You’re looking into the possibility of working with a designer to bring your fab new site to life, congratulations! That’s a big step into the legit business world, I’m so happy for you!

The vast majority of my clients describe figuring out getting a new website as ‘overwhelming’. I know you have enough things on your Thanksgiving-sized plate already, so we’re going to break this down really easily.

I’m going to lay out a clear set of to do’s and questions to answer in order for you to get the site that’s right for your business.

Imma give you some tips, straight from the mouth of a web designer, on how to tackle this mountain, properly. There’s just 4 steps, that’s not too rough, right?

Running your own business can be a roller coaster of emotions, and my recent highs and lows trying to define my ideal client avatar (a.k.a. ICA), (sometimes called an ideal client profile) is a prime example.

I joined Marie Forleo's B-School where we went deep with ICA's. (Full B-School review to come, keep an eye on the blog for that). I had already created an ICA previously so I felt 100% ready to roll with 'Victoria' (my old ICA) and fly through that part of the course.

Oh-hell-no was I wrong!

After a Mastermind call with fellow B-Schoolers I realized they knew significantly more about their ICA's than I did mine. They had dove more deeply into their ICA's feelings and thoughts on the world, which of course, affects buying preferences and decisions a whole lot more than their hair color does. (Unless you're selling hair dye of course, which unfortunately, I'm not). 

Getting going with designing your own website? Don't really have a lot of experience or education on the matter? All good girl, I'm going to give you a quick & easy list of do's and don'ts when it comes to creating that fab website.

Within the web design community there's a generally known set of best practices to ensure your website is as appealing and effective as possible. I'll give you the quick run down here, so you can feel confident you're making decisions based on whats most effective, and not just personal preference.

Hate your Squarespace templates blog layout? No worries! We’re able to completely change the blog layout and design, no code involved. This takes a few minutes to set up in the beginning, and then in the future involved 5 seconds per post to keep it working.

We’ll be using the Squarespace summary block along with blog post tags to completely restyle the blog layout to your preferences.

Here’s two examples of a couple layouts you can master.

Have something on your website you want to bring attention to and draw a visitors eye towards? Maybe something you really would like your visitor to click on? Add some movement to that item!

"But isn't making stuff move on a website hard ... and involve coding?"

Well it could, but I have a super-simple method using just the regular Squarespace blocks to fake movement on your website.

Here's an example using portfolio pieces.

What is Squarespace?

Squarespace is, in the most basic terms, a website building platform. Squarespace has built a reputation on being an all-in-one system, that’s easy to use. Squarespace is well known for it’s designer quality templates, and modern features (all websites are mobile responsive, right from the get go).

Who is Squarespace good for? What about WordPress? Which is better?

There is no overall better, there is however, better depending on your specific needs and organization type.

The team at Macht Architects was transitioning into a family business, and with a new generation joining up, it was time for a revamp of the brand and the website. The Macht Architects team designs sustainable, energy efficient, healthy homes. As I quickly learned from browsing through their imagery, the homes they design are not only built in an environmentally conscious manner, but they're also truly breathtaking.

I have two tricks to share with you today which are quick & super-easy to implement that will increase your websites Google rank!

You heard that right; quick, easy & improves Google rank! Not bad, eh?

I'll take some extra Google juice for something I can do in under a minute! You too? Okay great. Here's my two tricks.

Squarespace tags and categories may be used in many creative ways to display your website content in a variety of layouts and designs.

'How do I properly use tags and categories?' is a frequent question I hear, so I thought a complete guide was needed. You'll find in the video below I go deep into all the many ways to use them, to solve some common Squarespace struggles.

If you're looking for a specific answer, here's the video jump-to points.

Here and there when desining your Squarespace website you might run into something you'd really like to create, but aren't quite sure of how to make it happen. Thankfully, some ingenious bloggers have come up with some fabulous workarounds to many of the common issues Squarespace users face.

This list compiles the very best of them.

Facebook groups, blog comment sections and Quora are all stocked full of questions about Squarespace.

Squarespace websites are the talk of the town these days, and for good reason! It's easy to create a truly stunning design, they're easy to launch, and the websites produced are indeed very powerful.

It's a big decision to choose or switch your website system, so I wanted to be the one to lay out all the most frequent questions and the answers to them in order to set things straight. 

I have no intention of getting into the WordPress vs. Squarespace battleground as that horse had been beaten to death a million times over. But I DO want to let you know what Squarespace is capable of, in one convenient location.

You walk into a restaurant. Every seat is empty, two staff at the grimy counter are deep in conversation, scrolling through their phones, ignoring you completely. The furnishings are a mish-mash of disorderly rickety tables and spindly chairs, complimented by fraying posters on the walls hung slightly askew.

Would you eat there?

Nope! You’d be afraid your chicken might actually be mystery meat.

Glam on Wheels is a mobile salon. (First thought: Didn’t know that existed unless you were a celebrity!) When speaking with the founder of her business, I immediately thought ‘why don’t they have this where I live?’ 

Fully on board with her business idea, we discussed all the necessities of the website and the style she wanted communicated throughout. We went for a mix of high-end and modern fonts, alongside full width banner images and galleries to make a stunner of a website.

After a lengthly call prior to the start of the project to get on the same page, this was a very quick & easy design process. After sending back the website for review, there was hardly an edit to make!

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!