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Holler Digital is one person. That's the point, and the trade-off.

I'm James Murgatroyd. I do the strategy, the design and the development, which means nothing gets lost between departments — because there aren't any. It also means I'm a single point of failure, and rather than hope you don't notice, this page tells you exactly how that's handled.

Book a 15-minute call → The due-diligence questions
20 years · since 2005 280+ organizations Edmonton since 1986 You own everything

What you're getting

  • One person, start to finish
  • Twenty years of Alberta market context
  • Standard WordPress, no lock-in
  • Your domain and hosting in your name
  • A straight answer, including "don't"
  • A direct line, not a ticket queue

No account managers. There's nobody to manage.

The short version

British-born, Edmonton-made, arguing about the web since Flash.

I came to Edmonton in 1986 and started building websites professionally in 2005 — back when the industry was still debating whether Flash was the future. Since then: 280-plus organizations, 360-plus websites, and a fairly clear view of which promises in this business are worth anything.

Most of my work is with nonprofits, associations and established organizations — the ones where a website has an actual job to do and a board that wants to know whether it's doing it. That audience suits me. I'd rather explain a decision than defend a deliverable.

When I'm not doing this I'm on the board of the Advertising Club of Edmonton, mentoring the next lot of creatives, and losing arguments to a rescue puppy named London.

20 years · since 2005 280+ clients · 360+ websites Board Member · Ad Club Edmonton
The honest version

What one person is better at, and what one person isn't.

Every agency pitch claims to combine boutique attention with enterprise capability. Nobody does both. Here's the actual shape of the trade-off you're making, so you can decide whether it suits your situation rather than finding out in month four.

If the right-hand column describes what you need, I'll tell you on the first call and point you at someone better suited. That conversation costs both of us fifteen minutes and saves a great deal more.

both columns are true at the same time

Better with one person
  • Strategy reaches the buildintact
  • Who you briefwho builds
  • Institutional memory20 yrs
  • Decisions per changeone
  • Handover lossnone
  • Straight answersalways
Mostnonprofits & associations
Worse with one person
  • Guaranteed 1-hour responseno
  • Parallel workstreamsno
  • Overnight coverageno
  • Six-figure platform buildsno
  • In-house paid mediano
  • Single point of failureyes
Hirea team instead
Twenty years, checkable

The only claims that matter are the ones you can verify.

All three independently checkable

There's no way to prove "strategic" or "honest" on a web page — those are words anyone can type. What can be checked is how long this has been running, how many organizations have gone through it, and what they said afterwards somewhere I don't control. That last one is the only review score worth anything.

20yrs
Building websites professionally since 2005
280+
Organizations across Alberta and beyond
5.0★
Across 26 verified Google reviews — read them yourself

The reviews are on Google, not screenshotted here. There's a live widget on the homepage if you'd rather read them in place.

Take this to your board

Five questions to ask any solo provider.

Including me. These are the questions a careful marketing manager or board should ask before signing with any one-person shop — with my honest answers, which are not all reassuring.

01"What's your bus factor, and what happens to my site?"
A real limitation, honestly stated The bus factor is one. There's no version of this where that isn't true, and any one-person shop telling you it's fully mitigated is not being straight with you. What's actually in place is structural rather than personnel: every site is standard WordPress with no proprietary framework, credentials sit in accounts you own, and the setup is documented well enough that a competent successor could take it over rather than start again. There would still be a gap. That's the trade-off, stated plainly.
02"Whose name is the domain and hosting account in?"
Ask this of everyone, and get it in writing Yours, always — and this is the single most important question on the list regardless of who you hire. A provider who registers your domain in their own name, or hosts you on an account you can't access, has made leaving expensive on purpose. If any provider hesitates here, that alone is disqualifying. It costs nothing to ask and it's the difference between a supplier and a hostage situation.
03"Can you actually handle the size of this project?"
Sometimes the answer is no Where several workstreams have to run in parallel to hit a fixed date, or where the scope simply needs more hands than one, this is the wrong structure and I'll say so on the first call. Same for anything requiring overnight coverage or guaranteed same-hour response. I take a few builds a year precisely so that stays true — a solo provider who never turns work away is either misrepresenting their capacity or about to disappoint someone.
04"What happens when you're on holiday?"
Response times genuinely stretch Monitoring, updates and backups continue regardless — those don't need me at a desk, which is most of what keeps a site safe. What stretches is anything requiring judgement: a change request, a decision, a diagnosis. If your organization needs guaranteed same-hour response every day of the year, hire a team. That's not false modesty; it's the correct answer, and I'd rather you heard it now.
05"Will we be a small client to you?"
The genuine advantage of this structure No — and this is where one person beats an agency outright. At a firm of thirty, a $12,000 nonprofit project is assigned to whoever's free and reviewed by whoever's senior enough. Here there's no junior to hand it to and no bigger account to prioritise over yours. You get the most experienced person available because there's only one.

