Dawn from Hudson’s House of Play had DIY’ed her Squarespace website but wasn’t completely happy with what she had produced. Hudson’s House of Play, a very new, but already very successful indoor childrens playspace, needed a website that showed off really how wonderful the space and the company was.

She wanted the website to give the feel that Hudson’s House of Play was a child-centered space, but still wanted the website to look professional, and appeal to the parents maturity too.

Dawn had a few very specific ideas she hoped to see in the website (the style of the footer information, the inclusion of a black and white awning and some icons on the home page), but otherwise left me with creative freedom.

After struggling with getting a website that did Omega Sigma Chi Sorority justice for years, the ladies and I were excited to get working on a space they could display proudly online. So many sorority websites are holding onto a look of the past, generally quite busy, lots of patterns, hot pink text with music playing. We wanted this sorority website to stand out and be different from the crowd. We moved towards a more modern design that is popular today but also timeless, with lots of blank space to attract the eye to the important content on the page, clear organization and wide banner images. An easy to understand and navigate website never goes out of style. 

Riverdel Cheese wanted to get online with a website for their Vegan Cheese shop based in Brooklyn, NY. The shop was new to Brooklyn wanted an online space to be inviting to future customers. 

Shop owner Michaela had a few great inspiration websites and styles in mind. Parallel scrolling images, one right after the next, making for an impressive home page, with bold text over top to give information on exactly what the shop was all about. Michaela also liked the idea of having her gallery display in a modern and unusual way, and lots of icons on the contact page, instead of lots of text.

Kayleigh Ross had been making do with a DIY'ed website on Blogger for her photography business. Over the past few years she amassed a great deal of followers and her photography business was doing extremely well. She needed a website that showed off her amazing photography talents and reflect the quality business she was running.

After a chance meeting online, we prepared to get Kayleigh set up on Squarespace. Kayleigh completed her brand + style questionnaire and showed me some of her inspiration websites. She really wanted her photos to shine through and be the centre of attention on the site. We settled on the Wells template, with the navigation stuck to the left hand side of the page to make it easy to click through the pages of the site at all times.

3 words to describe what Kayleigh was looking for? Elegant, professional & easy to navigate!

After choosing Squarespace, and before actually beginning to design a website, people often look at the Squarespace templates page with a blank stare.

'Uhhh ... which template do I choose? How do I decide? Can I see more examples?'

This is generally followed by intense Googling.

Whether you're DIYing or getting a designer to create your new Squarespace website, it's good to have some inspiration to get the creative juices flowing and see what's possible with Squarespace.

“I have SO much work to do,” Victoria said helplessly as I walked into the office. 

Then in a slight panic, “I spent 3 HOURS between classes this morning in my email booking appointments! I have a test tomorrow I haven’t studied for, 2 classes I need to prepare to teach later today and a midterm due that I’ve only finished half of the calculations for. I’m going to be up all night doing it and I need to be back in the office tomorrow at 6 AM!” 

You could see the overwhelm in her face and tone of voice as she continued. This was the daily report I’d hear from my desk neighbour at work. 

We were both instructing classes for our university, and completing our Master’s degrees. She had 

What program is best to book out appointment slots and take payment for those services, all together in one system?

I know this is a very frequent question out there for a lot of small business owners. In this post I'll walk you through my favourite tool for scheduling appoints into my calendar and taking payments for those services on my Squarespace website.

It was actually a client that introduced me to this online tool last year. The clients fitness studio had been recommended this tool from a similar business, and after setting up and using the system for their project, I always recommend it!

My first blog launched to crickets, as most do. Because of course, I had no idea what I was doing. Write whatever comes to mind, hit publish and then write a status on Facebook to promote it. That’s how this blogging and marketing thing works, right?

Well it’s been two years since then, and I thankfully learned a thing or three from my own errors and a lot of reading.

It’s been a total of 19 days since this blog launched, and I’m happy to report the launch could not have been more different from my last one. That’s my polite Caanadian, non-braggey way of saying, this launch was wildly successful.

So you have an Etsy shop and are looking to professionalize your business a bit and get on the 'big fish' level? The debate on when to leave Etsy and go it alone is one many Etsy sellers face as their shop continues to prosper.

Having a website is a common top priority as an Etsy shop begins to grow. Having a website enables you to do so much more than the Etsy shopfront enables. It also allows you to connect with your visitors (show them the fabulous, real you!), explain more complex features/considerations when making purchases (eg. sizing guides, product variations and options), connect with visitors through content creation (blogs/videos! which can then be pinned 

If you're just beginning to blog with Squarespace or are currently fence-sitting, not sure which blogging platform to choose, I have a perfect video just for you!

