I don’t often write about the challenges of running a business and being a busy mum to 4 children. And whilst I do also attend some of the women’s networking clubs, I do like to think that our business can stand on its own two feet - mum or not.
To be honest I think that most of us mums have a massive advantage over the men and child free ladies who are competing in the business world.
Why?
Well firstly women are naturally blessed with amazing multi-tasking and time management skills. Show me a working mum and I will show you a lady who has set the alarm for 1 hour before the the kids are up to complete a project and who has successfully managed to feed a baby whilst drafting an email on her blackberry.
The second and most influential success factor for working mums is determination. I was a young teenage mum. Before the birth of my (now nearly 19 year old) daughter, I was studious but really lacked any kind of focus on what “I wanted to be”. Having had a baby before my first job (does a paper round count!?) prompted me to question what I needed out of life. And the answer to that 16 year old mum was money. I chose A Levels and a Degree that would open doors (Maths, Physics, Business Studies and a Degree in Computing). In fact my whole adult life has been goal driven.
Now in my mid thirties and with baby number 5 on the way I am so happy to have been able to carve myself a career whilst managing the work-life balance. Just in the last few weeks our home has been struck with a sickness bug, terrible 3 week long colds and on Wednesday my 3 year old son woke up covered head to toe in a horrendous rash which later turned out to be an allergy. Had I still been in the corporate word I dread to think what my boss might have said each day as I requested more and more leave to care for my children!
B Websites are also pleased to be able to create working from home opportunities for mums (and a dad) who benefit every day from flexible hours and a *proper* job! And with that in mind I would like to thank Chris, Jenny, Anna, Liz and Clare for their commitment over the last few years! 
Everything else | 5.03.2010 16:52 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
At this week’s Bracknell exhibition we met lots of new and well established businesses. It was great to talk to so many business owners all passionate about what they do. I was excited about the number of websites we had been asked to review and over the last few days I have been working through the list.
But boy, what a massive disappointment. In many cases the website was so far removed from the well groomed and enthusiastic business owner that I had met earlier on in the week.
Ok, so good website design can be subjective. But objectively there are a number of things that are common to all good website designs.
- A sensible domain name that can be remembered (and spelt!).
- A website that sits in the middle of the screen and instantly tells the visitor what services/products are on offer.
- Your website has to be readable. I have seen so many this week with teeny tiny fonts that would make it very hard for many people to read at all.
- A consistent look and feel. Menus that move around the site or pages that grow and shrink in width - just don’t look good and indicate a cheap or DIY website.
- Do not use the hosted wordpress/blog sites for a business. Secure your own domain, hosting and set up your own wordpress blog.
- I know it’s not directly related to the website but using free home emails like aol, tesco, yahoo etc is not going to cut it and will put some customers off.
For me, personally, sometimes it is just best to have no website at all. If you leave your card behind at a networking event and someone visits your website you have no chance to undo any bad impressions they might form.
So do you cringe at the thought of potential clients looking at your website?
If you are running a serious business and expect your clients to spend £50, £60 or £100/hour on your services then you absolutely must have a professional website set up. You don’t need to spend £1000’s to get up and running, but consider making an investment in getting some professional help. Don’t kid yourself that your clients won’t notice, care or mind. Bottom line is they will - nobody wants to spend money on a company that is not professional. And why waste an opportunity to reach out to more people with a professional online presence?
Website Design | 5.03.2010 12:55 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
I think its is absolutely fantastic that so many business owners are writing blogs these days. For me, seeing an up to date blog on a potential suppliers website is a massive bonus. It shows me that the company or individual takes their business seriously and also that they really know what they are talking about and want to engage their customers.
However there are some pitfalls of using hosted blogs like wordpress.com that not all bloggers may be aware of.
- The domain name. The website address on your blog will be something like mycompanyname.wordpress.com Which does not look super professional and lets the whole word know that you are using a free wordpress account.
- The SEO. Apart from the ability to talk directly to your clients, one of the major benefits of a blog is SEO (search engine optimisation). If you have a 5 page website with a few mentions of your keywords then you might be found on Google. Imagine adding your blog to your main website and adding all the 100’s of articles you have published?
- Diverting traffic from your main website. Ok, so you tweet your post and get 100’s of visitors to your blog but so what? What is the good of 100 people on your blog if they don’t click on your website? Have you even checked your stats to see how many click on your website? Have you even got a link on your main blog page/banner/menu directly to the website?
- Flexibility. Going forwards your business is going to outgrow the hosted solution, you will want to hire a developer who is going to want to dig in and get their hands dirty customizing it for your ongoing needs.
Essentially, businesses hosting a blog on shared hosting like wordpress.com are missing a massive opportunity, especially in terms of SEO and driving traffic to the main website.
So why not install wordpress on your own hosting and set it up along side your main website? You don’t have to pay for expensive works to have the two integrated (although this can give an even more professional edge!) as they can still be separate. If you don’t have a main website then you’d still benefit from points 1, 2 and 4 by purchasing a professional domain and hosting the website yourself. Not sure where to get started? get in touch!
