SiteGround Blog

In our Women-Owned series, we partnered with four female entrepreneurs who host, build, and grow their websites on SiteGround platform.

This is the story of Anna Lee, a music, tour and brand photographer living in Los Angeles and the webmaster behind annaleemedia.com. If you’re a photographer, aspiring to be one, or interested in how to build your online portfolio – dive into Anna’s story and find valuable tips that might be just the thing you need to read.

Entering the Tour Photography World

Anna Lee was that one child who constantly carried a camera, documenting the surrounding world. Following a very natural path, her love for music and photography fueled her journey as a tour photographer.

Tour photography connects the audience with the artist’s experience and documents moments that otherwise can’t be seen behind the scene. Anna describes the feeling of being on tour with musicians as “incredibly special, a little bit surreal and totally comfortable at the same time.”

Reflecting on her 10-year journey as a tour photographer, Anna attributes her success to curiosity and bravery. As a photographer, you must constantly challenge your creativity. You must also work up the courage to reach out to your customers without the fear of being rejected. Once you liberate yourself from that fear, the horizon of opportunities becomes far broader. Stir in a bit of patience, and you’ll be on the way to steady growth in what you’re doing.

Building An Online Portfolio

It’s easy today for people to rely on social media as a place for their portfolios. However, social media gives you limited control over what’s getting viewed and how your content is presented. Contrary to that, a website gives you the freedom to express your unique style as a photographer and curate your work. Expanding on this, Anna explains that “a photographer’s website is such an important home base for all of your work because you actually own your website.” 

Before SiteGround, Anna hosted her website with another provider. Even though she wasn’t satisfied with them, she felt intimidated to transfer her websites with another host, feeling it would be messy and complicated.

Unlike her fears, Anna found migrating her website to SiteGround to be “pleasantly super easy.” She was also excited by the speed SiteGround offers. Anna was being very precious about her website. She wanted something really unique and different from what other photographers were doing. And the decision to switch to SiteGround completely transformed her previous experience and made it possible for her to realize exactly what she wanted.

Being an Early Adopter of Full-time Tour Photography

Being one of the early women adopters to enter tour photography as a full-time job, Anna occasionally faced certain setbacks. Initially, she encountered the uncertainty of musicians about bringing a woman into the tour, “some viewed it as a challenge rather than an asset to have a woman on their team.” 

However, she eventually found the artists and the clients who were not afraid of embracing women into their camp. She worked with people who wanted her there and were excited about having her on their team, “Those ended up being the best working relationships that I had and that I still continue to work with to this day.”

Anna believes that we are reaching a point where photographers, visual artists, and content creators are viewed, approached, and treated with the value that they merit. Specifically, women photographers are finally being attributed the value they deserve for what they provide.

Word of Advice For Young Photographers

One of Anna’s mantras is “don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.” That’s something that she wishes she had realized right from the very beginning.

When she decided to pursue tour photography, what helped her breakthrough was realizing that she had to create her own job. Naturally, like many others, she didn’t know how to approach clients. She had to pitch herself to other people and overcome the fear of feeling like she was being intrusive. However, she chose a different approach – she pitched her clients by presenting the opportunity and the value she could add to what they’re doing.

Anna’s second piece of advice is to do what you want consistently and with as much authenticity. If you’re creating for what you think other people want or what you think is popular, you will get burned out. But if you create what you want to do, the right people will find you, and they will compensate you for doing the thing you love to do. That will keep you excited as you continue into a specific career.

Build Your Own Portfolio Website

No matter how skilled you are, SiteGround enables you to start easy, build fast, and manage your website effortlessly. For those who are just starting out, we have a helpful tool – the WordPress Starter. You can go through our pixel-perfect customizable templates, some with incredible photography options. But to have a successful portfolio that generates leads, you’ll also need a contact form, SEO optimization tool, performance analytics, and a calendar. With SiteGround, you can add these with a click of a button. Suppose you prefer to have a designer build your portfolio site. In that case, SiteGround makes it easy for you to give collaborators access, keeping the ownership and privacy of your website to you. With the right hosting provider, you can overcome technological limitations and build a powerful online presence. After all, your website is the go-to place for your potential clients.

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We kicked off our Women-Owned series celebrating women entrepreneurs who host their businesses on our platform with the ceramic artist Raquel Acosta. 

Now, we introduce you to Laurel Brown – the self-taught web designer and developer behind laurelbrownmedia.com. Laurel started her web design and development agency dedicated to helping small businesses prosper online. Laurel has helpful advice for others who want to take the same journey as a designer and developer.

