This past weekend, I was at soccer practice with my 6 year old daughter. One dad decided to insist that my child should not be allowed to have hair in her face while playing soccer and walked onto the field demanding she put her hair in a pony tail. I called him over and politely told him he didn’t have a right to tell my daughter how to style her hair.
Meanwhile, the coach of the other team, came up to our experienced female coach, and explained the rules of soccer. I was so happy when she held her ground, and simply responded with, “I know how to play soccer” as she walked away.
This story is an example of why I do what I do.
Before I started my business, I was in Information Technology, always the only woman on the team, once the only woman on a team of 30+ men. At all the different jobs I worked in this field, I quickly became the one that the women in the company wanted to talk to if they had a problem. They’d confide in me that the other techs would make them feel stupid and not even answer their questions, where I was patient and made sure they knew we were in on resolving problems together.
Fast forward to running a website design company, which I launched in 2014. At first I served whoever needed a website, until I found my niche.
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I can not tell you the number of clients and potential clients that have shared with me the same feel of being talked down to by other website designers and developers they met with.
My goal is to be different, to collaborate, to listen and to empower.
I was hesitant about declaring Websites for Creative Women as our tagline. I asked for insight from colleagues and even my teenage daughter. I didn’t want to offend anyone, and especially want the LGBTQ+ community to know they are welcome. I asked my daughter, if I am leaving out transgender by declaring women as our audience, and if I needed to specify welcoming anyone who identifies as a woman. She quickly corrected my outdated thinking, telling me that if someone identifies as a woman, they are a woman, and I absolutely agree with this.
We truly welcome all regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion (see our We Value Diversity statement in the footer). Approximately 95% of our clients are women, and I feel this is the demographic that we are most specialized at serving.
In a typically year, we work with 20-25 full website design clients, and another 25+ clients for smaller projects, add-ons, website evaluations, or VIP days. Being in business for almost ten years, we’ve had 10-15 clients total that are men. I absolutely adore most of these men, and value their business, but I’m extremely passionate about helping women pursue their goals, and succeed in business.
88% of all female owned businesses make less than 100k per year.
If you follow Profit First, or any similar method of distributing business money between profit, taxes, expenses and salary, this likely means an overwhelming majority of women business owners are paying themselves less than 50k a year.
While this may be enough in some smaller towns, if you live in a metro area, this is not enough to support yourself. In the suburbs of DC, even condos & attached homes are difficult to find under 500k, or to rent for under $2500 a month. Taking home 50k means just over 4000 per month, certainly not enough to afford this kind of living expenses.
Once someone becomes a client, I am invested in helping their business with every bit of my expertise.
We take the time to get to know each client, and understand their goals, target audience, and more, and then collaborating to design a website that is strategic and will get them new clients. I often find I’m asking questions that aren’t necessarily related to their website, but I feel this is important to fully help each client the best I can.
The other part of Websites for Creative Women, is creative. I define creative as anyone who values creativity. For many this just means, they like to do things there own way, and doesn’t necessarily have to do with their chosen field or profession. We work with non-profits, therapists, yoga studios, coaches, and others that might not be your typical artist, writer or photographer, but are just looking for website that is not only strategic but has the design aesthetic that works for their brand.
This post was inspired by an episode of one of my favorite podcast’s, The CEO Collective. In it, Rachel talks about being outspoken about your beliefs as a business. Here at Jessie Mary & Co, we stand for acceptance, and the rights of all women. While we may not be changing the world, I hope that we make a difference by helping one woman at a time pursue her goals, and grow her business.