Website Design, Website Revamps | 23.02.2010 15:37 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
There are so many different types of website available these days - it’s a minefield. Lets list a few of them: blogs, brochure websites, cms websites, static websites, blogsites, sites with shopping carts, ecommerce website, social networking sites, database driven websites, flash websites and the list goes on.
So how do you work out which website is the best for your business? This can be tricky, especially when you have three quotes full of jargon from three different agencies and still can’t work out which is which is the best value or even how to compare them!
Start by asking yourself what you need your website to do? Do you need it just to display services? do you need to sell something from the website? do people need to book or sign up for something? do you need people to find you on Google? Do you want to write lots of content on teh website? Do you need a members only section? Do you need to have content available to download?
Write it all down in a big long list, remember to focus on functionality. Don’t be afraid of the length of the list or the possible cost implications at this stage - we will refine this in the next step.
Once you have a list you can then prioritise. Organise your requirements into three groups. 1) must have 2) nice to have 3) will need in the future.
An typical example might look a bit like this
My website needs to
- Promote me an authority on my subject
- Allow visitors to sign up to newsletters and send an auto responder
- I need links/integration with my social networking sites like twitter and facebook as these are part of my marketing campaign
- I need to be able to sell places at workshops
- Targeted at woman and I already have my branding
- I must have the ability to easily update the website
Nice to have’s
- I might need some help with my copy, I’d like to write it initially but I will probably need some guidance to make it persuasive enough.
- I’d like my twitter and facebook page designed to match my website
- A gallery page with photo’s from events
- A place for visitors to view and leave testimonials
In the future
- I am not too worried about being found on Google at the moment as I will be actively marketing the website, but I might need help with this in the future
- I might want to sell more products online, perhaps ebooks and more workshops
- I might like to include a secure login in the future
- I will want more pages in the future as my services expand
Once you have your list it should be much easier for you to decide on the right website solution and budget. Being prepared in this way will also help your website agency with their proposal. A good agency will consider the future needs and propose a solution that does allow for growth (of course you might want to opt for a cheaper solution with less room but the important things is that you are aware of the options- right?!).
Why not have a go at writing your website plan? This is useful even if you have a website since it will help you identify some immediate and future needs. If you would like some help with your website plan please do get in touch for our free website consultation.
Website Design, Website Revamps | 23.02.2010 12:32 | 2 Comments
I’ve talked about wireframes a couple of times before. As website designers and developers we often use them in house to enable us to decide on the layout of a page or website. For the larger websites we would really struggle without them as we need the whole team to be “on the same page” - so to speak.
We don’t often share our wireframes with our clients. This is because essentially they are a bit like technical architect drawings. We have found previously that not all of our clients want to be involved at this level and certainly not all would be able to visualize the finished website. At worst some clients might be completely put off by the wireframe and it could cause some unnecessary stress.
We usually create the wireframes using pen/paper, kids drawing tools and perhaps Microsoft paint! So not very sophisticated and not particularly client facing but perfect for our internal meetings and not very time consuming (our time is your money!)
However our current project for Digital Invoicing did require a functional wireframe. The clients were technically minded and wanted to be involved fully in order to achieve the best possible results. The wireframe is below.
So how do we do it?
As you can see this is so very different from their existing website. Essentially we
- Held a number of meetings to discuss with Rob and Tim what wanted form their new website revamp.
- We brain-stormed everything that we could include.
- We completed some competitor research and also some vertical research to see what other companies were doing to solve similar issues for unrelated products.
- Refined our list into a manageable number of features for the number of pages.
- Once we had our “must have” features for the home pages it is a case of dividing up the page and creating the wireframe.
The page needs to remain aesthetically pleasing, balanced and use a tight grid. Rob and Tim were also keen that the page did not feel cluttered and didn’t scroll too far.
We are really pleased with the results.
- The new layout is interactive, allows for lots of important information and uses plently of whitespace to make it easy to read.
- Importantly we highlight their target market in the banner so that visitors can quickly decide if the product is for them. Targeting your website (and business) in this way means less time is wasted trying to convert customers who do not really need/want your product and you can really focus your message.
- Clear call to action (did you spot the bright red sign up button !?!)
We have since made some adjustments to the wireframe and are now working on the graphic design to add colors, textures and a bit of magic to the dull wireframe. Check out the bog soon for an update!
Case Studies, Website Design, Website Development, Website Revamps | 16.02.2010 13:34 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
We had a great time a few weeks ago at our
SEO Workshop. So many of our customers were feeling let down and confused by the offerings of so called SEO experts, that we felt that we had to step in and help. We do offer ongoing SEO support to clients should they wish, but it is our preference to help you to understand SEO yourself. With some training, patience and time I firmly believe that that business owners can optimize their own websites. So with this in mind I put together a 4 hour workshop showing clients how to select keywords, how to add them in to their own website, how to assess their campaigns and very importantly how to avoid wasting money on external SEO efforts.
