Questions we get every week.

You work directly with Sumit — a senior practitioner with 16 years of experience and an MBA in E-Commerce. There are no account managers relaying briefs to juniors, no offshore production, and no templated solutions. Every engagement gets the same level of attention whether the budget is $1,500 or $50,000. You're paying for senior judgement, not a production line.

No. All strategy, design, development, and AI work is done in-house by Sumit. This is a deliberate policy — outsourcing dilutes quality and accountability in ways that are hard to detect until something goes wrong. When you brief us, you're briefing the person doing the work.

The studio is based in Surry Hills, Sydney. We work with clients across Australia and internationally — the majority of client communication happens over video call and async messaging, so location is rarely a barrier. Sydney-based clients are welcome to meet in person when the project warrants it.

Sumit Brands is intentionally boutique. Sumit handles all strategy, design, development, and client management. For specific executional tasks — video production, copywriting in languages other than English — we may bring in vetted collaborators, but this is always disclosed upfront and Sumit retains oversight and accountability.

We've delivered work across health and wellness, professional services, hospitality, retail, SaaS, construction, real estate, education, and not-for-profit. The work tends to suit businesses that are past the startup stage and ready to invest in professional digital infrastructure — though we make exceptions for early-stage businesses with strong fundamentals.

Yes — Sumit holds nine AI accreditations across platforms and frameworks including generative AI, automation, and AI governance. This isn't a marketing claim — it represents specific technical training in the tools we actually deploy for clients. We stay current because the field moves fast and out-of-date practitioners cause real harm.

We begin with a 30-minute discovery call — no charge, no commitment. Based on that conversation, we'll send a fixed-price quote within 24 hours covering scope, deliverables, and timeline. Once you approve the quote and pay the first invoice, we schedule the project kick-off and get started. The whole process from first contact to kick-off typically takes 3–5 business days.

Not much. It helps to have a rough idea of your goals, your budget range, and any examples of work you like or don't like. If you have analytics access or existing marketing data, bring that to the call — it accelerates the diagnostic. But none of this is required. We're used to working with clients who are starting from scratch.

It depends on the service. Quick AI Websites deliver in 48 hours. Standard web design projects run 4–6 weeks. Brand identity takes 6–10 weeks. SEO and social media are ongoing retainers. AI system builds typically take 2–5 weeks for setup. Every quote includes a delivery timeline specific to your scope, not a generic estimate.

Yes — Sumit is your single point of contact from first call to final handover. There's no account manager in the middle, no risk of being passed between departments, and no re-briefing a different person halfway through. If you send a message, Sumit reads it and responds.

All projects include a defined number of revision rounds in the quote — typically two rounds for design and strategy work. We structure feedback sessions so revisions are consolidated rather than drip-fed, which keeps the project moving. If the scope changes materially beyond what was agreed, we discuss a variation before any extra work begins — no surprise invoices.

Fixed price on all project work. We don't do hourly billing for projects because it transfers risk to the client and creates perverse incentives. You receive a fixed quote upfront and that's what you pay — unless you change the scope, in which case we discuss a variation before starting extra work. Retainer services are priced at a fixed monthly rate.

The smallest standalone engagements start around AUD $800 for WordPress care plans and security fixes. Strategy-led projects — web design, SEO, brand identity — typically start from AUD $1,200. AI system builds start from AUD $1,500. If your budget doesn't match our minimums, we'll tell you honestly rather than try to squeeze something in at a standard that doesn't reflect our work.

Yes — all engagements are covered by a plain-English services agreement. It protects both parties and clearly sets out scope, IP ownership, payment terms, and kill fees. We use our standard agreement for most projects. Enterprise clients who prefer to use their own vendor agreement are welcome to send it for review.

Project-based work is 50% upfront and 50% on completion. Larger or longer projects may use a milestone-based payment schedule — this will be outlined in the quote. Retainer services are invoiced monthly in advance. Payment is accepted via bank transfer or credit card. We don't start work until the first payment has cleared.

No — all listed prices are exclusive of GST. Australian businesses will have 10% GST added to all invoices. International clients may not have GST applied depending on their jurisdiction — we confirm this at quoting stage and note it explicitly on the invoice.

We build on WordPress with custom themes, Webflow for visual-first sites, Next.js for performance-critical or headless builds, and AI-accelerated stacks using Bolt.new and Lovable.dev for rapid prototypes and Quick AI Websites. We choose the right platform for the brief — we don't push a preferred stack because we have a partnership arrangement or template to sell.

Yes — every build targets a Google Lighthouse score of 90 or above, a Largest Contentful Paint under two seconds, and full mobile responsiveness across devices. We test against Core Web Vitals thresholds before launch and resolve any failures before handover. Speed isn't an afterthought — it's part of the build specification from day one.

Yes — every CMS-based build is configured so you can update copy, add pages, and publish blog posts without touching code. We provide a handover session and written documentation tailored to your CMS so your team is comfortable managing the site from day one. If you'd prefer we handle ongoing updates, that's covered under a care plan.

Yes — monthly care plans cover security patches, plugin updates, daily backups, uptime monitoring, and priority support for ad-hoc requests. Every project includes a 30-day post-launch warranty covering bug fixes at no charge. For Webflow and custom builds, retainer-based support packages are available on request.

Honest answer: technical SEO fixes — resolving crawl errors, fixing Core Web Vitals, implementing schema — can show movement in 4–8 weeks. Competitive keyword rankings typically take 3–6 months of consistent effort. Content that builds topical authority takes longer again. We set expectations based on your specific competitive landscape, not generic timelines designed to make SEO sound easier than it is.

No — and be cautious of anyone who does. Google's algorithm is not something we or anyone else controls. What we guarantee is high-quality work, fully transparent reporting, and a strategy grounded in what actually moves rankings. We can point to a strong track record, but we won't promise specific positions because it's not an honest thing to promise.

Traditional SEO is about appearing in Google's blue-link search results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is about ensuring your brand is cited and recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot. Both matter — a brand that ranks in Google but isn't mentioned by AI tools is missing a growing share of discovery and consideration traffic. We run both as separate or combined services.

We focus on organic channels — SEO, content, social, and AI-driven discovery. Paid social campaign management is available as part of a broader social media retainer. Standalone Google Ads management isn't a core service — if that's your primary need, we'll point you to the right specialist rather than take on work outside our focus area.

Six service lines: AI Chatbot & RAG systems trained on your business data; AI Voice Agents for 24/7 inbound call handling; AI Content Studios for high-volume marketing asset production; AI Workflow Automation using n8n and Make to remove manual repetitive tasks; AI Training workshops for teams who want to actually use these tools; and GEO / AI SEO for brands that want to appear in AI-generated answers and recommendations.

Not when it's done properly. AI tools accelerate production, but they still require a senior practitioner to direct them, audit the output, and take responsibility for the result. We use AI to produce more — not to think less. Every AI-assisted deliverable goes through the same quality review as anything else we put our name on. The output has to be something we'd be happy to show a client who didn't know AI was involved.

That's exactly what our AI Training workshops are for. We run half-day to two-day sessions for teams of up to 20 people, covering practical AI use for business, prompt engineering, choosing the right tools, governance, and a custom prompt library tailored to your industry and workflows. No jargon, no theory overload — practical skills your team can apply from the day after the workshop.

Data security is a first consideration in every AI system we build, not an afterthought. We select tools with appropriate data residency and privacy controls for Australian businesses, document all data flows clearly in project runbooks, and avoid training AI models on client data without explicit written consent. For businesses in regulated industries — health, finance, legal — we can recommend configurations that meet your specific compliance requirements.