One Failure Can Lead To a New Opportunity

We need to rewind a bit to get to the heart of how Laurel got into web design and development. She had another business before starting Laurel Brown Media. Even though she didn’t have any experience in website building, she opted to create her own website for it. Beginning as a hobby, she gradually expanded into designing websites for her friends who owned small businesses. After her first business came to nothing, Laurel saw her newfound interest in web design and development as an opportunity to start over. 

Speaking about her mindset of trying again with another business, she explained, “this other business failed massively. Nothing can be worse than that. So let’s try it again. That’s why I decided to go for it.” She discovered the intersection of value and passion in web design, which laid the foundation for starting her small agency.

Selling Services Online

While e-commerce grows in popularity, service providers, such as web agencies, are confronted with the issue of selling intangible “products” like their time and knowledge. So how is one supposed to start selling their services online? 

As with every business, you must first define your niche. Consider where your service fits in the market and how you may differentiate yourself from the competitors. Are you going to specialize in one service or offer various services? Who is your target audience? Take into account every detail from gender, age, income level to career, education and spending patterns. 

Laurel, for example, focuses on web design and development for small businesses. She also provides graphic design and copywriting services to complement her business. Interestingly enough, Laurel’s earliest clients were predominantly female. It seemed like her clients were relating to her because she was just like them – a female who runs her own business.

Once you’ve identified your niche and target audience, you need to drive traffic to your website. Your freelance or agency website serves as your online professional representation. Expert website designer Laurel shares that a website builds credibility. Having a website shows people that you are a real business with valuable services or products to offer. When people research their desired products, your website will likely be one of the first things they look into. And to this she points out, “It’s just so important to have a website because if you don’t, someone else does.”

More and more of a company’s sales happen on their website. Regardless of the industry, most customers will first visit a company’s website before making a purchase, even if the business does not have an online store, mainly for credibility and product/services research. Consequently, having a strong website presence can substantially impact the success of your business and help you generate more income.

Setting Up Your Clients to Success

When designing a website, it is critical to consider the client’s interests. Laurel advises designers to put their preferences aside and listen to their clients to get a pretty good idea of who they are and what they are trying to share with the world. 

As a website designer, Lauren admits to feeling like she’s empowering business owners to take control of their online presence, including managing their websites, so that they can evolve on their own. 

When it comes to multi-site development and management, freelance developers and agencies need to consider a partnership with a trusted hosting provider that meets their needs. Laurel trusts SiteGround with many of her web projects. She points out that SiteGround performance optimization tools really win her over during our conversation.“There’s a lot of amazing site tools that I feel like other hosting companies don’t have.”

Furthermore, SiteGround allows freelancers and agencies to access and manage all their sites from one dashboard. With our service, web creators can add collaborators to a site such as designers, developers, content creators, each with their own and limited access. If you build sites for clients but want to continue maintaining the site after handing it off, you can choose to stay on as a collaborator when the main site management has been transferred to your client.

To maintain professionalism, you need to do things right from the start till the end. Incorporating a smooth handover process will bring many benefits to you and your clients. Delivering a finished site is a nice experience, and transferring ownership is simple with SiteGround’s Transfer Ownership tool.

Seeking Change in the Web Development Industry

As a small business owner in the web development industry, it’s hard to be noticed when everyone is fighting for that attention. Laurel believes that having more collaboration would be a remedy to this. She knows firsthand how it feels to start on your own, working by oneself and not having any support system or community.  

Eventually, over time, she found a stronger support system. As soon as she started to work with other creative, supportive people like web developers, SEO experts, graphic designers, she really felt a sense of relief. It was like she could learn much easier and work so much better, since she was around people who shared her work.

Owning a Successful Business

When it comes to creating websites, the pure joy from her work comes from knowing a website can have such a huge impact on the business. If someone gets a client because of their website or sells a product because of their website, it makes her feel part of their success.

To be successful, Laurel believes that you need to be dedicated, motivated, and passionate about what you’re doing. Your idea needs to ignite you. She wakes up every day and she’s excited about her work. She also reminds us that people should take care of their mental health, balance rest, and be business owners.

We all know that tons of great women want to build their own creative agencies. What is your advice for these aspiring entrepreneurs? Tell us about it in the comments below, and keep an eye out for more women-owned business stories!

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This March, we’re turning International Women’s day into a whole month and shining a light on incredible women creators who built their own small businesses from scratch. We highlight some of the amazing women who host and grow their online presence with SiteGround in our  “Women-Owned” series.

