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Natalie Crowe Designs Blog | Web Design & Business Mentoring

Focusing on Teaching WordPress

WordPress Courses - DIY WordPress Website - Learn WordPress, One to One WordPress training

Hey there lovelies!
Over the last 16 years as a WordPress Website Developer, I’ve worked with so many amazing business owners to help them build their WordPress websites and grow their business online.

However, with the cost of living rising and the increasing need for more education around how to save money and DIY your own WordPress website.  I’m changing my business focus to gear more towards teaching, rather than just offering done for you services.

Yes, I am still doing the development work, however it’s a secondary focus for my business.  The shift comes after needing to create a sustainable support system for myself and my family.  Passive, Recurring & Semi Passive income as necessary avenue for every online business. It’s scalable and means I can actually help more people.

If you’ve been following my journey since precovid, you’ll know that I’ve built an online WordPress Help Academy where I teach my signature WordPress Beginners Programme – NCDAcademy WordPress101® and host my WordPress Learners Lounge membership – a Live WordPress help Membership with fortnightly live Q&A calls on Zoom, monthly trainings & accountability support group for non-techies.

Since opening in 2020,  I’ve helped 100s of non-techies through-out Australia, UK, Canada & USA to Build, Maintain & Improve their WordPress websites, setup their own courses and funnels, all without the tech overwhelm.

I’m now focusing in on growing my NCDAcademy online to enable me to empower more business owners like you to  take the reigns of your online presence with confidence and ease.

 

I will continue to support my existing WordPress Website Design clients through-out Australia.  Including still be offering WordPress Website Developments &  One to One WordPress Training.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  Or If you’d like to book a 1:1 visit my online booking calendar.

Helping WordPress Website Owners Learn WordPress

Hey my lovelies,

Nat here, it’s been some time since I’ve blogged on my site..

I’ve been a little pre-occupied.

I don’t know whether you’ve been following Natalie Crowe Designs’ progress over the past 12 months.

But BIG things have been happening.

 

Perhaps we should start back October 2020….  Yes, that long ago…

I started completing a course on passive income generation through writing online course and turning ideas that have been sitting in my goal book since well before 2016..  into actual tangible results….

I’ve always loved being able to help people and use my skillset to do that.

During the vast majority of my business over the last 13 years, I’ve been teaching 1:2:1  via Skype or Zoom.

I’ve always offered tech support and been fairly predominant as a Website Developer in Maitland, Hunter Valley, Newcastle & Australia. Building Websites & Maintaining them for clients primarily on WordPress.

Following completing the course by a UK mentor mid November 2020, I opened up a Free Website Help group on Facebook and started a mailing list.

The Natalie Crowe Designs | Website Help & WordPress Help group has just surpassed 250 Members and my amazingly supportive online community spans countries through-out the World.

I love the diversity and the factor that no matter what time of day or night I’m online, there is always someone online who is happy to have a chat or the members are busily chatting amongst themselves.

In the group, I hold FREE Weekly TechTalks and Q&As for my community to connect with me and get help with their WordPress, Website & Tech Questions.

The group is growing and it’s meant that I can actually connect and support more website owners, but more than that, I love the idea of being of service! 🙂

My lovelies in my community have dubbed me “WordPress Expert”, “International Guru” ,”Website Wonder Woman” & “Fount of Tech Knowledge”

LOL   I laugh at their humor whilst I know I am a talented WordPress developer and passionate about troubleshooting issues, it always seems foreign being coined that type of thing.. it’s taking a little bit to get used to.

Then things got even more interesting!

January I committed to writing my first course….  Teaching WordPress website owners  to understand their website and how to use it.  It is such an important skillset for a WordPress website owner to have.

I held a couple of WordPress Focus Groups to engage my prospective audience and run my ideas by them.  The response was nothing short of mind blowing….

“When can we have access to this?”  

“I’d definitely be interested Nat, I’ve seen your teaching style in your Facebook group and it really appeals to me”

I ordered some new tech, started writing the content for the course and was set to start recording 1st of February…

As life does, we had a family emergency that took me away from my business for the whole of February..   I didn’t even get a chance to start the process..

March rolled around, and I was determined to get my course recorded….

MOST coaches tell you not to record a thing until you’ve sold the course….

That in itself gave me hives…  You know yourself how stressful it can be trying to plan things on the fly…. given how dynamic my life had been in the weeks beforehand there was no way I could consciously do that…

I knew there was a demand for my offering I’d already done the market research to see what my audience wanted.

Come 1st of March,  I spent every waking moment inbetween 1-2-1 clients, curating over 45+ course videos,  writing a 100 page self study guide and building an online learning environment using the WordPress + LearnDash integrated with Woocommerce. to allow me to create and sell my own courses on WordPress.

