Dana Thompson on common web design mistakes, inspiration, difficulties, and staying positive

{Photography by Aimee Madden Photography}

1. In a sentence or two, could you tell us what you do?

Sure! I work with solo entrepreneurs and small business owners to create a website and online marketing strategy that will unleash their business dreams.

2. How did you get started?

I was put in charge of (read, thrown into) the website of the company where I worked as marketing coordinator in 2001. I had no idea what I was doing and had to teach myself the software to update the site. After the initial learning curve frustration, which was considerable, I realized that the web brought together everything I’m passionate about…creativity, design and marketing.

When my husband I moved to our farm in 2003, I got a new job. I completely redesigned and rebuilt the website for our county government. A few local businesses and friends then started asking me to build sites for them and my web design business was born.

3. What three words best describe your personality?

Positive, Creative and Genuine

4. What character {from a book, movie or television} do you most relate to? Why?

Andy Sachs from The Devil Wears Prada. I love her determination to overcome obstacles and her resolve to work as hard as it takes to make her dream job a reality. Whenever I feel like I’m lacking motivation, I pop that into the DVD player and get inspired!

{Photography by Aimee Madden Photography}

5. What’s your favorite part of your creative business?

I really enjoy the challenge of translating a client’s brand into a visual presence on the web. For most of my clients, marketing is not their main area of expertise. I love giving them their own personal “marketing department” and working with them as a team to develop their brand identity, unique selling proposition and online marketing strategy. I also love, love, love being able to work from anywhere and have my dogs with me all day!

6. What’s a typical workday like for you?

I’m still working a full time job, but when I have the day off to work from home, I get up around 8 a.m. and head out in my pajamas with our 4 dogs to bring the horses into the barn for the morning feeding. The dogs and I take a walk around the pasture before heading in for breakfast. I am of British ancestry, so it’s required I start the day with a cup of hot tea and toast. After doing a quick check of email and making any routine updates to client sites, I settle in to work on whatever site I’m designing that day. Baxter, my Miniature Schnauzer is always snoozing nearby or pawing at me to be petted. He’s my little helper.

At lunch I take the dogs for a walk in the woods around our farm to get some fresh air and rejuvenate the creative spirit. There is nothing better than being in nature to replenish and refuel. In the afternoons I will either continue to work on a site I’m building or concentrate my efforts on my own website, blog and social media marketing. Evenings usually find me on the tennis court or watching TV piled on the couch with the dogs. If I’m lucky, my husband who is a successful musician, will be home and not at a gig! These days are bliss for me!

7. Where do you get your inspiration?

When I’m designing a site, I get my inspiration from talking to the client and discussing their vision for how the site should look and feel. Feel is a big thing for web design…it can look great, but feel all wrong for that business. We talk about colors, the emotions they invoke, and how they represent the brand. I’ll ask them to show me websites they love that aren’t necessarily in the same line of work to get an idea of what the client likes. I’m also heavily influenced by the images we are going to use on the site. The images speak to me and often the design and color scheme flows out of the pictures we have for the site. It’s a very organic and intuitive process and I love when I can create something the client feels is exactly what they wanted.

{Photography by Aimee Madden Photography}

8. How do you balance family, friends and business?

When you are so busy, it’s hard to take time off without feeling guilty. I always feel like I should be working on something. I don’t want to lose momentum. But when you run your own business, there is always something that needs your attention. I’ve learned that what works for me is to set a time when I’m not going to work and let go of the guilt. I know I can be more productive when I’m rested and had some time to rejuvenate both emotionally and physically. I take Sundays as my day off to totally unplug. I feel so much better when I’ve had some time away from the computer. Spending time with my husband, our dogs and our horses is my idea of the perfect day off. You know, the alternate word for horse is “therapy.”

9. What are the biggest design mistakes you see creative entrepreneurs making on their websites?

The biggest mistake I see creative entrepreneurs and small business owners make is that they make their home pages too busy. Your home page is the first impression a visitor will get of your site. It needs to speak to your target audience, clearly show what you do and feature your main products and services.  But you don’t need to have everything on there! Good design and proper use of navigation will funnel your visitors through your site and make it easy for them to find what they need. Don’t try to show it all on the home page.

10. What’s the best creative business advice you’ve ever received?

The best creative business advice I’ve ever gotten is to just get started with what you have and learn the rest as you go along. Quit waiting until you are perfectly ready because that time doesn’t exist. The people, the knowledge and the opportunities will be presented to you at just the right time. That old saying “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” is true and it works!

{Photography by Tracy Page}

11. What’s been the most difficult thing about building your web design business?

The most difficult thing has been getting overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do. Sometimes I’m flooded with web design jobs along with juggling the marketing demands of my own business including cultivating new clients and creating new content for my website.

I’ve worked really hard to embrace the busy times as a blessing and to feel gratitude for having this much work. Being busy is a good thing, right!?! I started prioritizing my to do list in terms of choosing to focus first on the things that are going to move my business forward and make me money. Right now, for me, that is getting clients’ websites designed and launched and conducting their training. It has really helped to learn how to set client expectations to give myself some breathing room and relieve some of my stress during busy times.

12. If you had to pinpoint one thing that has helped your business more than anything in the past year, what would it be?

Last spring I took your course 6 Weeks to a More Passion-Filled & Profitable Business and it forced me to do some soul searching to figure out why my business was not moving forward. In the handout for the first class, you asked the question, “Do you currently offer products or services that you’re not passionate about? If so, why? What would happen if you let go of those products or services?”

This was the epiphany moment for me. I realized I hated building websites from scratch. I was mentally pushing business away because I actually dreaded getting new clients! I have now switched to creating websites in WordPress which has been a win-win situation for both my business and my clients. I can use my coding skills to create a custom WordPress web design for their business and they get a website they can easily update on their own. I’m in love with web design again!

Now that the passion and joy is back in my business, it has just blossomed! I’m on track to double what I made last year and I feel like the possibilities for growth are now endless. Thank you April!

13. What books or magazines are you currently reading?

I just finished reading Success Under Stress by Sharon Melnick. I’ve got Mastery by Robert Greene waiting on my bedside table. I am always reading The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I read an excerpt from one of them every day to stay positive and motivated.

{Photography by Tracy Page}

14. What are your top three favorite blogs?

Besides yours…

Marie Forleo

Nathalie Lussier

BlogcastFM

15. What are you currently working on? Anything new coming up that we should look out for?

I just finished rebranding my entire business! So excited about that! I get most of my local business from word of mouth and I realized no one really knew my business name, Pink Plaid Design. So I decided to go all out with a personal branding strategy that really plays off my unique qualities. I’ve had so much fun doing for my business what I love doing for my clients! I completely redesigned my website and launched it last month at www.DanaLynnThompson.com. I also started a blog and a newsletter for web design, online marketing and business success tips.

In the works is a free online training library for WordPress users, an eBook with guided steps to create a plan for your website design, and the addition of a weekly video post to my blog. In the next year I want to start offering an online course for do-it-yourselfers who want to tackle their own website design, but don’t want to do it alone. I’m so excited about all the possibilities!