My Unusual Path to Web Designer
and how that benefits my clients
I did not take a direct path to this career, but it has been the one I have most enjoyed.
I graduated from Virginia Tech University with a bachelor’s of Architectural design. Design has been a top interest of mine for as long as I can remember. After graduation, my plan to practice architecture didn’t feel like the best fit.
After decades of corporate management positions, I was ready to put that experience to use as an entrepreneur. With a business partner in 2012, I started a local business from ground zero. We both had all the skills we needed for finance, marketing, client services, and personnel management. A website was at the top of our list for business startup.
We were building this business from nothing, and were fortunate enough to have a friend with some experience on WordPress. She gave us a great deal on building our first website. After a couple of years, we hired a marketing agency to optimize our site for search ranking. They were on a monthly retainer, and after a year and some very minor site edits we hadn’t seen much of an impact. Our business continued to grow and evolve. We wanted a full redesign of our site, and were ready to try a new relationship with a different agency.
Our business had been a success and we wanted to continue to invest in ourselves. We paid our new marketing service a flat fee to redevelop our site and continued paying them monthly for SEO and marketing solutions. Like us, they were a two person team with a lot of energy working hard to build a successful business.
The new site design looked great and we were starting to climb in the rankings, but we were spending a lot of money on our online presence. In addition to their monthly fees, we were still paying our own hosting account, and I was writing all of the blog content. As I learned more about the admin side of the site for blog posts, I started to notice missed opportunities for keywords and tags. As their agency grew, we were connecting less frequently with the owners we signed on with, and handed off to newer, less experienced staff members.
I felt like I could save our company a lot of money if I taught myself everything we were paying them to do. So I did. I learned everything I needed about SEO and continued to write new content for the site. I taught myself how to make edits to the site’s design and eventually redesigned the entire website.
I learned a lot of things the hard way.
One night, I continued working very late instead of starting again with fresh eyes in the morning. I don’t know what I did, but all the content disappeared. In its place was nothing but the “white screen of death” with the small frowning icon. After a small heart attack I recovered everything except a few of the most recent revisions. After that experience I had the confidence to fail. I wanted to keep learning and keep designing, eventually taking on some web design projects for some friends’ businesses.
Since then, and nearly a decade since the screen of death, I have built dozens of websites for local entrepreneurs and business owners. Each site has challenged me to learn something new to create a specific functionality I haven’t tried before.
Let’s work together
Web design is not my primary income stream, but it is my most pleasurable. Because of that I only take on projects I will enjoy and know that I can give my very best result. I love providing personalized service to small business owners – bringing their visions to life and watching their dreams grow.
If you think we would be a good fit or would like a free business consultation, I would be thrilled to get to know more about you and your organization.
I've been where you are
And I’m still there. As a small business owner, I know what it takes to build a successful business from the ground up. In addition to web design, I can design logos, business cards, and create blog content. I can help with SEO and company branding. I’m able to consult on marketing strategies and client management. I endeavor to be a one stop contact for small business and startup organizations.
I want to provide personal service
I will always keep this freelance business small. I have no plans to hire staff and I won’t take on more work than I can accomplish myself. My clients won’t be passed on to a junior employee. When you trust me with your business, it will never be outsourced.
Every bill has a product or service attached
I don’t charge blanket retainer fees. Web design or logo design is typically a flat fee we both agree on once I have a good understanding of the scope of your project. I offer annual contracts for hosting and site maintenance. The annual fee includes updates and minor edits as well as hosting, and is priced to compete with the lowest priced hosting plans available. Other services are available a la carte, such as blog content, client communication, and other marketing consulting.
I've made mistakes so you don't have to
I’ve tried the friend of a friend that lacks full service. I’ve paid for big service contracts that didn’t return the investment. I’ve taken it on myself and crashed my entire site. Let me give you the benefits of my trial and error with personal, customized service.
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