and what you want the site to do: take bookings, show a portfolio, sell products, or just answer the basic questions properly. Use the contact form and we will reply with questions or a written quote.
We also build for businesses in Sydney and Adelaide, and for general website design and development across Australia.
Frequently asked questions
Can I update my cafe menu and trading hours myself?
Yes. On a CMS build we set the menu and hours up as simple editable sections, so you can change them from your phone or laptop without touching any code.
Will my portfolio images slow the site down?
Not if they are handled properly. We resize and compress images, load galleries efficiently, and test on mobile so heavy photography does not drag the site down.
Can you connect my existing reservation system?
In most cases, yes. If your booking platform offers a widget or booking link, we place it prominently on the site. If you need something for functions or private events, we can set that up too.
When are calls usually scheduled with Melbourne clients?
Melbourne afternoons line up with our mornings in India, so most calls fall between about 1pm and 5pm your time. The exact gap shifts by an hour when daylight saving starts and ends.
Do you work with Melbourne businesses outside hospitality and creative work?
Yes. Trades, clinics, consultants and retailers all fit. Hospitality and creative work are just common examples in Melbourne.
Get a fixed quote
Tell us what you need and we will reply with a written scope and price in AUD.
Request a quote or see full pricing.