As I prepare to participate in a group activity aimed at increasing blog traffic (for my own sites, and those I manage for clients), I find myself taking a lot of “deep cleansing breaths”.  As is often the case in any self-improvement activity, we’re required to take an introspective look at ourselves, our goals, and our desires. In this case, I’m forced to pair those desires up with business strategies, and I’m learning that my business, and my web design habits have gone and evolved without any notice or forewarning! The horror!

Change is Good!

We grow through change. I know this, but apparently this entire concept of change, or evolution has been hiding in my blind spot for over a year now in regards to my own business. One of the dangers of managing web sites for clients is that my own site suffers for lack of attention. Updates, blog posts, and general maintenance (all of which are services I sell to clients) have been sporadic at best on the site that represents my business.

If it were anyone else, I’d say they just need a good kick in the ass to get back on track… but since it’s me, and it’s physically impossible to do that (go on, try it, you know you want to!) I’m just going to dive into this #sitsgirls31dbbb project head first. The idea of support, feedback, and the ever present sounding board provided in the forums was all the inspiration I needed.

My Dilema

Looking up at the top of my site, you’ll see that my bi-line, or ‘short version elevator speech’ is “Decorating the Web… one site at a time!” For many years, I’ve referred to myself as the ‘Make it Pretty’ girl… I’m not a programmer, so I’m only able to tweak code, not write it from scratch (Dammit Jim, I’m an artist… not a programmer!).

My true desire is to create beauty through digital art, so my Web Design business was built on satisfying that desire. So, “Decorating the Web” really summed up what my intent was, and I’d hoped it conveyed the message that customizing your WordPress powered site to LOOK like your business was my specialty, as opposed to creating sites that require custom coding.

*Deep cleansing breath*

Over time though, my client’s needs have changed the direction in which my entire business has ‘evolved’. Through identifying the client’s needs, and offering a solution (the key to business success), I’ve become the girl that “manages your site so you can manage your business”. Much like the credit card company that handles your credit line needs so you can concentrate on running your business… I run my clients sites by performing updates, writing blog posts, optimizing and maintaining photo galleries, entering products into your e-commerce stores, editing your videos, implementing link exchange strategies, managing your Facebook pages, posting to Twitter accounts… whew!

Notice that “making it pretty” isn’t listed there. Yes, I do that first, and maintain your theme on all aspects of your site’s Internet presence through Twitter backgrounds, Facebook ads and banners, etc… but customizing your WordPress theme is only step one in the process I’ve become a specialist in. Making that design conform to your individual web site’s goals has turned into a service that my clients contract me out for on a monthly basis.

That’s just a tad different than ‘decorating’, yes? LOL

Combining My Stubborn Desire with Natural Evolution

Needless to say, this group activity has caused me to accept the fact that my business has grown through a natural evolution to solve a problem that my target market has. How awesome is that? I’m now faced with the task of tweaking my bi-line instead of code for a change. The question I asked myself was “what is it that I can do for prospective clients, that they may not realize they need”?

Decorating and Managing your web site, so you don’t have to.

My clients have no interest in touching their web sites, they’re too busy creating products, teaching classes, organizing events, dealing with suppliers, providing services to their own clients, etc. They want to rest easy knowing that their web site represents their business in a professional manner, so they don’t even have to worry about “all that Internet stuff”.

I customize the ‘look and feel’ of your small business web site to match your company’s image, then I manage all aspects of the site so that you can concentrate on running your business. My clients don’t worry about the “How” of it, they just tell me what they need their site to do for them, and I make it happen!

If I were to meet you in an elevator, and I answered your question as to what I ‘do’ with the above… would that work? Let me know in the comments, because much like my business… my long version elevator speech will evolve…

… and that’s a good thing!