Weddings and the Color Purple
At Roundpeg, our clients come from a wide range of industries. On any given day, we may find ourselves working with a HVAC company, Eye Doctor or DJ. I enjoy the diversity and have become accustomed to switching gears as I move from project to project. So it was unusual when we had two wedding planners ask us to design their sites, one right after the other.
In the first quarter we designed a website for Kim King Smith Events, LLC and Simply Perfect Events. Both sites were had elements which made the projects, fairly simple, and complex at the same time. One thing we noticed was both planners shared a common love for the color purple!.
With Kim King Smith Events, LLC we were recreating an existing site on a WordPress platform. Kim (owner of Kim King Smith Events) has been in business for years and she wanted to keep her image. Our primary objective, was to give her a tool which would allow her to make simple updates on a regular basis. A secondary objective was to update the site slightly to give it a cleaner look and feel. With so much existing content, we had all the information we needed to complete the pages.
Kim has been blogging for quite awhile on Blogger, so we added a blog to the site, and transferred all the content to here site. Now the posts bring additional traffic to www.kimkingsmithevents.com instead of Blogger. Check out the site, and tell us what you think!
Simply Perfect Events was fun to work on because we were starting from scratch. Kelley (owner of Simply Perfect Events) is just starting her business, and had no exsisting website so we had more freedom to create her site. The greatest challenge was the fact that she did not have a clear idea of what she wanted her site to look like. We went through several very different versions, including one usual version which looked like a planner laying on a desktop. Ultimately she opted for a cleaner, more traditional layout, with a lot of purple. Her logo font was an elegant script, which we used for page titles, and other emphasis points on the site. Kelley all had a number of photos she wanted displayed on her site so we added the Next Gen Gallery plug in to create a photo gallery page which will grow as her business grows. To see Simply Perfect Events website please visit: www.simplyperfectindy.com.
Local HVAC Company Gets Web Face Lift
With a little help from Roundpeg, Make it Mowery has relaunched their website – www.makeitmowery.com.
The new website provides visitors with a more organized view of their wide product and service line. The addition of a blog offers visitors information on new trends as well as the ability to see what other consumers say about their experience with Mowery.
“Mowery is well known in the local community because we’ve been in business for 40 years,” says owner Chip Cochran. “While we wanted a fresher look, we did not want to reinvent ourselves so completely that our customers did not recognize us.”
An additional benefit of the redesign was the migration to a WordPress Platform. With the installation of the “All in One” plugin, the site is performing well on search engines and the members of the Mowery staff can keep the content fresh with small, regular updates.
To learn more about Make it Mowery and to see the new website please visit: www.makeitmowery.com.
Crew Property Improvement Specialists Announce New Website
We recently launched Crew Property Improvement Specialists new website – www.crewspecialists.com.
There old website had an attractive landing page, but without much text or SEO planning, it was not a productive site,
The new website provides more information regarding their home repair services, annual maintenance programs, pictures of past projects, testimonials from clients and company news. The creation of a blog was a major change for this site.
It allowed the firm to move away from a single testimonial page. After seven years in business this page was so long, the testimonials were lost. On the new site each testimonials is an individual blog. They don’t get lost in the shuffle.
The same was true with all the awards and press releases. This is a firm which makes news in the community. The blog allows them to share new information!
“Our old site was attractive, but confusing for the average visitor,” said Crew owner, Eric Schneller. “The new site makes it easy for consumers and realtors to easily find the information they’re seeking.”
To visit the site please go to: www.crewspecialists.com.
To learn more about some of the other features we added to the website Click Here.
Eloquence Language Services Has a New Website
Eloquence Language has a new website: www.eloquencelanguage.com.
This was my first website project at Roundpeg. While I had helped Erica with other projects, this was the first one I was responsible for. I learned quite a bit along the way and am really happy with the way it turned out.
While similar to many of the sites Roundpeg has done in the past, it does have some unique features. One of the more challenging elements was the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section.
Owner, Karen Friedman, had written fairly lengthy answers to each question. If we had simply listed them all on one page it would have been hard for visitors to quickly find the information they were searching for. We decided instead to build a question page, which you can see in the image above, with links to answers which were actually individual blog posts.
This makes it easier to search the content and creates more opportunities to optimize each question for search.
Eloquence Langauge is a language translation and interpretation company. They translate a wide range of documents and websites, including legal, medical and health related documents and human resource information. They also provide interpretation services for meetings and conferences. To learn more about what they do visit their website at: www.eloquencelanguage.com.
