Tips and Tricks for Good Website Design

Hello again, by this time you have probably read my previous blog titled, "How to Create a Website." Today, I thought it would be fun to get into the good stuff, which is designing the layout of your website. To start things off, I have a few tips and tricks for good website design. Tip #1, you don't need to be an art major to create a good website. When I first began thinking of designing a website, I thought it would be extremely difficult because I'm no art major. However, websites are not meant to be artistic and expressive. Websites are geared towards purpose and meaning. If a customer were to access your site and find scattered links with cool photos floating around, they would be confused and leave the site. Customers typically have a purpose when they go to a site, and the sooner they can fulfill that purpose the more likely they will come back. Trick #1, use real and legitimate numbers to create validity for your website. One thing I love to see on a website is numbers. Numbers that tell a customer how many people a company has served, how many jobs they have completed, or how long a company has been in business. This helps develop trust for potential customers. It's easier to trust a company that has served 154 customers then a company that claims to have served over a hundred. Tip and trick #2, less is more. Have you ever been to a website that has a ton of navigation links at the top of the page? Or a website that has a ton of pages that seem impossible to navigate through? This is probably the most frustrating part about a website. When you are trying to decide on the number of pages and navigation links you should consider this question, "Do I really need it?" Trying to condense your information to the bare minimum is really useful for potential customers. No one likes to read more than they have to. Keeping it to the essential information is better. This same principle goes for the navigation links. You don't need one for every product or service you have, instead you could generalize the link and then have it drop down to more options. This just helps to keep the confusion down to a minimum for customers. A good rule of thumb is no more than 7 navigation links. So there you have it, a few good tips and tricks for good website design.

How to Create a Website

If you are following my blog, you probably read my last post, "Fundamentals of Starting an Online Business." Today I thought it would make sense to continue this train of thought by sharing some great tips for creating a website. For me, I easily get overwhelmed when it comes to figuring out the first steps that need to be taken when doing something like this. So I hope I can break this down simple enough for others who, like me, get easily frustrated. Tip #1, a website is made up of two major components: a host and website builder. A host is a company that provides the place and service needed for a website to be viewed on the internet. A web builder is the company or service that you use to create the look and feel of the website. The way they work together is the website builder is typically downloaded through the host company. You need both of these to create a website. Tip #2, compare apples to apples. Some companies offer only hosting services and others may offer hosting and website building services. So, when you're searching for a company to use, don't compare a company that only offers one service to another that offers both. Most of the time a company that offers both services is one that is meant for beginners. They make things really simple by offering a host, website name, and website builder all in one. The website builder in these companies are usually easy to use with drag and drop capabilities. People looking at these companies need very little to no coding experience. On the other hand, companies that offer only hosting services are typically looking to attract people with a moderate to expert coding knowledge. They require you to find a website builder that can be used through them. Some independent website builders may offer drag and drop capabilities, but typically the people using the separate host and website builder want more customization for their websites. So there you have it, two tips that I hope help those who are starting a website.

Fundamentals of Starting an Online Business

I'm taking a class that teaches you how to create an online business. My husband and I had already started our own online business called Patches Co., but in order for me to complete my degree I needed to take this class. What is interesting to me is how much I didn't know! So, in an effort to help all my entrepreneur friends out there, here are a few basic tips that I've learned so far. Tip #1, do your research. A good exercise to perform when your in the brainstorming phase is to decide on a target market (group of people) you want to work with. Examples of a target market are college students, pregnant women, bloggers, etc. Once you know your target market it's time to date them. I say date them because that's the process of getting to know them. What do they like? What don't they like? What problems do a lot of them have in common? Once you understand who you're working with it's easier to come up with a product or service that could really benefit that group of people. Tip #2, brainstorm multiple ideas. If you're like me, the first idea that comes to my mind is always the best idea....WRONG! It's good practice to come up with 10-20 different ideas for products or services you could offer to your target market. Most often, your brain needs time to become creative enough to develop really good ideas. Writing down 10-20 ideas can really help those brain juices flow. Then, it's just a matter of whittling those ideas down to the best one. So there you have it; a couple of tips that can really benefit any entrepreneur.

www.patchesco.com

Honing In

 

Before

After

This week I had a realization. Throughout the semester I have felt very under qualified and inadequate to be a successful entrepreneur. I started to become discouraged. But even through the discouragement I still loved learning about creating a small business and becoming an entrepreneur.

There are many skills and traits of a successful entrepreneur that we have read or learned about. Until I read "Work on your business, not just in your business" I felt like maybe this wasn't the path for me.

