Seattle
Websites and custom software for Seattle small businesses
A Los Angeles team working remotely with Seattle businesses on the same Pacific clock, from coffee roasters and restaurants to roofing and gutter companies.
Updated September 24, 2026
In short
Seattle small businesses can hire us for websites and custom software, built remotely from Los Angeles. Seattle keeps Pacific time like we do, so the two working days line up hour for hour. This page prices a worked example: wholesale ordering with a price tier per account, for a coffee roaster that sells to cafés.
How we work with Seattle businesses
In short
No time difference to plan around, with the work run remotely from Los Angeles.
Seattle and Los Angeles share Pacific time and change their clocks on the same days, so neither side starts early or stays late to meet the other. Reviews happen on a shared screen, and the preview link opens the same on a roastery floor as in an office.
The distance still matters in one way: nobody drops by. Anything that would be settled over a counter gets written down instead, which leaves both sides with a record of each decision.
| Season | Shared weekday hours |
|---|---|
| Mid-March to early November, both on Pacific Daylight Time | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in both cities |
| Early November to mid-March, both on Pacific Standard Time | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in both cities |
- Meetings
- By video from Los Angeles, and in writing between calls
- Time zone
- Pacific Time
- Shared hours
- No difference: Seattle and Los Angeles share Pacific time, so the whole working day overlaps.
The business mix
In short
Seattle's small businesses run on coffee and food, and the rain keeps its roofing and gutter companies busy.
Capitol Hill and Ballard are full of cafés and restaurants, and Ballard also keeps its maritime trades and a cluster of breweries. South of downtown, Georgetown and SoDo hold warehouses and workshops, including roasters and breweries that supply the city.
Pioneer Square mixes offices with galleries, and Fremont has shops and tech offices side by side. Outdoor retail is a Seattle specialty, and the tech offices in Bellevue and Redmond keep a trade of service firms around them. Tacoma, to the south, has its own port and its own downtown.
In the SBA Office of Advocacy's 2025 profile of the Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue metro area, accommodation and food services employs more people at small businesses than any other industry: 104,873 in 2022. The cafés and restaurants they work at are the customers of the region's roasters.
- Coffee, cafés and restaurants
- Roofing and gutter companies
- Services for tech companies
- Outdoor retail
- Breweries
Source: SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025 Small Business Profile: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, read September 24, 2026.
Local platforms and directories
In short
A Seattle business usually needs a state business license and a city one, and companies also register with the Secretary of State.
Corporations and LLCs register with the Washington Secretary of State's Corporations and Charities Division, and the Department of Revenue issues the state business license.
The City of Seattle has its own business license and taxes, applied for and paid online. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce is the chamber for the region, and a listing there is one more place where your name and neighborhood should match your site.
- Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities
where Washington corporations and LLCs register
- Washington Department of Revenue, business licensing
the state business license
- City of Seattle business taxes and licenses
the city's own business license, applied for online
- Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
the chamber of commerce for the Seattle region
What a site and back office look like for a coffee roaster
In short
A roaster's site sells bags to the public and opens a wholesale door for cafés, and its back office turns café orders into a roast list.
Retail customers want to buy a bag or start a subscription, and cafés want to know how to open a wholesale account. The two need different doors on the same site: a shop for the public, and a sign-in for accounts that see their own prices.
On the wholesale side, each café has its own price tier and a usual order. The roaster needs those orders collected by a cutoff and turned into a roast list by coffee and weight.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Say an invented roaster in Georgetown sells bags online and supplies a few dozen cafés around Puget Sound. Wholesale orders arrive by email and text, and the owner keeps the price tiers in a spreadsheet.
Café accounts that sign in to see their own tier and reorder form a customer portal. With each order feeding a daily roast list and invoices paid inside the portal, the build sits in the price book at $34,000.
Retail bags can stay on the hosted shop the roaster already uses, with a link to the wholesale sign-in. After launch, the app support retainer covers the wholesale side, priced each year as a share of the build.
Services in Seattle
For a roofing company in Ballard the site and the CRM come first, and for an outdoor shop in Fremont, ordering does.
- Websites that sell retail bags and take wholesale inquiries
- Custom apps for roast schedules and packing
- CRM records for each café account and its standing order
- Ordering that shows each café its own prices
- Client portals where cafés reorder and download invoices
- Automations that send a roast list when orders close
- GEO, so answer engines have your wholesale and retail details right
- Care plans that keep the shop and the wholesale pages in step
Common questions
Can a Seattle roaster give each café its own wholesale prices?
Yes. Each café account belongs to a price tier, and a signed-in café sees only its own prices. Moving an account to another tier changes what it pays on its next order, never on past ones.
Can cafés place their usual order again in one step?
Yes. Each account keeps its past orders, and one of them can be sent again as it is or changed first. Orders placed after the cutoff roll to the next roast day.
Which licenses does a Seattle business need?
Usually two: the Washington business license from the Department of Revenue, and the City of Seattle's own business license. Corporations and LLCs also register with the Secretary of State.
Can retail subscriptions and wholesale orders share one roast list?
Yes, when both feed the same list. The retail shop sends its orders to the app, so the roast list counts every bag once, whichever door it came through.
Can wholesale prices stay hidden from the public?
Yes. Wholesale prices sit behind the café sign-in, and the public site shows only a short page on how to apply for an account. A café sees its prices once the roaster approves it.
Start with a written plan
Tell us about the business and what you need. We reply with questions, then a written plan that lists the work and its price, and nothing starts until you have read it.