We had a some great feedback…
“Thanks for all the hard work you put into the workshop. It certainly means that things have moved on since we set up Thoughtful Products Ltd.” - Mike
“A good session explaining many of the intricacies and misconceptions of Google” - Norman
“Zoe gave me the courage to have a go myself along with her support” - Anne
“Well prepared, informative and helpful” - Tom
“Thank you very much very good!” - Kim
We are now in the process of booking another date for the next workshop. If you are interested in booking your place - please
contact us.
SEO, Workshops & Training | 9.02.2010 10:58 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
There is an assumption that more hits from Google will lead to more customers. Well I think that’s a bit wrong - and here’s why.
Receiving 1000 hits per day on Google is all very well, but what if only 2% of those visitors make purchases? That’s just 20 orders. The ratio of visitors/leads is called your conversion rate. There are three main reasons for a low conversion rate
- People are finding you on Google for irrelevant search terms.
- Poor website design. The website is not appealing to your target visitors (this in itself is a number of blog posts and a whole business)
- Poor website coding. The website is not working, perhaps not displaying in a particular browser or the code does not lend itself very well to being read by search engines.
I believe it’s better to focus less on hits per day and more on converting visitors into customers. I am not suggesting that this is always the case but please don’t be blinkered into believing that getting high up in the search engines is the only answer. High search engine positions should be just one of many strategies for website owners. If you have a budget for your website this year, look into splitting it into three: SEO campaigns, online advertising (which targets your customer directly) and website updates. By investing in this mix you can refine your goals and win more customers.
Do you need some practical advice about winning more clients from your website? Please get in touch i’d love to hear from you.
SEO | 13.01.2010 15:19 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
Grangewood Floors have been a client of our ours for a number of years. We didn’t design their original website (they came to us with a design but needed us to recode because their previous web designers had allowed some nasty virus on the server). So when we were asked to come up with a new design for them, we jumped at the chance.
We’d already supplied Richard with a CMS (website update tool) and he didn’t want a complete revamp of all the website content at this stage - in particular we know that some of the images being used on the gallery pages are too small.
Our brief was to
- Incorporate the logo and new company brand (which Richard supplied)
- Increase search engine visibility
- Retain any existing search engine credentials
- Convert more customers
The new design ticks all the boxes. The website is bigger and better than the old one and invites the visitor to click on. By adding more pages and a submenu the visitor can easily find content. The grey colors were a tad dull so we included a nice vibrant and fresh green to jazz things up. We have some more work to do on the SEO sites of things and link in the sitemap to the footer but on a whole this is a huge improvement on what was there! We have an ongoing relationship with Grangewood and work on SEO and conversions on a monthly basis for them.
Case Studies | 7.01.2010 17:14 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
If I’m totally honest, when I started working for myself back in 2005 I did have some tiny doubts about the website design industry. My major concern was that in 5 years time (ie now!) creating websites would be as easy as pressing a button and that our web skills would no longer be required. However building a website in 2010 is so much harder now than ever before. And here’s why…
More competition.
There are more websites than ever, and more competition means that you need to stand out. Publishing a generic template using Dreamweaver or Wordpress is simply not going to get you noticed or taken seriously. And I’d definitely argue that the website is a very important aspect of a successful business. If you don’t take your website seriously, then how can you expect your customers to take you seriously?
Websites need to do more.
Technically, websites are expected to do more than before. A static 5 page website is not always going to cut it. Your website needs to include sign up forms, newsletters, interaction with social media like twitter and facebook, blogs, ecommerce options, downloads and online payments, and the list goes on! And I am not even going to start on the complexity of an SEO campaign!
Websites require different skill sets.
Employing your neighbours teenage son might get you online cheaply but will it help or hinder your business? At best I’d expect that it simply won’t make any impact at all. At worst your “cheap” website might cost you more in lost opportunities. In order to get the best out of your website you really need to have a team of experts all working with you. Whilst I do know of some fantastic freelancers, there are not many who can provide the whole package: fab design, great functionality, effective code, SEO. Many freelancers either fail in one area or specialise and outsource the aspects that they are not so confident in. If experts find it hard to provide a website with the full package, how can one expect their neighbours son to pull it off?
More Technology.
Our team now spends more time on testing and compatibility then ever before. With so many different browsers and the emergence of mobile technology, the art of actually coding a fully compatible website just seems to get harder and harder each year. More technology and more demanding visitors keeps website development out of arms reach for the novice. Just take a look at developer forums and blogs; they are filled with slightly annoyed developers struggling to get their customer’s website pixel perfect.
Quality Code.
Generally there are lots of people who can code up a decent looking website, but code is not all equal and the better the code the longer your website will continue to function, the less it will cost you to maintain and the better the results on search engines and usability. Over the past 5 years much has been published about best practices and you may ignore them at your peril!
To summarise - creating great websites is hard work. And I am ever so pleased since this means that our teams skills are still required!
Need some help?
Business link have a really useful guide that covers most considerations when creating a website. And you are always more than welcome to drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you!
Website Design, Website Development | 7.01.2010 13:22 | LEAVE COMMENT >>
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