My business journey (so far)...

Hi everyone, welcome to my first blog post! I thought I would write a little piece on how I got started with Cotswold Trade Assist. What motivated me and how I took the big leap to put myself out there as a Website Designer.

I have always had a great interest in computers, ever since I was at school. I seemed to learn fast on them, much faster than listening to the teacher or sitting at my desk with a book to read. I just seemed to flow on them, I would always score really high in touch typing tests or presentations we needed to make in class, my other subjects I was not so good at! Every job I have ever had and the businesses I have worked for have always put me towards managing their websites, social media or online newsletters. I gained a huge amount of experience through this and one day I decided that was it! Combined with my creative nature: I was going to start my own business. OMG!!!!

My first business was a toddler and baby food subscription business in the South-West. I was supported by The Princes Trust to launch this, and I went to many amazing courses on how to make stand out websites, how digital marketing can boost your business, what SEO was and more! With a really great mentor that taught me all about design principles, coding and the basics of user experience (UX) design. The business took off fast, and the website I had built was working a treat! At the time, WIX was new and did not have the option to have a subscription at that point, but I found a way with much research and learning, to implement it and off I went. Although highly successful, I did not enjoy the cooking! I loved running the business, but it was scale up time...and with two young children it was not on the cards at that point in my life.

Fast forward and my partner and I launched our business together, he is a skilled Window Fitter, and we figured we would put our talents together and go for it! A massive leap we took and it has not always been an easy process, we had a lot of doubt, a lot of criticisim. But we also had great supporters, champions and reccomendations. I put a lot of thought into our customers and our target audience whilst desinging the website, since launching and tweaking and reviewing it has gained a 91% retaining rate, which means nearly everyone hitting our site is converting.

Honestly, I don't know much about windows and doors, but now I do! But it got me thinking, if I could support our business with this and how much I enjoy helping others, Why not start my own business with something I really enjoy doing to help other businesses benefit from the same flow of custom? I also wanted something of my own, something that I can grow and be proud of, like we all do as business owners. So I decided to launch Cotswold Trade Assist! From the get go, I got super excited and thought yes I can offer all of my skills to help and support people. However I took too much on, I began to burn out quickly, not only running two businesses, but the level of work required to do it ALL is not something I can do. (Right now). Who is to say in the future, as CTA grows, I could hire more people to help support the SM side, right now thought this blog is to help YOU gain some insightful knowledge about social media and how you can utilise it to grow your client base. Along with some other fun tips and hints, and maybe some weirdness because I can be a little weird.

So all in all, after gaining my first three clients, Web Design is 100% my passion. To be able to do something I really love whilst helping clients and seeing their success is literally the dream for me!

Thanks for reading!

Grace x