About AHConsultancy
I've been on your side of the counter
Most people who build websites have only ever built websites. I came to it the long way round.
I started out on building sites in Ireland doing groundworks and blockwork, then trained as a cabinet maker in France with the Compagnons du Tour de France, where I made furniture for aircraft. Along the way I've done door-to-door sales, bar work and customer service, which teaches you more about how a small business actually runs than any course will.
I mention all that first because it's the part that matters. I know what it's like to be the one holding the tools, working out whether you can afford something, and having no interest whatsoever in what a content management system is.
Three years advising e-commerce businesses
For three years I worked as an e-commerce advisor, guiding small businesses through getting online, and more often, through what to do once they were online and staring at a screen wondering what came next.
Hundreds of conversations with butchers, boutiques, makers and family firms. I learned what actually moves the needle for a small business and what's an expensive distraction. I learned that the ones who succeed online are rarely the ones with the flashiest sites, they're the ones whose site is clear, fast, easy to find and kept up to date.
I learned the technology from the inside too: theme development, troubleshooting, integrations, and what breaks and why.
Knowing what a price is worth
I have managed millions of euros worth of work as a Quantity Surveyor. A QS prices work, controls budgets, and makes sure what's being spent is worth spending.
That discipline shapes how I run this.
In construction, generally speaking, everything is measured, built up line by line, agreed in writing and defended if anyone asks. And a large part of the job is telling people when they don't need something, when the expensive option won't earn back the difference.
The one thing construction is bad at is publishing its prices. It's almost all "contact us for a quote". I know exactly how that feels from the receiving end, so I've done the opposite here: every figure is on this website. I'll tell you which plan will pay for itself and which one you don't need. That advice costs me money in the short term sometimes, but I'd rather have a client for five years than a good month.
Still building
I haven't stopped being technical, and I don't intend to.
AI development is a real part of what I do. Recently I designed and built an AI system from the ground up, a tool that reads through long, dense tender documents and produces structured risk reports, running locally rather than through anyone else's service. I've also built custom themes and page sections from scratch, written to load fast and work properly on a phone before anything else.
Across the whole lot: e-commerce, web design, marketing, AI development, customer support, sales, technical troubleshooting, supply chain optimisation, costing and pricing. Ten years and change.
Why AHConsultancy exists
I went looking at Irish web design companies to see what was out there, and I came away irritated on behalf of small businesses.
Half of them won't tell you what anything costs. Most of them write in a language you'd need a translator for. Nearly all of them are built to impress other web designers rather than to help the person actually reading. If you run a small business and you've been putting off getting online because the whole thing feels intimidating and expensive, that's not your fault. It's the industry's.
So AHConsultancy is deliberately the opposite:
- Every price is published. No "get in touch for a quote."
- Plain English. If I use a word you don't know, I've failed.
- You deal with me. No account manager, no ticket queue, no handing you off.
- No hostage taking. Your domain, your content, your images, your Google listing. If you ever leave, it all goes with you.
- Honest advice on spend. Including when the answer is "you don't need that."
Where things stand
I'll be straight with you: AHConsultancy is young. The work so far has come by word of mouth, one business recommending me to the next, which is how I'd like it to keep going.
I don't put a client's business on this website without asking first, and not everyone wants to be a showcase. So what I'd point you to instead is this site. I built it, the design, the code, the writing, all of it. It loads fast, it works on a phone, and you can see exactly what everything costs without having to ask a soul. That's the standard of work you'd be getting.
The first conversation is free and there's no obligation. Tell me what your business does and what you're hoping for, and I'll tell you honestly what I think it needs, even if that turns out to be less than you came for.