Watch the video below for a complete beginners guide and intro to blogging on Squarespace. I cover 

0:17 - A look at the post editor
0:36 - Adding text
1:21 - Adding image
1:41 - Naming image for SEO & Pinterest
2:17 - Adding text headings & text links

Today I'm going to walk you through something which I see clients and friends get wrong all the time.

It happens right at the start when they go to set up their Squarespace website and blog. Later down the line this mistake is a colossal pain to fix, so I want to be sure that you dear friend don't make the same one. Because you know, your hair is pretty and I really don't want you to spend days a few months into the future pulling it out while trying to work your way back out of this mess.

I've run into a few people who have made this mistake and honestly their thought process makes logical sense, so the mistake can be very easy to make.

Before jumping head first into blogging here for my website design studio, I ran a travel blog for 2 years. Rather I should say I wrote a 'I don't know what the hell I'm writing about, this is stuff I like' blog for 1 year and then narrowed to write a travel blog the next.

(All new bloggers do it. Narrowing focus and niching is a lesson we all must learn with time.)

As any blogger begins to notice, some blog posts receive crickets while others receive a roar of attention. I enjoyed having a number of posts shared thousands upon thousands of times. I'm going to let you in on what I took away from my most shared post.

40,300 shares as of mid August 2016 to be precise. 

Tell me, does this sound familiar?

You have a long list of things that must be accomplished today. You work online for your blog/biz and part of that means being active on social media.

First you start on Twitter, responding to Tweets, interacting with followers and scheduling Tweets for the day.

You scroll down to a Tweet from one of your favourite bloggers. 'My 10 secrets which exploded my Twitter following in 30 days.'

When people ask 'what is the best Squarespace template,' there really is no one, overarching correct answer. There are however answers for 'this template would be best for this type of site.'

Each template is designed with a specific type of website in mind (eg. blogger, photographer, business, e-commerce, etc), so there are some templates that lend themselves better than others to the type of website you're creating.

After using a great number of the templates between my own sites and sites made for clients, I now have a set of favourites which I'll share with you. I also have some worst/definitely don't use this template if you're looking for X, tips too.

I have a little metaphor for you. Can you figure out what I'm getting at? It all related back to listing prices, you'll see.

You’ve been working for a few years, moved on up to a cool new apartment and are in the market for a new sofa. While you’re doing better financially than in your student days, you’re still ballin’ on a budget. You currently have a DIY palette sofa you found on Pinterest but are looking to upgrade. While at the corner of Main & New Street you notice a new furniture shop. Looks trendy, why not stop in?

Let's be honest, most online entrepreneurs didn't leave slaving at their 9-5 to become a 24/7 slave to their inbox. I enjoy a relaxing weekend away at the countryside or grabbing cocktails with friends in the evening just as much as the next person.

When I first began my business I definitely dealt with an internal struggle related to managing clients expectations in terms of email. I was new, I wanted my clients to LOVE me and my customer service skills, leave raving reviews and recommend me to everyone they knew who wanted a website designed.

I tended to respond to emails within the hour, but what did that lead to? A response 5 minutes 

If you don't quite yet have the budget or a hard-in-stone direction to justify hiring a website designer, not to worry, these 10 steps will help you up your website game significantly. 

Each one is super-actionable, your site can come out looking modern and sleek by the end of the day with these simple changes.

1. LESS FONTS & COLOURS ARE MORE

Pick a maximum of 2 font styles and 2 colors. Eliminate all the rest and make everything consistent with these fonts and colors.

At some point in your business you'll realize that it's high time to have your clients sign contracts. Maybe you're forward-thinking, just starting your business and are yet to take on your first project. Maybe you've been in business for a little while now, but contracts just never dawned on you until now. Maybe you had a not-so-pleasant encounter with a client and suddenly it hit you 'maybe a contract is a good idea.'

Today I'll walk you through my oh-so-simple process for contracts. I found an online tool I absolutely love, and I'm positive you will too. While I share many online tools with you here on the blog to help take the headache out of running your business, this one is up there for an absolute ...

So you're new to Squarespace? Perfect. Let the initiation begin! .... Ahem, I mean, 'Welcome!'

I know you're going to love the simplistic and design-focused platform. But let's get you a little informed so you can begin to learn just how to use this amazing tool and uncover a few secret options as well as workarounds you didn't know existed.

These 10 articles written by some fellow Squarespace-loving entrepreneurs are the best on the web. They're perfect for those just beginning with their new Squarespace site.

Picking a template is the first order of business when creating your new Squarespace website. When you register for a Squarespace account and choose either the free trial period or purchase a plan, the next thing you’ll be prompted to do is to pick a template. 

While changing to a new template in the future is possible, know that picking a new template is basically the equivalent to re-creating your website. This means that changing once you’ve had your site up for a while is a time investment, as changing requires you to redesign and reset your style options. This is why it’s important to choose a template from the get-go that you will be satisfied with and will be able to grow with over time.