Between the 26th of March and the 31st of March I opened cart for my 1st round of WordPress 101 – 6 week Beginner’s course.  Helping you got from UNCERTAINTY to UNDERSTANDING Your WordPress website.

The course has been such a big hit.

I didn’t do a major launch,  I  marketed to my existing warm audience in my group and had 15 students enroll in the course.

That in itself was a epiphany…  this might actually work?

I can do so many things with this..

It’s scaleable..

I can HELP more people..

I can grow this and this amazing toolset of resources I’ve created  and it’s not impacting as significantly on my timing…

Better yet, because I can rinse and repeat… I don’t have to charge as much for it… and it makes it more affordable for my clients..

Now that I’ve done the basic social media setup, the email marketing …. this should take more than 7 hours of my time to facilitate lives and I can actually be amongst the process rendering my assistance..

I set the goals  –  OK = 8 Enrollments /  Good = 10 Enrollment  / Great = 12 Enrollments

As silly as it sounds.. I was so freaking excited at the prospects…
We reach 13 enrollments 90 minutes before

LOL if you need authentically genuine excitement … and potentially over the top enthusiasm.

This was the live on the 31st March once I discovered we smashed my 12 goal…

https://www.facebook.com/1466356574/videos/10226303386398825/

The Round 1 – Students board  after having to add further cards to my original 12 goal.

 

The course is currently in it’s First Week  as of the 15th of April.

I am so ecstatic that not only can I now offer to build websites & maintain them, I now have an online learning platform that I can facilitate WordPress Courses  – Teach others how to learn WordPress and improve their understanding and no doubt there will be more to come.

WordPress Websites, Courses & website help

This year, during the pandemic I have achieve so many things towards my end goal – “to make a difference “:)

I am still offering Website Development & Website Maintenance – you can check my website package pricing here .

I most definitely am still helping Website Owners 1:2:1 via Zoom on their Websites & Tech

I am now offering FREE Website Help, Tech Help & WordPress Help group on Facebook

And my NCDAcademy is now officially in operation with 15 amazing  students currently enrolled with the Waiting List for Round 2 – WordPress 101 is now available.

Join Natalie Crowe Designs FREE Website Help Group on Facebook

 

WordPress Website Designer

WordPress Website Designer WordPress Specialist Australia | Wordpress

Setting up a new WordPress website and growing your presence online can be challenging, however it doesn’t have to be. Knowing what is going to be right for you and the complex task of having to wade through the plethora of options available can be daunting.  This is where connecting with a WordPress Website Designer or WordPress Specialist can be of great benefit.

Natalie Crowe of Natalie Crowe Designs helps you take the hassle out of tackling technology.

Natalie is a WordPress Website Designer & Online Business Mentor in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. She works with clients all over the world as a WordPress Specialist and offers a range of WordPress website packages to suit any budget.

With her WordPress Website Packages starting from $880 + GST ( $968) Natalie’s NCD Starter Website package includes a custom built 5 page website, 12 months website hosting and domain and includes taking care of the monthly backups and WordPress updates for your first 12 months.

To find out more about NCD Starter Website here.

Cheap WordPress Website Design doesn’t always mean value for money. However, Natalie Crowe Designs has you covered for affordable website package prices, reliability, experience and down to earth customer service.

Whether you are:

  • looking to get a new WordPress Website,
  • needing WordPress Website Technical Support or
  • wanting WordPress Website help,

Natalie Crowe Designs is more than happy to help.

You can explore Natalie’s full range of WordPress Website Packages via her Website Prices page.

So, you can enquire directly via our Contact Us page or pop on over to our Facebook page  Natalie Crowe Designs Facebook page.

WordPress is a robust content management system that you can create virtually anything. 

Therefore, you are only limited by your imagination.  

And with the help of Natalie Crowe Designs anything can be achieved.

COVID-19 Rapid Response Websites Packages Australia

Coronavirus website packages | Natalie Crowe Designs | Online Learning Websites | Online Order Form WEbsites

Good Morning everyone,

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working with clients who have been impacted severely by the Coronavirus. These businesses are all now either having to look to take ORDERS online or to start MEMBERSHIP/ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS  for their clients to keep connected with them.  

It’s been heart breaking to watch and hear the updates and the impacts on my own family have been immense, we’re now limited to one income and I know there are so many businesses whom aren’t sure how they are going to get through this. I wanted to try and help as many as I can.