How to use this: ask all five of any provider you're considering, solo or not. Question 02 is non-negotiable — get the answer in writing before money changes hands. If the answers to 01 and 04 make you uncomfortable, that discomfort is legitimate information and you should act on it.

If a team is the right answer

Hire the team. I'd genuinely rather you did that than become the client I let down. Tell me what you need and I'll point you toward Edmonton people who do it properly.

How this actually runs

Four working principles.

Strategy first · Stay curious · Embrace the challenge · Have fun

Strategy first

01
  • Every engagement opens withdiscovery
  • Discovery can conclude"don't"
  • Design decisions traced toevidence
  • Credited against a buildfully

Nothing gets designed before we know who it's for and what it has to do. That's also why I can tell you not to spend money — the framework produces that answer honestly about a third of the time.

Own everything

02
  • Platformstandard WP
  • Proprietary frameworknone
  • Domain & hosting inyour name
  • Exit assistanceincluded

A client who can leave easily is a client who stays for the right reason. Everything is built so your next provider — if there is one — can pick it up without an archaeology phase.

Say the awkward thing

03
  • Scope creep flaggedbefore billing
  • Bad ideas namedearly
  • Work we can't doreferred out
  • Surprise invoicesnever

The most valuable thing a consultant does is tell you something you didn't want to hear while it's still cheap to act on. It's also the fastest way to lose a sale, which is why so few do it.

Report like you'll forward it

04
  • Written foryour board
  • Jargontranslated
  • Work logitemised
  • Walkthrough callincluded

You'll have to justify this spend to someone who doesn't care about crawl budgets. Every report is written for that person, not for me to look clever in.

Certified, awarded, and occasionally handed a badge
Certified Digital Business ConsultantAgency Mavericks Certified Data Privacy Agency PartnerTermageddon Top Web Design Company — Non-Profit, AlbertaClutch Best in Edmonton — Web DesignBest in Edmonton Top Web Design Services in EdmontonClever Canadian Digital Agency Blueprint — DeliveryCertified
Straight answers

The questions people open with.

Mostly variations on "are you really doing all of this yourself?" Yes, and here's what that means in practice.

Ask me something else →
Isn't one person a risk?
Yes, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. One person is a single point of failure — a real trade-off in exchange for the person doing the work being the person who understands your account. What makes it manageable is that you own everything: your domain, your hosting account, standard WordPress with no proprietary lock-in, and documentation good enough for someone else to pick up. The risk is real; being trapped by it isn't.
What happens when you're away or unwell?
Monitoring and automated maintenance carry on regardless — updates, backups and uptime checks don't depend on me being at a desk, and that's most of what keeps a site safe. What stretches is response time on anything needing judgement. If your organization needs guaranteed same-hour response every day of the year, you need a team — and I'll say so rather than take the work.
Who actually does the work?
I do — the strategy, the design and the development. The person in your discovery workshop is the person building the site and the person who replies when something breaks. AI agents handle monitoring and reporting; they don't make decisions about your business. The org chart is public if you want to see exactly what they do.
What don't you do?
Branding from scratch, paid advertising management, social media management, video production, and large multi-team platform builds. For those I'll point you at people in Edmonton who are genuinely good at them rather than learning on your budget. Twenty years is long enough to know where my edges are.
Why Edmonton?
I've lived here since 1986 and most clients are here or elsewhere in Alberta. Twenty years watching one market means knowing which sectors are competitive on search, what local buyers respond to, and which claims get an eye-roll. That said, distance isn't a barrier — a video call works the same from anywhere, and plenty of clients are outside the province.
How do I know you'll still be here in three years?
Twenty years and 280-plus organizations is the best evidence available, but it isn't a guarantee and nobody can give you one — agencies with thirty staff close too. The practical protection is identical either way: own your domain, own your hosting account, insist on standard WordPress and documentation. Ask every provider for that in writing, including this one.
Next step

Fifteen minutes
with the actual person.

No discovery call with a salesperson who hands you off afterwards. You get me, on the first call and every one after it — and if this isn't the right fit you'll hear that on the first call rather than the fourth.

Replies within one business day You'll talk to James, not a rep Referrals out if we're wrong for you
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