Questions and answers
Plain answers to fair questions.
Websites, payment, follow-up, 3D tours, software and 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring. If your question is not here, email Cole directly.
Websites and payment
6 answersHow much does a website cost?
Every website is a one-time build and then a monthly care plan. The Launch Site is a clean, credible site with a contact form. The Business Site is built to bring in leads, with photo-quote, bid, booking or intake forms. Every managed plan includes marketing basics. You get the exact price in writing within one business day, before any work starts. See how pricing works.
How does payment work?
Half of the build when you say yes, and half at launch, by Stripe invoice. Your monthly care plan starts at launch, not before. Nothing is billed beyond your plan without your approval. You can pay by bank transfer (ACH) or card.
Who owns the domain and the website?
You do. Your domain is registered in your name, and your content, photos and logo are always yours. If you ever leave, we hand over your domain and a full copy of your site files. For custom software, who owns the code is written into your quote before work starts.
What does the monthly care plan cover?
Hosting, the security certificate, updates, backups, the marketing listed on your plan, and the edit time on your plan: 30 minutes a month on the Launch Site, 2 hours on the Business Site. Edit time does not roll over. Bigger changes, like a new section or feature, get a fixed written quote first. The care plan does not include 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring, which is a separate plan.
How long does a website take?
It depends on the site and how quickly we get your content. You get a working preview link early and give feedback as it comes together. Nothing goes live until you approve it.
Can my website answer questions and take requests when I am closed?
Yes. The Front Desk Assistant is a chat assistant on your site that answers customer questions 24/7 from your own information (hours, services, staff, aftercare), collects the details of a consult or quote request, and emails you a brief. It never quotes a price, never takes a payment, and sends anything urgent or medical to your phone. Every conversation is logged for you. It is an add-on to any website plan, quoted with your site.
SEO, follow-up and texting
5 answersWhat is included in marketing?
Every managed plan includes Google Business Profile setup and cleanup and automatic review requests after each job. The Business Site adds opt-in seasonal reminder texts and emails, a new Google listing post every month and a search check-up every quarter.
I like my current website. Can I just get the follow-up?
Yes. The Follow-up Plan is a one-time setup and a flat monthly fee, quoted in writing. It covers Google listing cleanup, automatic review requests, reminder texts and emails to customers who opted in, and a photo-quote form you can link from any website. It can upgrade into a Business Site later.
Will you text my customers?
Only customers who checked a box saying they want texts, on your quote form, invoice or job paperwork. Everyone can reply STOP, and texts are not sent late at night or early in the morning. Customers who did not opt in get email instead, with a link to opt in if they want texts.
Why does texting take a couple of weeks to start?
Phone carriers require every business that sends texts to be registered first. We start the registration the day you sign, and it usually takes a couple of weeks to clear. The one-time carrier registration fee is passed through at cost. Email review requests start at launch.
Do you offer discounts for reviews?
No. Google does not allow discounts or freebies in exchange for reviews, so we never tie a price to a review. Review requests simply ask happy customers to share their experience.
3D tours
4 answersWhat is a 3D tour, and how is it made?
An interactive 3D model of a home, built from a floor plan and photos. Nobody has to visit, so it works for a listing next week or a home that is not built yet. It shows the outside, an aerial view, a dollhouse cutaway, the floor plan and the time of day. Try the sample 3D model.
Is a 3D model the same as photos of the house?
No. The layout and size follow the plan, and the agent or builder confirms dimensions before it goes live. Finishes, furniture and landscaping are illustrative, so every model and every still image carries the label “3D model — illustrative. Finishes, furniture and landscaping may differ.”
How much does a 3D model cost?
For realtors, listing models are priced per listing, with larger homes quoted up front. For home builders, plan models are priced per plan, with options and colors as an add-on. Hosting is included for 12 months on listing models. Send the plan and photos and you get the price in writing within one business day.
What do I need to send?
A floor plan with dimensions and the photos. If the home is not built yet, its plan belongs to the builder, so we need the builder’s written OK first. Builders send their own plans and option lists.
Software and automations
2 answersWhat kind of software do you build?
Client and customer portals, intake and quote forms, internal dashboards, scheduling and job tracking, and automations between the apps you already use. Tell us what your team does by hand today, and we will tell you plainly whether software can fix it.
