Let's face it, the last three years have been a rollercoaster ride for me in terms of planning and work. With the arrival of two children and a shortage of daycare places, I had no choice but to review my priorities and reorganize my schedule.
For almost 3 years, I worked during naps, evenings and weekends. With the reduced hours I had to offer, I had no choice but not to take on large turnkey website projects, but only occasional coaching, technical bug fixing or mock-up integration.
And you know what? BEST MOVE EVER.
I've realized that taking on a turnkey website mandate from A to Z takes up a lot of time in my schedule and a lot of energy, because you have to wear several hats.
Even though I think I have the necessary skills to cover the whole of a Web project, I'm not exactly on my X at every stage.
Let me explain. 👇🏻
The very first stage of a project is to identify the needs, gather content, branding, photos, menus, buttons... In short: determine what you want people to remember when they visit the site, and above all the action you want them to take. A huge amount of planning and design work, crucial to the smooth running of the next steps.
Web project coordination, that's what I used to do in my old job when I finished my bachelor's degree in communications and before training in web development. So these are concepts I've mastered well. Over time, I've created tools to simplify this planning, so that's fine! It's after that that the going gets tough...
Then there's the graphic design part. This is something I've already started to delegate a lot.
I have some notions of design, but I'm not on my X in this stage. It really takes me longer to come up with a visual model than to integrate it afterwards.
All the mock-ups, colors, fonts, buttons, mobile version, background textures... that's web design. It's something I used to do, but I don't do it anymore. I didn't feel I was in my zone of genius, so I prefer to delegate to someone for whom it is.
(Branding is totally out of my skill set, though. I've always made a point of ensuring that the clients for whom I designed their site already had their own brand image).
After that, it's time to put together all the texts for the future website. Even if the customer has already written content, it's often not adapted for the web.
So we need to determine what goes where, how long the texts should be, which keywords to use, which calls to action to emphasize, and so on.
It's a job for copywriting (or Web copywriting in good French).
Even though I have a grounding in copywriting (my first professional love!), I don't consider myself to be competent enough to take on an entire project on my own. I find it time-consuming to assemble/correct all the texts in a document, which is a sign that it's not my strength!
Before you start integrating your site, you need to get started on the technical side of a web project.
It means:
This step is often dreaded by customers because it's full of technical jargon. It's intimidating when you don't know your way around, and one little mistake can bring the whole thing crashing down. But I love taking care of this part!
When all the content is assembled, the visual mock-ups created, and the development site ready, then the real magic begins: Web integration! It's at this stage that the layout comes to life on the Web.
Basically, this means :
It's what I love to do, what makes me most productive and where I'm most effective. This stage is at the heart of my service offering.
And then, when the whole site is integrated, it's time to go online. This too is a crucial and intimidating stage when you don't really know how to go about it!
Make sure that :
It also means making sure there's someone to update themes and extensions over time. Super important! Keeping your site up to date is the key to keeping it secure and compatible with new technologies.
Besides, I offer a monthly maintenance service, If you prefer, you can delegate this part of your work and enjoy peace of mind.
With this reorganization of my services, I feel I'm more aligned with my values, my zone of genius and the time I have available.
And one thing led to another, and so did my target audience! I no longer work with small and medium-sized business owners who want a website. Over the past few years, I've mostly worked in partnership with small agencies that don't have a Web department, or with larger agencies that want to temporarily add a Web site. dev to their team during rush hour.
What's more, I realize that it's really fun to work in partnership with people who offer services related to mine. It reduces the time spent canvassing for new contracts and makes business development more productive.
But above all, I've met a lot of really cool entrepreneurs, and we help each other out by referring customers to each other. Business relationships that turn into friendships are priceless, and make everyday life a lot more fun.
👉 Besides, if you think we could be complementary partners, don't hesitate to write to me!