As I read about how easy it is to get stuck in the everyday tasks and forget to improve and expand the fire within me began to grow again. This past week my husband and I had a real conversation about what I'm doing now in our business and what I would really like to do. It was eye opening and refreshing. We then started to make great plans with how we want to change it and where we see it going. There is still so much to do to get there, but taking the skills and knowledge I am learning in the Small Business Creation class and applying them to my present life and business is helping so much.

I know now that as soon as I can get out of this rut of doing every single task myself and getting lost in the everyday work, I can then begin to oversee and take a place from a more "outside looking in" perspective and begin to expand the business and grow it into something greater.

Today was the last lesson of my last student during this $100 Challenge. She and her mother are planning to enroll her again this fall in some more sewing classes. I could not be more excited and grateful for how well this went and how empowered I feel now as a seamstress.

Learning to Overcome

This week I tried to implement some of the things I have been learning over the course of this Small Business Creation Class. I have gotten pretty discouraged along the way at times. Those discouraging moments came when I realized I didn't have a skill or drive I needed. But I'm learning that just because I don't have them now doesn't mean I can't have them later. Later, after learning and applying.

I inherited a trait from my father where I get frustrated and exasperated quite easily, especially when it comes to explaining my thoughts and others aren't understanding me. My husband and I were talking about the business and what we would like to have happen in the future. We talking about what we want to focus on and how to build the website to fit it. This was a very good exercise for me to explain my thoughts and vision. It was hard. I had a couple moments. But after pushing through them we were able to make great strides on our way to a business plan and expansion.

My $100 Challenge students are doing fabulously! I have two left. One of my students has a mother that stays during the whole lessons whereas all other moms run errands during the lesson. At first I didn't like that she stayed, but last week she said that I am teaching her daughter way better and more in depth than her last teacher. They really boosted my confidence in my ability to do this and to do it well.

To Franchise? Or not to Franchise?

This week was franchise week and it was very educational. I have learned some valuable lessons and had my eyes open to new opportunities.

No matter what business you start, even if you don't plan on franchising, you should set it up like a franchise. I can't remember if I said that in my last post but even if I did, it is very important and should be reiterated!

I had the opportunity to interview a franchise owner of a Little Ceasars Pizza in California. I got in contact with him through my aunt who was in his same church congregation. He is very successful and, from the sounds of it, seems like he knows exactly what he's doing to be successful and he wishes others would just stay out of his way and be just that.

I am learning that no matter what business you want to start or franchise will take a tremendous amount of work. It is imperative that you put in the extra time and sacrifice things. You won't be successful if you don't.

In my $100 challenge I have earned $240 total. I put $4.84 into it. So my net income total is $235.16. I am pretty impressed with what i've been able to earn from this. Granted every second hasn't been easy. If I continue with sewing lessons I am going to put an age cap on how young my students can be. I have a 7 and a 9 year old and they just don't grasp it all. They have a hard time even running the machine at a decent speed. So I have come away during this "trial" period with a better idea of how to make it better!

Beneficial Interviews

This week I was able to interview Louis Adams who is an entrepreneur. I had another company owner in mind but when things weren't working out I looked to those around me and asked who they know that are entrepreneurs. I landed on interviewing Louis. It was a very beneficial and eye opening experience. I won't go into too much detail, as I did in my paper, but I did want to say that as an overall consensus I would like to find more entrepreneurs to interview. I learned so much from Louis and I feel like there is so much more knowledge out there for me to learn from and grow with! I would definitely encourage all aspiring entrepreneurs to find a few entrepreneurs to interview and actually take there advice! Their time is worth so much and it would be a waste to them and to you if you didn't learn from their mistakes and successes.

I have also been working very hard in my own business of alterations and gotten a lot of clothing off the racks and back to my customers. It feels good to finish a job well done and see the customer happy with the results.

I have also continued my sewing lessons for my $100 Challenge. I finished one student and gained a new one this week My new student is on the higher end of being an intermediate student. She has had quite a bit of experience and is a bit older than most of my other students. She is 15 and catches on very quickly. We will be making part of an outfit/costume she has designed for the opening of Star Wars Land at Disneyland!

Picture from: http://www.pinsdaddy.com/star-wars-clone-cartoon-character_VuTGbSyIhVLb5COQkSG47kd9XEkOjExf6E9H2YU8tlaut*mExeVN62Y1GCG6rTFx%7CUuGKrcMOuP9fBw6j1WMpw/