From DIY design to a professional brand and website

I sat down with my client Ciara Spillane from Positive Prospects to have a conversation about her experience working with me.

The DIY website wasn’t cutting it anymore

Like lots of people Ciara started out with a website that she built herself. That’s what she needed to do to get her business out there and start building up her client base. But after a while she realised she had outgrown it.

When she was having conversations with potential clients she knew her website didn’t represent the standard of her work. She had done her best with her DIY website, but it was time for an upgrade.

She didn’t have time to design a new website so she knew she had to work with a designer. That’s when she reached out to me and we had our first conversation.

What if she wasted loads of money?!

As a business owner who had built her own website and was sharing social media posts that she created herself, Ciara’s first hesitation was around having control of what her brand and website would now look like when she worked with someone outside her company.

As a successful entrepreneur, it can be hard to delegate these tasks when you care so deeply about your business and how it is perceived.

She had loads of ideas of the look and feel she wanted, but what if she invested loads of her hard-earned money and she ended up with a mediocre design that she was not happy with??

I read her mind

I assured her she was in safe hands and we built up enough trust for Ciara to take the next steps with me.

What put Ciara at ease straight away was my focus on what was important to her and how she wanted her clients to feel when they interacted with her new brand and website.

She could see from our first branding presentation call that I had listened carefully to everything she wanted me to consider, and in her words she was “wowed!”.

She also felt that I “could read her mind”. This is what it’s like to work with a designer who isn’t just interested in aesthetics but who goes deeper than that and puts in the effort to capture what’s unique about you.

Ciara’s brilliance captured

From that first design presentation we continued to refine that design to make sure it hit the nail on the head. And from there we used this brand to design a website that matched the level Ciara was already operating at.

With this new brand and website to back her up, she no longer had to worry if potential clients thought she looked unprofessional or inexperienced, she knew they would instantly trust her expertise. This is what having a high-impact brand is like, which can you read more about in this post.

And when we launched the site, she was so proud to finally see her work represented in this way. Check out what Ciara shared on LinkedIn just after we launched the site here.

Results for her business

The results of this process have been great for Ciara. The trust that potential clients now feel when they come across her brand has helped her book more clients.

And not just random clients, the exact type of client that she really, really wants to work with. She also has been more confident in promoting her business in ways she never has before.

Specifically, she got the opportunity to exhibit at a big conference in her industry alongside very established businesses. She was able to come back to me to design pull-up banners for her exhibition stand that were on-brand and would represent her business in the best possible way.

With her new brand to back her up, she felt confident standing beside those established companies and showcase what her business has to offer!

I couldn’t be prouder of the brand and website we created and how Ciara continues to grow her business and use her brand.