What’s Your Small Business?

Last week, Naomi over at Itty Biz posed a thoughtful question to her readers: Let’s Play a Game – What’s Your Home Business?

Some might call this a meme, but she doesen’t specifically call anyone out to answer, so it’s NOT a meme, LOL.

Not as Obvious as You Think…

Naomi received a question from one of her regular readers, asking what she actually does for a living.

“So what do you actually do for a living?”

This can be somewhat shocking to hear that a regular reader doesn’t quite understand what you do… If a regular reader doesn’t get it – how are new visitors you your site or blog supposed to know?

Enter the What’s Your Home Business Game! Naomi posted several questions that will help clarify exactly what it is that you do for a living. Sounds like a fun and completely useful game. It’s my turn now, so here goes…

What’s your game? What do you do?

The quick answer - I design web sites.

iDesign Studios creates custom web sites
that help you stand out from the crowd.

My full personal and business speil’s are hopefully pretty obvious, and are placed up at the top of this blog and on the main business site.

Basically speaking, though, I design and develop web sites, from concept to completion. I’ll discuss your business needs with you, see where you are headed, come up with a plan and design a web site that will help your business grow. More on that process here.

Once we’ve finalized the design, I will develop it into a functional web site, using valid, W3C standards compliant code. If you like, I am also more than happy to continue working with you to update the content on your web site, adding new features, etc. – basically helping your web site grow along with your business.

Why do you do it? Do you love it,
or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

I design and develop web sites because it’s what I love to do!

I have always been artistic, and was lucky to have a very early exposure to computers. My Dad got his first computer – a TRS-80 – way back when I was 3 years old. So maybe there is a tiny bit of “creepy knack” in there.

But, it’s more than just having a “creepy knack” because I actually enjoy it.

While I like the design phase – especially when you get in the “zone” - what I love the most is the development stage. The point of taking something that I designed and turning it into a functional web site.

I especially love learning new techniques. As a front-end web developer, you have to face challenges such as creating code that not only validates, but also looks good on a variety of web browsers. There are often several obstacles you come across in accomplishing this, while also maintaining the design that you created for a web site.

It’s when you surpass those obstacles – often times learning a new trick in the process – that I find to be the most exciting. This is a huge part of what I like the most about being a web designer / front-end web developer, and what makes me look forward to developing the next web site.

It’s a never ending learning process, one that I greatly enjoy!

Who are your customers?
What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

My clients are a mix of small to medium sized businesses, with the occasional larger organization thrown into the mix. However, the majority of my clients are small businesses – one man/woman shows, or small family run businesses.

Working with a wide range of businesses, industries
and organizations throughout the United States,
my primary goal is to help other small businesses
succeed in their endeavors.

I find that I especially enjoy working for very small companies – primarily those who are establishing themselves on the internet for the first time. It’s nice to be able to introduce them to a whole new world of business marketing.

When a company decides they want to create a web site for the first time, it helps push their business to a whole new level. They are able to reach a much larger audience that they can market their business too.

I often also work with companies that have already gotten their feet wet with one (or several) web sites in the past. But those sites were either un-successful, or have just run their course. It is nice to work with them to help them establish a whole new identity to step their online presence up a notch.

What’s your marketing USP?
Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

My USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is that I will give you a unique, professional, custom design that you can be sure no-one else out there will have. I will give you full attention to detail, and a good quality web site. Those “other losers” aren’t necessarily going to give you that.

Not everyone is going to give you a custom design. Unfortunately many web designers utilize template services for this, which means there could be 5, 10, 50 or more companies out there with the same exact web design as you. That’s not going to make your business stand out from the crowd!

There are a lot of designers out there that don’t have a unique design style, either. Many will give you a so-so design. Or will develop it with old web standards (using old-school html tables or even worse a site that doesn’t validate, or that doesn’t display properly across a variety of web browsers – thereby limiting your web audience).

When you hire me to design your web site, you can be sure that I am going to sit down and design something from scratch, with you completely in mind. I have a unique design style – typically a “less is more” “clean” style that I will apply to your web site to give it a good professional look (or a funky look if that’s what you’re going for, lol).

Bottom line – I will give you a uniquely styled and well coded web site that will help your business grow. Simply put, I’ll help you stand out from the crowd.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

The big plan at the moment is to expand upon my core services.

Right now, I primarily design and develop static web sites. However, I’ve dipped my feet into the wonderful world of WordPress, and am loving it! WordPress is a powerful tool, that can be utilized not only as a blogging platform, but also as a light CMS (Content Management System).

I’ve actually got my first client WordPress web site launching later this week, which I am very excited about! This will be doing double-duty for me, as I plan to use this as an opportunity to officially announce new WordPress Theme development services – which I plan to start offering through my online store before the end of the month.

For More Information…

I can’t end a post like this without linking you to additional information on my main business web site, LOL.

You can learn more about my company, iDesign Studios here, as well as read testimonials from happy clients. I also hope you’ll take a look at my web design portfolio, as well as my list of services (which links to an online shopping cart with complete details on exactly what is included when you purchase any of my web site design, development and hosting services).

If you have any questions, you might find the answer over in the Frequently Asked Questions. If not – please do feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you!

Now It’s Your Turn!

So what about you? What’s your small business?

If someone went to your web site, would they immediately know exactly what you do? You’d be surprised how blatantly obvious you might think the answer is… but there is always that one reader (or ten) who don’t quite get it.

Help them out by participating! Tell everyone what your business game is, and link to or comment on the original article over on Itty Biz. I’d love for you to make a comment below, too!

About the Author

Selene M. Bowlby is a web designer and front-end web developer with over ten years of professional experience in the design industry. As the owner of iDesign Studios she specializes in creating custom web sites for other businesses. more »

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