How I got started in web design.

A chat with Paige

Paige Brunton is a Squarespace Website Design Goddess, she has taught so many amazing new designers how to crack it as a designer, I’m so glad our paths crossed. Paige recently interviewed me as a former student of hers to discuss how I’d managed to put my prices up three times in my first year as a new designer. We chatted about how I got started in web design, money mindsets and working with dream clients.

Q: What were you doing before you became a web designer?

Way back in the day, I actually did a fashion degree at Uni (university).

Then I moved to Australia where I was actually modeling quite a bit (back in my 20’s).

Then I worked for a brand design agency. So that was my first proper job working with clients. We designed a lot of packaging for big corporate companies like Walmart…so it wasn’t particularly creative!

I didn’t love it to be honest. So I basically burnt out.

Then I re-trained to become a yoga teacher and reiki practitioner. So, full-time hippy really.

I RANDOMLY CAME ACROSS PAIGE’S WEBSITE AND IT WAS JUST ONE OF THE MOMENTS…LIKE SLIDING-DOORS-OPENING UNIVERSAL SCENARIOS WHERE I WAS LIKE “OH THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT I WANT TO DO!”

I hadn’t been on Facebook for about two years (I’d come off of it because I hated it) but I just put up a message on Facebook about what I was intending to do [which was to start a web design business].

I had just started Square Secrets™️ so I didn’t have any clients. I didn’t know if anyone was going to be interested.

People started to respond with supportive comments. I thought they were just being kind.

But there were actually a couple referrals in that comment thread.

Somebody contacted me saying she was a coach who needed a website, and she ended up being my first client.

It was literally just like “I’m starting a business, and here’s my background…I’d love to help someone with [what I know].”

I hadn't even finished my own site.

So I worked with my first client and she was amazing. It was just a dream job, and I was like “this is so much fun!”

Q: How do you tend to find clients?

Because I work in yoga and holistic therapies, a lot of the referrals are coming through coaches, practitioners, etc.

Basically just by having an interest, and then talking about what you do with people who have that same interest, you’re automatically finding clients.

I know what it’s like to be a yoga teacher and to have to do zoom classes, and what they will need in terms of an online booking system.

I know it can feel quite lonely when they’re doing class plans and they're not sure if anybody's even really reading their newsletters…you know, all those types of pain points and struggles they have.

I can relate to them…when we are having our meetings they know that I ‘get’ them.

Q: What made you want to become a web designer? How did you get your start?

It was kind of by accident, really!

I was teaching yoga, and I had a Squarespace website that I had just set up for myself and it was pretty rubbish.

I was proud of [my website] at the time…

But I would also look at other people’s websites and be like “how did you do that???”

So [on my website] I would like sell art prints, crystals…just bits and pieces. Nothing at all that was ever going to make me any money, honestly, but I did it for the love.

I really enjoyed like building my site and playing around with the images, and just getting to grips with [Squarespace].

But I didn’t know how to do the cool stuff.

Q: Tell me about the money mindset you had when you first got started.

It’s funny, because before I [landed] my first client, I had a plan B and C.

My friend has a spa in Australia, and I was like:

“Well, I could just do her website for free.”

(As a showpiece, or case study.)

So I was prepared to work for nothing for the first job, to demonstrate what I was capable of doing.

I put a lot of pressure on myself in the early days…you know, analysis paralysis and the comparison trap. I felt I could never be like those people earning $5,000 for a job.

It just felt so far removed.

So the first job I did, was for not very much at all…maybe £500 (which is about $700 USD).

Everyone was always saying “charge your worth” but I did not feel comfortable at that stage. It was psychological…

It worked out though, because she gave me a beautiful testimonial and I had a really lovely case study to add to my portfolio. But the next jobs I did, which were referrals, I was like “I can’t charge £500! That’s too low!”

And so I just sort of increased it incrementally after that.