A Website Designer is run by me, Dan Norris and was set up to provide support and resources to small business owners around Australia.
Here is the story of how it came to be.
I started my web design business, Web Circle in 2006. I had never built a website before and I didn’t have any clients but I was very keen and perhaps a bit naive….how hard could it be?
It was a slow and steady process building up our list of clients to what it is today of around two hundred or so.
In 2009 I purchased the A Website Designer website which was previously the main website for another web design company. Since then I have set about transforming it into a leading blog and resource for Australian small business owners. It is our outlet for writing articles, ebooks, training videos etc that aim to empower small business owners to take charge of their web presence.
Most web design companies operate under a sales model where the boss man (or lady) relies on boozy lunches and networks to drum up work. This was never how I wanted to run my business – plus I don’t have enough mates. I decided early on to operate under a service model where the only way we can get new clients is by word of mouth and via Google.
At present we don’t advertise or do any business development type of work so we are driven to provide great service and constantly keep our site packed with useful content to encourage people to spread the word about what we do.
I have always made sure we don’t have any ways of operating that lock our clients into using us. So I know that the only way we can build the business is to keep our clients happy. The number and quality of the client comments on this site are a reflection of how well we continue to do this.
This is how I like to do business and I know there are others who appreciate it.
The rest of this page outlines some of the ways in which we try to set ourselves apart from other operators in the industry.
Thanks for stopping by.
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Dan NorrisFounder A Website Designer |
National service
We operate out of Queensland but the majority of our clients are interstate with a handful overseas.
Our passion
Our passion is making it easy for small businesses owners to succeed online.
Main points of difference
There are stacks of web design companies out there. We aim to be different by: .
- Specifically servicing small business because we are passionate about helping them.
- Operating under a service model and not a sales model.
- Actively promoting whichever open source solution we think is best for our clients – we don’t push one particular system.
- Constantly ‘giving back’ to the small business community with articles, ebooks and videos on this site.
- Acting generously, transparently and honestly with our clients and the rest of the industry.
Peace of mind policies
We understand what clients are looking for and what they aren’t looking for in a web provider. Our policies are built around ‘making it easy’ and include:
- Where possible we use affordable or open source systems meaning our clients get the most advanced websites possible for the lowest price. We even encourage them to build their own sites if they are up for it.
- We have no lock-in contracts for anything so our clients aren’t forced to use us for anything. We have to remain focused on giving excellent service or else we will cease to exist.
- We provide optional monthly support and hosting to our clients. We will happily host sites not built by us and happily build sites to work on other servers.
- We develop in standard technologies ensuring clients can engage any other support they wish to for whatever reason. This also means clients have easy access to affordable hosting solutions and our sites will run on almost any standard web server.
- We never hold back source files or anything else from clients. We don’t want to retain clients who aren’t 100% happy with our service.
These policies give our clients comfort and keep us motivated to continue to provide a great level of service.
