Referral
You send work our way
Realtors, IT consultants, accountants, chambers, marketers, contractors — anyone whose clients keep asking "who built your site?"
Partnerships · Lake County, IL
Good work travels through people, not ads.
Almost every Halo project started with someone vouching for us. This page is the other half of that deal — four ways to work together, with the terms written down instead of implied.
No quota, no exclusivity, no 12-page agreement.
Four tracks
Pick the one that sounds like you.
They are not tiers and you are not locked into one. Plenty of partners refer a job one month and hand off a white-label build the next.
White-label
We build under your name
Agencies, designers, and freelancers who sell the work but do not want to write the code — or who are booked solid and hate turning jobs down.
Co-marketing
We sell better together
Photographers, videographers, print shops, sign makers, and branding studios. Your work makes the site look good; the site makes your work findable.
Community
We show up locally
Chambers, village directories, nonprofits, and school programs across Lake County that need real web help, not another sponsor logo.
The split sheet
Who does what, and who gets what.
The whole partnership, on one sheet. If something here is not true of a deal we offer you, the sheet is wrong and we will fix it.
TrackYou bringWe bringYou get
ReferralAn intro — a name, an email, or a forwarded text.The call, the quote, the build, the follow-up. You never have to explain what a DNS record is.10% of the build fee, cash
White-labelThe client relationship, the brief, and the invoice.Design and build under your brand. Staging links with your name on them. We stay invisible unless you introduce us.Partner rate + your margin
Co-marketingYour craft — photos, video, print, branding — and a shared audience.The site those assets live on, plus your credit and a link on every build we use them in.Bundled jobs & backlinks
CommunityA local org that genuinely needs the help.Discounted or donated build time, depending on the org and the year.A site that works, at cost
WHAT 10% LOOKS LIKE
$500 build
$50
Single landing page
$1,500 build
$150
Typical small-business site
$2,500 build
$250
Multi-page build with local SEO
Build fees run $500–$2,500 depending on scope — the full breakdown is on the pricing page. Payout is on the build fee, not on hosting or care plans.
White-label
Your name on the work. Our hands on the build.
For agencies and freelancers who sell the project and would rather not spend the next three weekends in a code editor.
- Your brand, everywhere
- Staging URLs, handoff docs, and the launch email all carry your name. We do not badge the footer.
- You own the client
- We do not contact, market to, or quote your client directly. Ever. In writing if you want it in writing.
- Real turnaround
- Most builds ship in 2–4 weeks from approved copy and assets. If a deadline is not realistic, you hear that on day one, not week three.
- NDA on request
- Happy to sign yours. If you do not have one, we will send a plain-English mutual NDA.
- Handoff or hosting
- Take the code and host it yourself, or leave it on our hosting and bill your client for care. Your call.
- One point of contact
- You talk to Abe. Not a project manager relaying messages to a team you never meet.
Partner rates are quoted per project, not published — they depend on scope and how much of the design you are handing over finished. Email for the rate card.
Who we already work with
The roster, as it stands today.
Real working relationships, not a borrowed logo wall. Every one of these is a studio or shop we actually hand work to and take work from.
Creative AvenueOrlando, FLWeb design, development, e-commerce and branding.Our Orlando arm — Creative Avenue and Halo build together in Central Florida.
NexOne ITOrlando, FLManaged IT and cybersecurity — 24/7 monitoring, cloud, VoIP, ransomware recovery.Where we send the heavy, serious IT work. We do the website; they run the network.
Cactus Creative CoRemoteStrategic web design and scalable systems for brands online.A creative studio we trade work and overflow with.
ZestixAIRemoteAI services and consulting — finding where AI actually pays for itself.For clients whose bottleneck is process, not presence.LOCAL AFFILIATIONS
Halo is a registered Illinois LLC based in Volo. These are live memberships, not trust badges — and the roster above grows as deals get signed. Want to be on it? That is a 15-minute call away.
Member
Wauconda Area Chamber of Commerce
Active member — local business referrals and chamber events.
Listed business
Village of Volo Business Directory
Registered in the village directory where the studio is based.
How it starts
Three steps, one afternoon.
A 15-minute call
What you do, who your people are, and which of the four tracks actually fits. If none of them do, we say that and you get your afternoon back.
Terms in plain English
One page. What each side does, what gets paid, when it gets paid, and how either of us walks away. No 12-page agreement for a handshake deal.
You get what you need to refer
A tracked link, a short blurb you can paste into a text, and a direct line for anything urgent. Then we go be useful to each other.
Straight answers
The questions partners actually ask.
How does the referral payout actually work?
We pay 10% of the build fee once your referral's final invoice clears. Not on signup, not on the deposit — when the money is actually in. You get a heads up when a referral books so nothing is a surprise.
Do I need to be a web person to refer?
No. Most referral partners have never touched a line of code. You forward a name; we handle every technical conversation from there.
Will you go around me and sell directly to my client?
No. On white-label work your client is yours — we do not contact, market to, or quote them directly, and we will put that in writing before the first file is opened.
Is there a contract or a minimum?
One page, and no minimum. There is no quota to hit and no penalty for a quiet quarter. Either side can end it with a message.
Do you partner outside Lake County?
Yes. Onsite work stays in Lake County and the north suburbs, but referral and white-label partnerships work fine fully remote — most of the build is remote either way.
What if my client is already unhappy with their current site?
That is the most common referral we get. Rebuilds and rescues are normal work here — we will tell them honestly whether a rebuild or a repair is the cheaper fix.
Let's figure out the split.
Tell us what you do and who your people are. If there is a fit, you will know on the first call — and if there is not, you will know just as fast.
A real person reads it. Reply within 1 business day.
MENTION IN YOUR MESSAGE
- Which track fits — referral, white-label, co-marketing, or community
- What you do and where you are based
- Roughly how many clients a year might need a site
Not sure which track? Say that instead. Sorting it out is the point of the call.