I’m not trying to put web designers out of business [...]]]>

If you’ve already approached a web-designer and asked them about prices, you’ll have already heard ‘What do you want it to do?’  Having thought about it and told them, you probably picked yourself up off the floor after they told you how much it will cost!

I’m not trying to put web designers out of business here.  If you need an all singing, all dancing, visual extravaganza with fully functioning shopping cart, forum and blog with the minimum of fuss and you need your site to be unique in design and style, then you are probably going to have to pay them the rate they asked for (and if this is the case you would do well to approach Stylistic Web Design Ltd)!

If your initial thoughts are something a bit more basic; some static pages to get across key, useful bit of information about your company, who you are, what you do, maybe a blog, etc. then, if you are willing to do some reading and have a play about with technology, there are a couple of possible solutions for you.

You could use a What You See Is What You Get (WISIWYG) web-site development tool, such as FrontPage (2003 was the last version released, it was replaced by Expression Web) or Dream Weaver.  These are off the shelf packages, similar to Word or Excel.  They can be quite simple to use but the main downside is the cost.  My quick internet comparisons put Expression Web at £150 and DreamWeaver at £250.  They can also require a bit of technical know-how.

But another possible solution is Open Source Content Management.  Sounds a right mouthful doesn’t it?  But, in essence, it a framework onto which you can build.  Being open source, means there are literally thousands of developers around the world working on improving and adding bits onto the basic package for free.  They may be developing for their own needs but they make the fruits of their labour available to everyone.

Free doesn’t mean cheap and nasty looking either.  There are a number of these Open Source Content Management systems out there.  By far the most common is WordPress (found at www.wordpress.org/).  They describe themselves like this;

“WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”

WordPress is used by many leading organisations.  Downing Street (www.number10.gov.uk/), CNN (business.blogs.cnn.com/), The Wall Street Journal (magazine.wsj.com) and Fox News (www.foxnews.com/opinion/index.html) all use it, so there must be something in it, right?

Many hosts may also include it as a ‘1-click’ install on your hosting package, greatly simplifying the install procedure and getting you up and running quickly.

You can download ‘themes’ to change the look and feel of the site and also ‘plug-ins’ to add or enhance functionality.  Once you get a feel for it and if you are prepared to do a bit of reading and learning, you can edit these to ‘tweak’ them for your specific site or develop your own from scratch.

This site uses WordPress.  It uses a ‘tweaked’ theme (the standard, free one wasn’t quite what Sara wanted…) and a number of additional plug-ins to control things like e-mail subscriptions, spam monitoring, Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Total monetary cost to Sara – £0.00 – just a bit of time and (my!) effort.

A bespoke web site with similar functionality from a web designer?  Somewhere in the region of £5-6000!

So hopefully the posts in this series have opened your eyes to how you can produce a web site for your business.  At the end of the day the most difficult thing to come up with are ideas… that’s why professional web design studios cost so much…

If you would like Above Parr PA Services to help you create your web presence, contact Sara.

One of our clients has all his company mail delivered to a UK mailing address at Denby House, where my office is. We filter out the junk, pay in his cheques [...]]]>

After hearing about these people Minky has been having a bit of a sulk – and has taken to wearing shorts to the office!

One of our clients has all his company mail delivered to a UK mailing address at Denby House, where my office is. We filter out the junk, pay in his cheques and send him (via email) the important bits, so he only deals with the items that are vital to his business, saving him time and money. He gets a great service, improved cash flow because he doesn’t have to wait for his cheques to get to him before they get paid in and an extra hour on the beach – he’s based in Southern Europe!

If anything critical turns up (like bank cards or cheque books) then we post them over straight away, but for his general post we just bundle it all up once in a while and send it.

I was asked on a forum about mailing addresses a little while back – the person posting felt that it might be unethical to hide where your business is. My opinion (and that’s all it is) is that by having a mailing address you are providing a method of contacting you by post, nothing more – it’s no different to having someone answer your phone… (which we can also look after for you)

Doesn’t this sound like an ideal way to run your business? – I’m starting to like the sound of “our Florida office”
If you would like to know more about our services, or have suggestions for future posts please send Minky an email

I have tried working from home. I did it for a few weeks (after my [...]]]>

I know lots of people who work from home very successfully – they can shut themselves away, not get distracted by the washing up and lock their office door when they’ve finished and forget about it until the next day.

I have tried working from home. I did it for a few weeks (after my op I started working from home the day I got out of hospital – no 6 week rest for me) but then something changed. I started cooking every day (much to hubby’s delight) and worse – tidying! If I didn’t get back into a proper office I would end up ironing for goodness sake!

No – I needed an office. Thankfully I have one, I signed up for it 3 days before I got my op date, typically! It’s all set up and ready to go, I even have a couple of pictures.

Then yesterday, my landlord (who is also a client) came up with an idea – he’s got a large office that’s just become vacant and thinks he might use it as a “hot desk” office – with tenants using it either occasionally and booking a desk as they need one or having their own desk in an open plan office, depending on how much they want to spend.

My initial thought was “great – I could do that and save a fortune! – I don’t need a private office!”

But do I? What about secure storage and client confidentiality? Am I just too messy to work in an open space? Now I’ve got some peace and quiet do I actually want to give it up, even with the cost savings?

On the other hand it would be nice to have some company once in a while – they are a friendly bunch here but I only tend to bump into people in the kitchen – unless someone needs me I can go all day without seeing anyone, even in here. Also, with my business the more visible I am the better, so perhaps being in the middle of an office would get me more clients? I could rent 2 desks permanently and still save half my rent…

I have a nice space and can grow my business without moving for a while. But I can see the benefits, it would be a great half-way point for a lot of small businesses…

He’s still thinking about it, so if it sounds good to you and you’re local let me know – if his hot desk office is as popular as the rest of his business centre it won’t be vacant for long!