How and Why I Got Started as a Squarespace Designer
Have you ever wondered how someone gets started as a web designer? Personally I never gave it much thought. I assumed web designers were people who had always been tech-savvy and probably went to school for that kind of stuff.
I also assumed they were very creative and good at making visually stunning designs. (I think I was mixing web design and graphic design together… and I’m not even sure I knew the difference!)
Well to my great surprise none of that has to be true! That’s certainly one path you can take, but it’s not the only one!
Today I’m pulling back the curtain a bit on my history with web design and Squarespace.
Want to know more? Let’s go!
Background
If you couldn’t already tell I didn’t always have a burning passion for web design. In high school I developed a talent for writing and it was genuinely something I enjoyed. For most of my high school career I thought I would become a writer as a profession.
That is until I found out that writing does not always pay the bills so steadily. And the kind of writing that does wasn’t something I was super interested in (journalism, ghost writing, etc.) Thus ended my hopes of turning that into a full-time job.
When I graduated I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted to do.
Side note: I always thought it was a little unfair of society to expect a literal teenager to have their entire life mapped out at 18.
How the heck do I know what I’ll want to do in 4 years?
I had taken a few college courses but wasn’t very interested in pursuing that full time (let’s not even get into how expensive it is to get a degree at all). So I jumped into the working world because, you know, bills.
After working menial, minimum-wage jobs for about a year I was laid off. That was really scary to me because I had rent to pay and food to buy. It was suggested to me to try a temp agency because I had decent skills with computers.
Fortunately for me the temp agency got me a great (and steady!) job at an office about 3 months after I signed up with them. (Don’t worry - they gave me shorter assignments before then so I could bring in some money!)
I stayed at that job for the next 13 years, working my way up from receptionist to Executive Assistant. During that time I worked in many different departments and was exposed to a variety of tasks. But none of them had anything to do with web design! (I also became a mother, and then single mother during that time as well.)
COVID
Then came 2020 and COVID. With that I experienced quite a few changes - as did we all. My daughter and I were stuck at home, working and schooling and living out of the same space day in and day out.
It did not go well!
My daughter is very social, and being stuck at home without being able to interact with people other than me was very rough on her. Add to that the fact that I am not an elementary teacher and the stress of the whole situation was out of control.
As the days turned into weeks and then into months I began looking into hobbies I could pursue while at home. I researched everything from bread baking to DIY crafts to bookkeeping, but nothing really stuck.
Then we were FINALLY able to leave the house! My daughter went back to in-person school and I went back to the office most days. My hobbies took a backseat.
But the pandemic had created a feeling of job instability, and I began to get a little worried. I had always been told that I had a good job at a stable company and I should stick it out. But times had changed even in 30 years, and what was once a given was now no longer guaranteed.
It took a little while, but after about 2 years I was given notice that my company was exiting the state. To continue to have a job with them I would need to move myself to one of their other locations (at least 3000 miles away and not near anyone I knew.) My other option was to interview with the company they were selling to.
Everyone around me told me I would for sure get a position with the new company, so I wasn’t too worried. I interviewed, and even felt pretty good, especially since it had been over a decade since I went through the interview process.
And then crickets. The HR person stopped returning my texts. My email inquiries seemed to fall into a black hole. And then I found out that one of my coworkers got the job we had both interviewed for.
I was shocked!
I wasn’t sure what to do. This was completely unexpected and seemingly out of left field. But after a few days I put myself back together enough to start formulating a plan.
Apply for Executive Assistant positions here in town
But I don’t want to go to another office if I don’t have to…
Apply for Executive Assistant positions that allow working remote
Most of those require degrees for some reason…
Do I even want to continue being an Executive Assistant?
What else would I do?
Change is Hard
That got me thinking about a career change. But it felt nearly impossible! I had a child to support and bills to pay. I didn’t have enough savings to cover me quitting my job and going back to school for 6-12 months.
Then I remembered my hobby research. I dusted off my notes and began taking a look at the ones that had an earning potential.
Something you should know about me is that I am AMAZING at research. If something piques my interest I will do a super deep dive into whatever that is. Blog posts, YouTube videos, pricing models - anything I can find I’m consuming it.
The thing I’m not so great at is pulling the trigger.
Actually making a decision and spending money on something. Which is why it took me a solid 3 months before I did anything concrete.
Don’t get me wrong - I was still applying for jobs and even getting some interviews here and there, but I was fairly certain if I couldn’t work from home I didn’t want to be an Executive Assistant anymore.
Heck, even if I could work from home they were going to have to exceed my current salary for me to continue in that type of role.
During my months of research I fell down several rabbit holes, one of which was bookkeeping. I was really close to pulling the trigger on that one, until I found out that you do in fact need some instruction (beyond what QuickBooks offers for free) in order to be successful at that.
I didn’t want to spend money on taking a course! I felt like I needed to hoard every penny I had in order to survive.
So I scrapped bookkeeping and began looking for something else.
My social media feed had been filling up with ads for coding courses and app development jobs. I thought that sounded interesting so I thought maybe I’d do that.
Um, have you ever tried to code something harder than a child’s game? It’s soooo hard! Or maybe it just takes a special type of person. I’m not that special lol. Yes, yes, I could have forced myself to learn it, but it seemed like an awfully long road before I would land a job with those skills.
So back to the drawing board I went!
And that’s when I stumbled on an ad for a Squarespace web design course. I had worked with Squarespace just the tiniest bit, as I volunteer at my church and their website was built with Squarespace.
I had played around with it enough to know it was something I could manage learning (i.e. not as difficult as straight up coding!)
Behold Squarespace
I began researching the course, and read several of the blog posts from its creator. She had put out really great content and I was interested to know more.
So you can imagine my surprise to find out that she had not only created a course on how to design websites with Squarespace, but also a course on how to create an entire business with that skill!
This amazing lady is named Paige Brunton and you should really check her out if you’re interested in building a website or really anything to do with online business.
Up until this point I had been resistant to spending money, but I was slowly coming to realize it was somewhat unavoidable. I read tons of comments from successful business owners saying they wished they had invested in their business sooner rather than later. That it really makes a difference.
Were they able to be successful without spending a ton of money up front? Yes, absolutely.
But it took them a whole lot of trial and error to get there.
So I bit the bullet and bought both of Paige’s courses and officially dove in.
I ate up all her content almost as quickly as I could. It was so exciting to realize I could actually do this! I especially appreciated her business course, as there were so many things included I hadn’t even considered.
While I was taking her courses I officially launched my LLC, built my website, and set up my social media profiles. I began posting consistently and saw my first client appear about 2 months after that.
From a Google search no less! I was shocked and thrilled all at the same time. Being able to make money doing something I enjoyed was a dream come true. I felt like I had no limits anymore, as I wasn’t tied to an office or a boss.
That feeling of freedom was so incredible that I set a goal to have my new business replace my full time income within a reasonable amount of time. What’s reasonable you ask?
Well I’ll admit I’m a little scaredy cat when it comes to going all in on things, so I couldn’t exactly decide!
I’m very accustomed to having a steady paycheck (I worked for the same company for 13 years after all!) and the prospect of variable income was intimidating. But that intimidation didn’t overwhelm the love of freedom.
I just wanted to grow my business as best I could and have fun while doing it!
And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing ever since.
It’s been a wild ride, but I honestly wouldn’t trade it. All the struggles and difficulty ultimately led me to gain skills and knowledge, as well as discover something new and fun.
I also get to show my daughter that she doesn’t have to take a “traditional” career path to be successful. She can find something she loves doing and figure out a way to make money from it. I wish these options had been around when I was growing up, but I’m grateful they’re here now!