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Me, Myself and I

17/1/2017

January 2017 is nearly done and dusted and I haven't had the chance to wish you a Happy New Year.

Since last year, I've been trying to focus on being mum to The Miss and Little Mister but I have had one client I needed to try and get sorted.

It's not been easy this one. There have been several strikes against me; the site is using a platform I don't enjoy working with, the initial site set-up was pretty messy so I needed to spend a bit more time than anticipated trying to get it right, and it's school holidays so I often have little faces at my side wondering why I am not devoted to them.

Normally I appreciate the freedom and flexibility working for myself and from home gives me. I feel luckier than most and don't want to be a "Moaning Myrtle" but when I couldn't shake the feeling that this job was a curse, I did start to wonder if continuing this way was the smartest thing to do.

You guys know as well as I do that when you're working on your own, you have to fight all the fires all by yourself. You need to be the IT person. You have to be accounts payable and receivable. You need to do all the marketing and PR. And you never actually leave your place of work; your laptop/office is always there just whispering all the things you haven't done yet.

I guess all I'm really saying, is that if you're soldiering on taking your small business from strength-to-strength, you're awesome and I salute you. It's harder than some people realise.

Until next time...
Fx

Proud as punch

22/12/2016

Oh what a beautiful morning. Oh what a beautiful day!

I'm pretty darn happy right now folks, my latest labour of love is alive and open for business. Please take some time out of your busy schedules to check out the newIntuitive Birth.

Whilst working on the eCommerce build, I asked SJ what (if anything) there was about her old site that she liked and what she would desperately like to change if given the chance. The response was immediate; her site needed to reflect more cultures and lifestyles than what was currently being shown. The site needed to be more of an obvious online shop, but needed to remain an easy place for parents-to-be to visit and find the information/support they might need.

As you all know, this one has been cooking in the background for a while now. SJ was pretty amazing and understanding about how sometimes sick kids and school holidays come up and interrupt the work schedule, but I think it helped her knowing that the build was still very important to me and wasn't being ignored.

I had a great time sourcing a selection of imagery that speaks to a range of people from a variety of backgrounds - although I was surprised at the number of times the same pregnant model popped up! It also made me quite happy correcting a few typos and inconsistencies that the previous Intuitive Birth site contained, but that's just of my little idiosyncracies.

So, here I am only a few days away from Christmas and then the New Year and I have to say I'm proud as punch of the work I've done in 2016. I've learnt a few things along the way, and I'd like to think I've made some clients pretty happy.

Merry Christmas, folks! Stay safe and happy.

Until next time...
Fx

The 40 year old kindy

12/11/2016

I've just returned from a very special morning.

The Little Mister attends Glamorgan Kindergarten in Auckland. It's a wonderful early childhood centre; the teachers are supportive and friendly, the kids are energetic, creative and sweet.

Glamorgan Kindy are celebrating their 40th birthday today, which is a major milestone. The teaching staff have been working with the little ones to come up with a lovely performance in English, Te Reo and Mandarin. It was a pleasure to watch them, with lots of little squee moments from me.

We were then treated to a powerful and moving performance by the Glamorgan Primary School Kapa Haka group. These wonderful youngsters performed with passion beyond their years, and it got me quite emotional.

For the grand finale, the Kindy unveiled a beautiful Maori carving that now hangs above their door. It is an exquisite piece of work crafted by a gifted carver (I'm sorry, I didn't catch his name but he was related to one of the teachers at the Kindergarten).

Why am I telling you about this? Well, other than being especially proud of my Little Mister and my niece (who was in the Kapa Haka group), I was proud to be part of the celebration by sponsoring their special cake.

A few weeks back I was talking to the Head Teacher and she was worried about the lack of cake, "you can't have a birthday party without a birthday cake!" And she's right. I told her to rest easy, I would get it sorted.

And I did.

Kia kaha Glamorgan Kindergarten, you're doing a wonderful job.

Until next time...
Fx

Break it down

7/10/2016

There have been a few of the same questions fired at me over recent times so I figured that perhaps these worthwhile questions were worthy of a post, so hopefully I can give you some answers even before you ask them.

How does a website cost?
An eCommerce site is around $30US a month (or less if you are prepared to pay for a year at a time).

A simple blog/information based site is around $9US a month.

Do you want to register your own domain, or are you happy to let a third party host the site for you? Registering your own domain shouldn't cost you more than $24 a year. If you're happy to let someone else host it, the site could be free BUT you will probably have to have their own domain in your web address.

Will you require an email too? If you do, it's around $2 a month.
How much should I spend on Google AdWords?
As with pretty much anything, the more you spend the better the results but a smaller budget can work too. A client of mine set her daily budget at $7 (around $200 a month) and that kept up a steady flow of clicks and enquiries. It does pay to remember that a click doesn't always promise a conversion.
How does Facebook work?
Facebook have been pretty sneaky by dropping the organic reach your posts achieve. You may have wondered why your reach isn't as high as your Followers, the simple answer is that Facebook doesn't really want your organic results to be that good, they want you to 'Boost' your posts and your page as often as your budget will allow.

The good news is that you can set your daily budget on a Boosted Post to be very little and it will still give you some impressive results. A Boosted Post could get thousands of interactions and it could cost less than $20. Definitely worth doing.

Some more good news is that you can really selective with your target market with Boosted Posts. You can specify areas, genders, age, interests etc. This means you can speak to the "right" kinds of people for your business.
How can I get on the front page of Google?
Ah yes, the front page of organic Google search results. This has become the Holy Grail of marketing. It's a long-term goal as far as I'm concerned, unless you want to pay for a quick route.

