Personal. Professional. Proven.
A website your customers can actually use — and the two people who built it, one message away.
Personalized, professional platforms with proven performance: a furniture store that shows what is in stock today, a remodeler homeowners book from a calendar, a home search that does the monthly math. Whatever yours is, we build it, look after it with you, send you unsolicited marketing advice, and answer when you call.
What we offer
Five things we bring to every new site. The last two are the ones the industry leaves out.
Your website
Designed and built for your business, around what your customers come to do (shop, book, search, sign up, ask), written for the searches they actually make, and with a clear way to reach you from every page.
Your admin
At your own address, behind a login you set yourself: every inquiry from your site in one list, your pages and your work, and your numbers, each against the weeks before.
We look after it
Updates, fixes and the changes you ask for are ours to make, and we keep watch for errors, so we often see a problem before anyone calls.
Unsolicited marketing advice
To help your business thrive, we keep an eye on your numbers. When we notice something — searches climbing in a town you serve, a service people look for that your site does not list, reviews going quiet, a busy season coming — we tell you without being asked, and say what we would do about it.
The people who built it
No account manager, no ticket queue, no "let me pass this on". You have a direct line to the developers, and they already know your site inside out.
On every site we build
- Built for the phone first, with no sideways scrolling
- A clear next step in every page's header: call, book, shop or sign up
- Every phone number and email address shown opens with one tap
- Labelled forms and described images, for screen readers
- Real code, not a page-builder template
Curious what runs underneath? Under the hood →
What we build
Pick the kind of business closest to yours. Each one shows what customers do on a real site we built, and what running it looks like day to day.
For a store whose stock changes every week: new, used, one of a kind.
On Deerfield Furniture Mart's new store, shoppers can
- See what is in stock today The home page counts the listings in stock right now, each room's tile shows its own count, and sold pieces stay out of the way unless you ask for them.
- Pick a condition, see its price New, Like New, Used or Fair, each with a one-line meaning and its own price. Every price already includes sales tax.
- Filter, then send the link By room, condition, price and brand. The filters live in the link, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or shared.
- Text a piece in one tap A text opens with the piece's name, price and link, ready for whoever you are furnishing with. Another button starts a question to the store about that piece.
- Ask to hear when it is back Sold out? Tick the grades you would take and leave an email or a phone number. The shoppers who asked are the first to hear when it is restocked.
- Check out the way the store sells Free pickup with help loading, or delivery quoted by a person on the phone before anything is charged. Pay at pickup or delivery, or choose financing.
- Never pay for a piece that is gone The cart says pieces are not held, drops anything that sold in the meantime, and the last one can only be bought once.
- Sell the store their furniture Up to eight photos straight from the phone, or text them, and an offer usually within a day, with no obligation.
The example
Deerfield Furniture Mart
deerfield-furniture-mart.on-forge.com
A family-owned furniture warehouse near Chicago selling new and gently used pieces. Its new online store is in development and moves to deerfieldfurnituremart.com at launch.
Once it launches, its owners run it from our admin
- Products, by conditionEach piece is sold in lots, each with its condition, a price and a count.
- Restocking tells the shoppers who askedPut a sold-out piece back in stock and the shoppers who asked hear first.
- Orders that need a call, flaggedA delivery to be paid in person or with financing is flagged "Call to arrange", with the customer's number a tap away.
- Every request in one listMessages, questions about a piece, restock requests, orders and offers to sell, with the seller's photos attached.
You talk to the people who built it
Most web companies put layers between you and the person who can actually fix something. We do not have layers. When you write or call, the developer who built your site answers — and because we look after the sites we build, we usually already know what you are about to ask.
- Email and phone straight to the developers, not a support desk
- Changes made by the people who know your site
- Unsolicited marketing advice from the two of us, not an automated report
Who answers
Patryk Szady and Joshua Simmons
The SS in SS Systems. We build every site ourselves, and we are the ones who answer after launch.
The sites we have built
Five are live and one is in development. Click a card to visit the site, or read how we built it. Two of these belong to our own families, and one is our own software.
GS Construction & Remodeling
Home remodeling
A family remodeler in the Chicago suburbs. Homeowners see prices before anyone visits, read a page about their own town, watch past remodels happen stage by stage, and book the in-home visit from a calendar.
The Dawn Simmons Team
Residential real estate
A family real-estate team in Chicago's northwest suburbs. Buyers search every home for sale by what they can pay each month, save homes with one tap, and get an email when a new match lists or drops its price. Sellers see what nearby homes sold for, then get a person's own number.
Hive Contractors
Software for contractors
Our own software for small contractors, and the system GS Construction runs on. Its homeowners open their schedule from a text with no login, get a 7 AM and a 7 PM update, and sign estimates on their phone; its subcontractors work from a text link.
Water is Precious
Public office
The site of Commissioner Precious Brady-Davis of Chicago's water reclamation district. Residents get a flood-preparedness guide with the agencies to call, events with the date, place and host, board meetings with recordings and plain summaries, and a volunteer sign-up; reporters help themselves to a press kit.
J. Peterson Design
Interior design
Two sisters designing homes in Chicago, Atlanta and Southwest Michigan. Visitors meet the work first: 21 projects with every photo on its own page, a home page for each place naming the sister who leads there, and more than fifty five-star reviews going back to 2007.
Deerfield Furniture Mart
Furniture store
An online store for a family-owned furniture warehouse near Chicago: shoppers browse what is actually on the floor, see each piece's condition, pay a price that already includes sales tax, and pick up free or have it delivered. Moves to deerfieldfurnituremart.com at launch.
Have a business that needs a website run properly?
We take on a small number of sites: ones we design, build and look after, with the people who built them a message away.
You will reach Patryk Szady and Joshua Simmons directly.