We’re starting off with Raquel Acosta – the self-taught ceramic artist behind glazemepretty.com. Raquеl has mastered the craft of creating unique pottery pieces with glazes that tell the story of how minerals are formed. We followed her journey into pottery, including how she got started, what it’s like being an independent artist, and what advice she has for other creators looking to turn their passion into their business. Hint – your own website is the easiest way to start!

Finding a Creative Outlet Offline & Online

Originally studying Computer Science before eventually moving onto data analysis, Raquel’s initially chosen path led her down an uninspired road. Needing creativity, she experimented with different art forms until fate introduced her to clay. Starting out with evening pottery classes it became abundantly clear just how much potential there was.

Her initial intention was to have a side project to work on in her spare time, but what started out as a small hobby quickly grew into so much more. From the very first pottery class, Raquel envisioned herself having her own small business doing ceramics.

Turning Your Passion Into an Online Business

Starting your own website may seem daunting, especially if you don’t know where to begin, but it can open many opportunities to business owners. Your own online portfolio or e-commerce website enables you to reach a larger audience, make your creations easily accessible, and turn your passion into a self-sustaining business.

But before investing in your online store, you need to invest some time in planning a few essential elements, so you can set your online business up for success. From choosing a website builder and a hosting provider to design and functionalities, it can all help you smooth out the process of creating your first e-commerce site. 

Of course, building and optimizing your website requires dedication. Raquel is a living example of that. She launched her online shop in 2018, but it wasn’t until 2020 that her online presence really took off. All thanks to her consistency to learn and be better in her craft and in showcasing it on her website and social media.

Translating Your Brand Identity Into Your Website

Brand identity is that aspect of a business that radiates your brand’s personality and values. It enables people to recognize you and even better – relate to your business. From your name, color palette, and visuals to tone of voice and copy, these are all aspects you need to think about, create and distribute uniformly on all online and offline channels.

Creating an effective branding strategy starts with answering important questions such as what do we want our potential customers to know about us, who is our target market, what do we stand for, what makes us different.

Evan though building her brand identity was a challenge at first, Raquel drew inspiration from her craft. Her brand name and color palette are inspired by the glazes that she develops herself. As for her web design, she followed the “less is more” approach, adding clean and simple backgrounds, just letting the pots be the stars of the show.

If you struggle with building your visual identity, you can always find useful resources on how to design a website that your customers will love.

The Challenges of a Maker Business

Raquel points out her biggest challenge when running a maker business – growing your organic audience when you’re competing with big companies. Not everyone starts with a huge upfront investment, but as long as you are willing to put in the work and your heart is in what you’re doing, you can start and grow your small business on a budget.

A key role in growing your online presences is exploring different smart techniques. One tactic is integrating a newsletter into your website. This is an excellent way to engage your audience with what you do. Raquel uses her monthly newsletter to offer exclusive sales, samples, and clearance items that can’t be found anywhere else. Putting that exclusivity touch can surely increase your audience’s interest.

Raquel also emphasizes the importance of building a dialogue with your audience rather than just one-way communication, that really helps to build engagement. For example, except for her daily social media posts, Raquel asks her audience for their feedback about the pieces she crafts – do they want to see a new item, which is their favorite glazing pattern, and simply involve the people in her work. Still, optimizing the selling and marketing aspects of any online business is an ongoing process and there is always room for growth. 

Besides the online presence, another challenging aspect of running an e-commerce business is managing the online and offline inventory. Trying to predict product demand can be hard, but batching production together helps Raquel stay organized to manage her small business efficiently. On the other hand, e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce have internal stock management systems that offer all the configurations you need to manage your inventory.

Finding Purpose in What You Do

Glazemepretty.com is what Raquel looks forward to every day. Before, weekends were all she cared about. But now, her priorities have shifted from living for Fridays to looking forward to Mondays when all that matters is waking up knowing exactly what she’ll do today – craft one-of-a-kind ceramics that she can then share with the world through her own online brand. 

Seeing how happy her clients are after purchasing something from her makes her recognize the importance of what she does and what Glaze Me Pretty represents. It’s amazing how far an idea can go from a self-taught passion to your own online business – if you put in the time and hard work to see it through – just like anything else in life. SiteGround is proud to be the hosting partner of choice to such incredible female creators and entrepreneurs like Raquel – the world is your oyster when you put your mind to it.

We know that there are lots of incredible women entrepreneurs out there, thinking of launching a project of their own, or building it right now. What’s your advice to people who want to make their idea online? Share it in the comments below, and stay tuned for more women-owned business stories coming soon!

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