A Day In The Life: Branding and Website Design With Lauren Wood
Today, we are following Lauren Wood to learn about a day in the life of a branding and website designer.
Lauren joined the Live Free community in 2020 and has been freelancing since! She has niched her business, has a new offer launching soon, and is doing it all while raising her 2 kiddos!
Follow along as we learn about a typical day for a branding and website designer!
Intro to Lauren Wood, Branding and Website Design
Meet Lauren! Lauren took The Live Free Academy course in March 2020 and has been in business for 3 years. After her first year, she niched into branding and website design and has offered those services for the past two years!
Launching a new service
Lauren talks about a new service she offers in branding and website design specifically for virtual assistants who are ready to niche down and become in demand in a specialized service.
Kids
Lauren shares that she has 2 kids. An 18-month-old and a 6-year-old.
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What Does a Branding and Website Designer Do?
Website design
Lauren designs websites to create a visually appealing site for users, which includes using design elements, logos, colors, and other branding elements.
Marketing funnels
She builds funnels for the websites she designs to lead users through the sales funnel to convert visitors to purchasers.
Tech support
Lauren also includes tech support for clients.
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Typical Day in the Life of a Website Designer
I have started this new belief for myself. This year, the Lauren, who is going to go to the next level in her business, is going to get up every morning, do her makeup, and get dressed. I used to work in my pajamas.
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AM: Homeschool and co-op prep
I homeschool my 6-year-old, and on Wednesdays we go to a co-op. I have to stay on campus at the co-op all day, so I get my work day started a little later because we have to get everything ready for school and get to school. Then I work from my car most of the day.
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PM: Lunch
Quick lunch in the car while working and waiting for school to end.
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We play a game, waiting for Dad to come home.
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Instagram live prep
Back in the bathroom to prep and refresh makeup before the Instagram Live Galentines event!
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Branding and Website Design: Q&A
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Q: What is an average Monthly income for you?
A: My monthly income averages around $5k. Steadily increasing.
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Q: How many clients do you currently have? Are they all retainer or project-based?
A: I have 2 clients right now that are project-based. Then, I have 4 that are retainer-based. 1 of those is a design client that I continuously help build out membership designs. Then, 3 of those clients are passed website design clients who stay with me for monthly maintenance and updates.
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Q: Did you take a course for web design or self-taught?
A: 100% took courses, but also self-taught because you are learning every day. I started with a course called GeekPack, which is very heavily coding and the techy side of website design. Then Mackenzie Mader came out with her course, and I took the very first round of that when she was building it. Which is basically like her design process in a nutshell, plus tons of answering how do I do this, how do I do that? Which I highly recommend because it’s giving this huge jumpstart. Then, from there, you have to keep teaching yourself website design because it’s different, new features that come out and tools you can use.
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Q: How do you determine how long a project will take and fee?
A: The project timeline and scope will take time to figure out what works best for you, and your own process, too. I tried VIP days that didn’t work for me, because I felt like I needed more space for my creativity. I enjoy doing mockups as part of my process, so it is something I decided to add. I think that the benefit of taking a course like Mackenzie’s is that you get somebody else’s process, and from that, you can decide what works for you, but it takes time to figure that out.
So, I know what I can do in 1 week, so I have a package that includes everything within a week, and you either take advantage of all those things or you don’t, but the price is the price.
Then I have a 2-week package, and I know what I can get done in those, and the same thing. Whether the client uses all of those is up to them.
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Q: Do you get all your clients from the academy or on your own?
A: Clients, this is a fun one. Everyone wants to know where to get clients. I would say I get maybe 1-2 clients a year from the OTO job board, but I’m not always looking for people who are like, “I need web design” because, at this point, I can see the needs that somebody has. They can say they need something in that OTO job post, but I know they actually need my services, so I might reach out to them. And that’s typically how I land those clients with an innovative way of thinking, but a lot of my clients come from referrals or are repeat clients who are coming back for another project.
Then I would say I get a couple of clients, maybe 5 or 6 in a year, from doing social media. So, my biggest way of finding clients is through referrals of other clients. Which is great when that starts to happen!
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Q: What did you do before this? Do you feel like you’ve always been “techy”?
A: I was a teacher before this and did not know I was techy. Actually, I didn’t know what I was good at at all. I did what I thought I was supposed to do and got a college degree. While I loved the kids I worked with and felt I was really good at my job. I’m also really good at a lot of things I put my mind to. So, while I was good at teaching, it did not fulfill me in the way that branding and website design and tech, and figuring out problems in this way fulfills me. So, $30k degree, but you know what, I wouldn’t be where I am today without that.
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Branding and Website Design Process
All of my design projects are in the design phase right now, but all of my projects start with a strategy call. All of those happened last week or two weeks ago, and that is just a deep dive into their project. I can support them in making decisions and even help them with their copy or choosing certain design elements for their pages.
Then, after that, we go into development, where we are actually taking their designs, and making them real live functioning websites.
That is such a cool process, and a lot of my clients are in that phase right now. So that is a lot of what I’m working on in between client calls today.
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Follow along with Lauren on Instagram @laurenwooddesign.
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What Do You Do as a Branding and Website Designer?
Here are some of the tasks you might do on the day of a branding and website designer.
Read this post 5 Tasks A Graphic Designer Does to learn more about branding and website design tasks.
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Take Me Through a Day in the Life of a Website Designer/Developer
The average day in the life of a website designer/developer might look like this.
Average workday of a web designer
Your average day doesn’t have to look like that though, the best part of starting your own branding and website design business is that you get to set your hours!
So, if your kids are school-age and you want to work while they are at school, you can. Or if you are in the baby and toddler stage right now, you can work while they sleep in the morning or at night. You can fit in a few hours of work during naptime and quiet times, then spend the rest of the day with them!
A website designer business is flexible to your schedule!
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How Can I Become a Website Designer?
If you want to start branding and website design ASAP, I suggest you look into online courses that will teach you how to start a branding and website design business. Then, look into a course that teaches branding and website design-specific processes.
To start your branding and web design business as quickly as possible, you will want a streamlined process so you are not recreating the wheel at every step! Check out my course, The Live Free Academy! It’s an 8-step online course that you take from home.
The course comes with recorded video training for each step, brainstorming guides and templates at the end of each lesson, exclusive job leads, a student community (the best one in my opinion), and live coaching!
Director of Client Accounting Services @ SAX | CPA
1 年Informative post ! I hope this blog post captures the essence of Lauren's day and inspires potential entrepreneurs in the branding and website design field! Remember to adjust the details and tone to match Lauren's specific style and brand.??Good luck!????