Tips for Speakers from The Audience
As many of you know I split my time between Roundpeg and TechPoint. An interesting benefit of splitting my time is getting a chance to listen to a number of speakers on a wide range of topics.
I’ve learned the hard way ( listening to speakers who should never be allowed in front of an audience) being an expert in your field does not make you an expert at public speaking.
I’m not an expert on public speaking, I will leave that to people like Ellen Dunnigan. I have, however, come up with three tips for speakers, particularly technical ones, to use when speaking to small business owners .
- Use the KISS model. We’ve all heard the phrase: “Keep it simple, stupid.” Well use it in public speaking. Treat your audience as if they’ve never heard of your product before. Truth be told, most of them haven’t. If they have, there is a good chance they have only a superficial understanding of your product or process. Favor basic words and avoid technical jargon so your audience will be able to understand what you are talking about.
- Your slides are guidelines. One of my biggest pet peeves is a speaker who reads word for word from their powerpoint slides. If you are going to do that, you might as well post them online, let us review them, and then we can save a trip coming to hear you speak. Your slides are supposed to be guidelines. Use key points and expand on them during your presentation.
- Hold the microphone away from your mouth. Many speakers have a tendency to hold the microphone too close to their mouth to make their voice sound better or louder. This will often cause the microphone to pick up every breath you take, and create a bit of distortion. Hold the microphone at chest level and the audience will still hear you. If they can’t hear you, it’s not you, the microphone isn’t working.
- And finally, practice. I know I promised only three, but I have seen too many speakers walk up and wing it. Small business owners are busy, and if they have given you an hour of their time, give them something of value in return; a professional, polished and practiced presentation.
If you follow these simple steps, you might even be invited back a second time.
Meeting Tips For Small Business Owners
Trying to impress a prospect or a group of clients here are a few suggestions to make even a small business owner look more professional. As an experienced event planner I’ve learned there are several simple things meeting attendees expect from us.
Start on time. If you say the meeting is going to start at 8:30am then start the meeting at 8:30am. Do not wait on stragglers. Time is an extremely valuable and limited resource. Treat this meeting as if your attendees have a meeting immediately after yours, located on the other side of town. Starting and ending on time will earn you the right to invite them to another meeting.
Have your agenda ready to go. Do not waste your attendees time because you are not organized. If you can, send the agenda before the meeting so they can be prepared for the discussion. If you can’t send the agenda before hand, have a hard copy printed for each attendee so they can follow along during the meeting.
Be creative in planning your meeting. Your attendees get bored with the same boring meetings held in the same boring office. Think outside the box and host your meeting in a different location. Some of my favorites here in Indy are: The Eiteljorg Museum, The Children’s Museum, The IMA, Scotty’s Brewhouse (for something informal), and for outdoor adventurers consider Eagle Creek or Fort Ben.
Watch for future posts for more tips on how to conduct successful meetings.
First Post by First Daughter
Fifteen years ago if you had asked me if I would be working for my mother I would have thrown my head back and laughed you. Seven years ago if you had asked me if I would have worked for my mother three times, been fired twice and quite once, again I would have laughed. Six months ago if you had asked me if I would be working for her now, enjoying the job, and getting along better with her before I started working for her this time around, again, I probably would have laughed at you.
Now I should probably explain seven years ago when I worked for her (and was fired twice and quit once) it was definitely an age and maturity level on my part (part may have been at her fault for being a new business and trying to grow her business and train a family member; but for the sake of my job and this post we’ll say the fault lays with me). I had not had real world experience and had not been in college long enough to know what a “real world” job was like. This time around, I have my degree and have been working in “real world” jobs for over 3 years and know what it takes to work in a business environment and be professional in the office.
I’ve been working for my mom for about month and a half now, and as an employee and the daughter, I’ve learned how stressful this job can be. From the employee standpoint I’ve learned how to be professional in the office and at meetings. From the daughter standpoint I’ve learned how to request things in a professional matter. At home I can use the “mommy I want this…” tone, but in the office I’ve learned that I need to use the “Mom, I’ve finished this task, what is next on my list” tone.
So far things are going well. I have not wanted to quit, nor has she wanted to fire me; that I know of; in the time I’ve been here. I hope we can keep our relationship strong here in the office, and at home and not drive my co-workers; or my dad insane with us working together.
