Lighthouse Power Businesswebsite redesign:before & after

Lighthouse Power Business is an advisory firm for mid-sized companies. It supplies fractional executives (CFO, COO, CTO and strategy officers) who work inside a client's leadership team for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, plus AI and business-intelligence work and financial planning.

Its own site says it serves businesses with annual revenue of $20M to $300M, and that its team are IBM Certified AI Implementers and Certified Scrum Masters. It also lists what it does not do: it does not run your business, make your products, manage your workforce or give legal advice. The CEO is Jerry Nichols, named on the site.

A visitor here is probably an owner or executive who is deciding whether to book a call. The homepage has one job: make clear in a few seconds what the firm does, who it is for, and how to start.

This is not an agency rebuild. I gave the concept about 2 hours and spent them on the fixes that do the most for customers: the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the improvement.

To show how much that improves, I score every original homepage and every concept on the same 100-point checklist. Most checks are yes or no, and a script runs the technical ones (speed, mobile, accessibility). When in doubt, the point goes to the original site.

The original does real things right. The service copy is specific ("fractional Chief Financial, Operating, Technical, Information, and Innovation & Strategy Officers"), the "$20M to $300M" client range is stated, the certifications are stated, there is a "What we do" and "What we don't do" list, and a promise that "we deliver value, guaranteed, or we work for free until we do". The quote form behind "Get Started" has five fields. What gets in the way is the first screen. Two notes on the capture. First, the hero is animated, and in the frame I marked below its headline and button had not yet appeared. Second, my other screenshots show a pop-up covering the hero; it is in the page's own code, so it is real, and I checked that with curl. The measured scores for the original (speed, accessibility, links) came from a bot-check page, so I do not quote them.

The first screen and the mobile view, original on the left and concept on the right. The slider at the top of the post compares the first screen up close.

First screen

01Say what and for whom

The headline and the line beside it say "fractional C-suite leadership, AI-driven business intelligence, and capital markets advisory for companies generating $20M to $300M". That range is the firm's own; on the original it sits on the third screen.

02One main button

"Schedule a Strategy Session" is the filled button. "Explore Services" is an outline beside it, and "Schedule a Call" is in the header. The original's first offer, the free AI session, is not in the concept.

03Numbers under the hero

The strip shows 16 offices, 30+ years and 500% traffic growth, which the original states on its About, Strategy Offer and Case Study pages. The fourth figure, "3x revenue growth, 4 months", is not one I could match (the Case Study page says revenue doubled in 90 days and tripled in 6 months).

Mobile

01No pop-up in the way

On the original mobile page a pop-up fills almost the whole first screen. In the concept the first screen is the headline, one line about the firm and two buttons.

02Two buttons a thumb can hit

The hero button is 50px tall and the header button 62px. The header button wraps "Schedule a Call" onto two lines at this width, which I list below.

1. 01Put what you do and who it is for in the first line. "Fractional executives for companies with $20M to $300M in revenue" tells a visitor at once whether the page is for them. A line about dashboards does not.
2. 02Give the header one button. A visitor who has decided to talk should not need to open a menu. One filled button, worded as the action ("Schedule a Call"), is enough.
3. 03Treat a pop-up with care. A pop-up on the first screen hides your headline, and on a phone it hides the whole page. If you keep one, show it after a delay or on exit and make it small.
4. 04Bring your best proof onto the home page. This firm has a Case Study page with named clients and figures, but the home page shows none of it. Lift one number and one quote to the top.
5. 05Name your clients, or say why you cannot. A quote signed "Founder, Professional Services Firm" reads as weaker than one signed with a name. If clients need to stay private, say so in a line.
6. 06Show the person you are asking a visitor to trust. For a firm selling senior advice, the founder is the product. Give him a photo, a name and a short line on the home page.

The concept does not score 100. About 2 hours doesn't fix everything, and the checklist applies to my work too:

• The quotes are reworded and anonymous. The concept quotes follow the tone of client feedback on the original's Case Study page but are reworded, and they drop the names (the original signs them Greg B, Betsy H and so on). I would go back to the real wording, with names or a note on why not.
• Several claims are mine, not the firm's. "Denver, CO" as headquarters, "Est. 2016", the street address in the footer, the list of sixteen cities, the bank names, "Turbo Power Plus, CFO" and the "3x in 4 months" figure are not on the original pages I checked. The firm needs to confirm each one or I remove it.
• The photos are stock. The portrait labelled Jerry Nichols, the laptop and the skyline are not confirmed as the firm, its people or its work. A real photo of the founder would do more than any layout change.
• The form is not wired up. The contact form only looks right; nothing receives it. The original's quote form has five fields, so I would also check what the firm needs to qualify a lead.
• The header button breaks on a phone. "Schedule a Call" wraps onto two lines and crowds the menu icon at 390px wide.
• Mobile text is 15.5px. It should be 16px or more, and the accessibility scan found 79 contrast issues, mostly the pale grey body text on cream.
• No phone number anywhere. Neither the original nor the concept has one. If the firm takes calls, a number in the header is the quickest way to add a second way in.

If I were talking to Jerry Nichols, I would say: the substance of your site is good. You say who you serve, you list what you do and what you do not do, and you back it with certifications and a guarantee. The trouble is that the first thing a visitor gets is a pop-up and a line about dashboards. My concept mostly moves the same substance to the front and puts one button next to it.

The choice I am least sure about is the look. I went with a cream page and a serif headline, which feels like a boutique advisory firm. Your original is dark blue with a lighthouse, which is a stronger picture of your name. A visitor might well remember the lighthouse and forget my page, so that is a call for you, not me. I also hid the free AI session, and that is a trade-off, because it is your best offer.

What the concept does not solve is trust. The quotes are anonymous, the photos are stock and some of the details are mine and need checking. I could not make the firm look bigger than its own pages show it. Two hours fixed the order of the page. Real names, real photos and a checked set of facts have to come from the firm.