Part of our Getting to Know Us series, Jessica and Fraser Pieri will be interviewing each other to get a deeper feel of how our first year in business has gone!
So, 10 months deep, how's it going?
Better than expected in all honesty, I didn't have any expectations starting Digibiz, especially during a pandemic, all I knew was that if businesses weren't online, they would need to be, and when we went into lockdown, our business just went through the roof.
What gave you the idea to partner with Wix? How did that come about?
So in 2018 I started a clothing line (super original) I love fashion and its a big part of my life, but I needed a platform other than Instagram to sell my products (T-Shirts and Hats) off of, so I made a Wix website (www.pieri.design) and thought, this is kind of easy I could make these for clients. So I offered to make some friends websites for free, a couple of them said no or just ignored me, but my Friend Charlie Lord @clordvisuals allowed me to have a go and honestly it's still one of my favourite sites: www.clordvisuals.co.uk I just remembered thinking the devil is in the detail, once you've got that down, it's just a case of zoning out and learning the tools. After that we went from strength to strength and made 20 sites in around 3 months, (Still unsure how I did that) but we were offered into the Wix partner program, which basically means Wix provides us with leads from users who need help or assistance!
Seems like you can really smash out websites, are they simple to build?
I think if they were really simple then we wouldn't have so many leads from Wix (when customers press the 'Hire a professional' button, but I do find the multipage websites more of a creative challenge than a logical one, it's about doing something different but also right for the client and brief, but most importantly functional. It's always nice when we have creative freedom to create something really aesthetically pleasing. Membership websites are the most complex with subscriptions and booking features but I enjoy a challenge. It doesn't take me long to do a multipage website (1-2 weeks) but membership sites I normally allow for 6 weeks.
Do you have a favourite website to date?
Each website has had it's own challenge and some have been more enjoyable than others but it's hard to chose a favourite, they all have features I really like, I enjoy getting into the client and client's customers perspective to really understand what will work well, UX/UI sometimes is more about psychology than it is Web Design, I think when you understand that every project becomes unique and exciting.
How did you learn about SEO?
I previously worked for an SEO company, from there I had a natural interest and spent my time learning how to implement Optimisation Techniques & Tactics myself, but ultimately I wanted to make this accessible to the everyday business, there is so many options out there to help businesses get found online, like Google My Business, not overly complex, but a great tool to get found, especially if you have a physical location.
Do you enjoy what you do?
There are good days and bad days, mostly good days, it's a journey and we are so early on in it, I find being in business exciting, the lazy days are made up for the 14 hour long days where you just feel unstoppable.
What keeps you going?
Being in business with you (my wife) *cringe* helps, it's nice to have those 8p.m. conversations about a concern, or to know that if it doesn't work out we will still be all good. Running regularly recently has been keeping my stress levels at bay, I'm a pretty calm guy, hence the tattoo but I do worry like anyone else, especially if you stare at the expenditure spreadsheet for too long. I just look at how far we have come in 10 months and think about where we could be in another 10, the world really is our oyster.
What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of starting an Agency?
Just do it! Like the Nike slogan! No seriously, what have you got to lose? Everything is a risk these days, just leaving the house imposes some serious threats if you think about it. We could die tomorrow. Morbid thought but, nobody ever did anything great by just staying comfortable. Also at the risk of sounding pretentious if you spend long enough thinking about how little amount of money the average monthly salary is, that should motivate you to build your own income. You're welcome.
Finally, what are your aspirations for the next 5 years?
Sat here with you now, we are expecting our first child, so hopefully, touch wood, being a great dad and family man first. I'd like to think Digibiz will have grown large enough to attract some serious attention (I hope we are being disruptive enough for that, if not we should shake it up some more) and probably somewhere hot, by the sea. After all, we can work from anywhere.
Cheers, now can I get back to Fifa?
Yes you can get back to Fifa.
Next week, Fraser will hopefully be interviewing me (Jessica)! See you soon!