How is custom software priced?
Every project gets a fixed written quote before any work starts, and the price does not move unless you change the scope. Optional monthly support is quoted with the project.
24/7 cybersecurity monitoring: general
4 answersWhat is SentinelSMB monitoring?
A 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring service for small businesses. We connect to your Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accounts (plus AWS and Cloudflare) and continuously watch for threats that antivirus software cannot detect: account takeovers, forwarding-rule hijacks, OAuth abuse, admin escalations, and more.
Who is the monitoring for?
Any small business that cares about security. It works standalone for businesses without a dedicated IT team, and also as a 24/7 monitoring layer on top of an existing IT provider or MSP. Priority industries include law firms, CPA practices, construction companies, insurance agencies, real estate firms, RIAs, nonprofits and trades, but it works for anyone on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
How is this different from antivirus?
Antivirus watches your laptop for malware. SentinelSMB watches your cloud accounts for account-level threats: stolen credentials, unauthorized access, suspicious forwarding rules, OAuth consent grants and admin changes. These are the attacks antivirus will never see.
Do you read our emails?
No. SentinelSMB monitors account activity logs: who signed in, what rules were created, what permissions changed. We look at audit events and metadata, not email content. Our Privacy Policy explains this in detail.
24/7 cybersecurity monitoring: security
4 answersWhat are the 36 detection engines?
Our 36 engines are grouped into 7 categories: Core Platform (14 engines, including IP threat enrichment, business email compromise patterns, ransomware patterns, triage and compliance mapping), Identity (7, including impossible travel, credential stuffing and MFA bypass), Data Protection (2), Email Security (3), Cloud Configuration (4), Network Security (3) and Threat Intelligence (3, including breach exposure, multi-source threat scoring and threat actor attribution). See the Detection Engines page for the full list.
How often do you scan?
Every five minutes: 288 scans a day. Each scan runs all 36 detection engines across your connected accounts.
What happens when a threat is detected?
You get a plain-English alert by email, text, Slack or Microsoft Teams explaining what happened, how serious it is, and exactly what to do next. Critical threats trigger notifications across every channel you have turned on.
Is my data safe with SentinelSMB?
We use read-only connections with minimal permissions. Stored credentials are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and a separate key-encryption key, and in transit with TLS. We are a registered North Dakota LLC with $1M per claim / $2M aggregate E&O insurance. Every customer account is protected by mandatory multi-factor authentication.
24/7 cybersecurity monitoring: pricing
3 answersHow much does monitoring cost?
Two flat monthly plans. Starter covers any 2 of the 4 platforms. Pro covers all 4 platforms, up to 250 users and resources. No per-user charges. See how pricing works.
Is there a free trial?
Not right now. Monitoring is month to month with no annual commitment, and you can cancel anytime from the dashboard. If you want to see what is exposed first, run the free security scan.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel from your dashboard in one click at any time. No contracts, no cancellation fees. Your monitoring continues until the end of your current billing period.
24/7 cybersecurity monitoring: technical
5 answersWhat integrations do you support?
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, AWS and Cloudflare. Starter includes any two. Pro includes all four, monitored at the same time.
How long does setup take?
Under 10 minutes. Microsoft and Google connect through a read-only OAuth approval. AWS uses a read-only cross-account role from a CloudFormation template, with no long-lived keys stored. Cloudflare uses a scoped read-only API token, stored encrypted. No software to install and no hardware.
Do I need an IT team?
No. SentinelSMB is designed for businesses without dedicated IT security staff, and also works as a 24/7 monitoring layer on top of an existing MSP or IT provider. Every alert includes step-by-step response guidance in plain English.
What compliance frameworks do you map to?
ABA Model Rule 1.6, IRS Publication 4557, the FTC Safeguards Rule, SEC Reg S-P, NAIC Model Law 668, CMMC 2.0, GLBA, NIST 800-171, NY DFS 23 NYCRR 500, and state breach notification laws. See the Compliance Overview for the full mapping.
Do you cover healthcare or HIPAA?
Not yet. Healthcare is walled off until our subprocessor BAA chain is fully executed. If you are a covered entity or business associate, please wait for that announcement before signing up.
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Still have a question? Ask directly.
Email Cole at ColeKingsley@SentinelSMB.co. You will get a reply within one business day.