Basically, the more you do on your site and on your social media, the better. The more active you are, the more often Google will recognise that you've done something and they will update their info.

It's also a good way of generating traffic to your site, which is also VERY helpful with organic results.
Any other helpful advice?
Well, since you asked... pick a social media platform and nail it before moving on to the next. Don't try and do all of them and do a half-ass job It's a waste of your time and it's not a good look to your potential customers.

Facebook is the obvious starting point, but I would also recommend Instagram especially if your in a visual industry.

Oh, and don't forget the good ol' business card! People still use them and you can also enter those competitions at local bars and cafes.

That's about it from me. If you have any other burning questions, just let me know.

Until next time...
Fx

Keeping It Consistent

12/9/2016

And we're back!

Over the past few weeks a number of things collided which left me with very little time to keep y'all updated on progress; school holidays, the eCommerce website build and an eCommerce website makeover.

The Miss and Little Mister are back at their respective learning establishments. The eCommerce website makeover went well and working with Bronwyn was fun. And the eCommerce website build is still trucking along, which is what led me to this post...

When marketing your business (or yourself) I have found that consistency is key.

You've picked your signature colours? Use them.
Once you have decided on a font, select it every time you write any collateral.
Figured out how you want to speak to your customers? Don't let that particular tone of voice fall silent.
A particular photography filter really does it for you? Keep filtering those photos.

Websites are no different.

Product images need to be the same size - yes it might take a while to get that sorted, but its worth it when your customer gets an attractive uniform look no matter what they click on whilst online shopping. Ideally, all your products should have the same background too, but baby steps people, that can be one of the things you work towards.

It's pretty awful to visit a site and see hickeldy-pickeldy product images zig-zagging all over the page. You wouldn't like it at a supermarket, so don't do it on your website.

You might think I'm being way too strict on this but have a think about your favourite online shops. What do they look like? How do they present their products? What do their posts on Facebook look like?

Just because we might be a one (or two) man band with pockets that don't stretch that far doesn't mean we can't present ourselves professionally yet with a charming amount of personality.

Need some help? Let me know!

Until next time...
Fx

Make It Work

27/8/2016

I'm very pleased to report that the eCommerce website build is going well. After kind of a false start (I thought SquareSpace would be a good CMS for the client, but it turned out it was not), things are progressing well.

I've sent the first demo to the client and she's come back happy with how things are shaping up, and given some feedback to help keep me motivated.

I'll keep plugging away entering the products she'll sell online and creating the relevant pages to help educate any future visitors to her site. I'm enjoying the build, and think its looking pretty flash (even if I do say so myself).

In other news, I met with a lovely new client today who wants to update her current site to look its best AND maximise sales. This relationship is going to be more collaborative than some of my others, because they want to learn how to do this type of thing for themselves. Makes sense to me.

I am going to check out the current site's capabilities and functionality. I'm concerned that the CMS is going to be quite limited and may not do everything we want it to. That being said, I'm going to do everything I can to "make it work".

What makes things even trickier is that its school holidays now, so I have less time than usual, but all will be well, I'll get there in the end.

Until next time...
Fx

Just Do It.

21/8/2016

I'm in currently in the planning stage of an eCommerce website build. I am both excited and just a tiny bit overwhelmed (but not in a bad way). This build is for one of my lovely repeat clients and her needs are very specific. I want to make sure that what we create is what she actually needs, not what I think she should have.

I've done some pretty decent research into eCommerce CMS options available, and I've spent a bit of time on her current site to see what I think works and what we can improve. There's a lot of information she's got on offer right now, which is great but I do wonder if we can simplify her message a bit.

This week's task is to start the actual build. I believe that the time I've spent upfront will help in the long-run, but any more reading will just add to the overwhelming feeling. Sometimes its best to just get stuck in and get a handle on things. Or at least it is for me.

So, once again, watch this space...

Until next time
Fx

Another Day, Another Happy client

11/8/2016

It's been a bit of a slog this one, thanks to a hideous CMS experience that proved to be a complete waste of time (note to anyone interested, avoid IM Creator), but we got there in the end.

A few moments ago I was delighted to be able to 'go live' with the Self Defense Northland site. As mentioned in a previous post, the brief was to avoid any fear tactics and make it more about empowering women. When I presented the site to David, he laughed a little at the images I chose but agreed they did what they are supposed to.

It was a nice project to work on, and I hope the organisation goes from strength-to-strength (no pun intended).

Until next time...
Fx

Keeping It Simple

1/8/2016

Simple [adjective]; easy to understand, deal with, use etc.

I've been working on a website build for a client and upon sending them the first mock-up, I received the feedback that it was really simple but they liked it.

The simple look and feel of the website doesn't truly represent the amount of work that's gone into creating it. I created a simple yet high impact site for the client because that's what works best, in my opinion at least.

Flashy websites annoy me; who wants to wait 30 seconds or more for a whizz-bang intro to play, or a new image to open up every time I accidentally hover my mouse over a different part of the screen? Not me.

There are a few simple rules I try to adhere to when working on websites;

White space is your friend
Write the talk
Images leave no confusion
Celebrate the wins!

I won't go into too much detail on those here (if you're curious, just ask), but hopefully you get what I'm saying. I do wonder though; would anyone turn away from a service provider if they thought their website were simple as opposed to flashy?

Hopefully not.

Until next time...
Fx

Yes, You Can!

21/7/2016

Following on from my previous post, I have received the thumbs up from my client for the design & print of their business cards. They wanted to get them printed by the end of the month, and I believe that with the speedy concept stage and their very quick sign-off, that deadline will be met.

Here's the sneak peek...

Until next time
Fx