After  surveying prospects and following conversations within my  social networks there appeared to be a real need to be able to accept payments online for basic ORDER FORM type scenarios ie local bakery being able to take payments for their home delivered bread,  and the local cafe being able to facilitate online purchase of meals for delivery.   Also those homemade product businesses at our local markets that no longer can operate due to the social distancing laws here in Australia.   As well as for businesses that offer services to groups and individuals  such as local Gyms and  groups, specialists and those that offer face to face meetings needing to move to a more modern / online medium.  Those who need an ONLINE LEARNING  / MEMBERSHIP site where they can securely share content and provide to their customers.

After much spending the last two days crunching numbers and work out what would be the best option.  I’m pleased to introduce our  two new website packages specifically designed to help out clients who are needing to go online to continue doing business as a result of COVID-19, these packages have LONG TERM benefits, whilst they are designed to get you up and running ASAP, you will be able to grow and strength your online presence with these new packages.

I’ve put together full product pages for you for each package however here’s a quick run down on each:

NCD Quick Order + Website Package

One package focuses around an ONLINE ORDER FORM connected with STRIPE to accept payments online that go into your bank account within 2 business days. This website package contains a 5 page website, blog + 1 page custom order form with all the basic components you need to start selling online ASAP. This would be perfect for anyone selling a handful of items or have set priced items you’d like to sell online however are not wanting to worry about full blown ecommerce store with all the complications and setup.

Quick List inclusions:

  • 5 page website + blog
  • 1 page eCommerce order form connected to Stripe
    – Payments are processed within 2 business days and deposits the money less the fees to your bank account.
  • Setup of your Stripe Account on your behalf in order to accept payments online.
  • Setup of your custom order form.
  • 12 month Hosting, Domain & needed software licenses.
  • 12 months WordPress Backup & Updates Plan. usually $65 a month yours for 12 months included in the price.
  • Optimisation of your content & submission to the search engines once you’re ready to launch.

I’ve offered to cover $811 off the development price to help you out.

Learn More here:  COVID-19 RELIEF | NCD Quick Order+ Website Package


NCD Online Learning + Website Package.

The second package focuses on clients who want to SELL MEMBERSHIP or essentially COURSES ONLINE where you are able to create free & paid content including videos and other media to provide lessons and training for your prospective customers. This includes courses, their relevant modules, sections, lessons + quizzes in an easy to use dashboard for both Student and Teacher.

In terms of the technical site, we take all as of the hassle out of setting up the infrastructure of your online environment, we work with you to get the site up and running inclusive of up to 4 hours consultancy via Skype throughout the setup process, whether that be training, troubleshooting or working out the best form of action for you.

We also do all the setup for your VIMEO account (Video hosting account) and include 12 months subscription in the pricing.

We setup the Payment Gateways which include either PayPal or Stripe which means you won’t have to struggle trying to work out what needs to take place.

With the blog component to get you started we help you put together your first 4 blog posts during the initial setup which you can schedule to be released at your leisure.

We setup and integrate your social media platforms, including Google My Business and Facebook or preferred alternative and brand them to suit.

We offer the down to earth technical support, via Skype, Facebook Page Messenger, Phone & Email and support you through the process.

We take care of 12 months Website Backup & WordPress Updates

I’ve offered to cover $1280 off the development price to help you out.

LEARN MORE  here: COVID-19 RELIEF | NCD Online Learning+ Website Package

 

Options for businesses after Coronavirus | Web Design Australia

Natalie Crowe Designs | Web Design Cessnock, Web Design Maitland, Web Design Singleton, Website Design Hunter Valley

Hey lovelies,
Nat here – website designer and business mentor. I just wanted to send a quick message out to say hang in there, I know tough times are present and ahead and that this whole coronavirus / scaremongering that’s happening globally is rocking everyone to their core – me included at times, but it’s going to be ok, we’ve overcome so much more than this and in time we will look back on this and be able to breath easy knowing it’ll be something else for the history books that we’ve triumphed over…

Personally for me, I’d been battling the idea – not from lack of ability the cope but that I struggle with not being able to help everyone. That this whole ordeal is causing so much stress, fear and anxiety and that I don’t want any of my clients, friends family and the world as a collective to experiencing this struggle. I want to be able to help people and it’s now more than ever that that desire in me is strong. However I too have been overwhelmed by what’s taking on the over sensationalising of the media and every breaking update.

I want to help as many clients as I can, this idea that my skillset and knowledge and desire to support and empower is so strong within me. I don’t want you to struggle through this unnecessarily.

I’ve already this year decided / implemented for those who join up to receive my free mailing list will get a portion off their first invoice, however as a means of making sure I can support as many people as possible and to make my processes more affordable, I’m offering payment plans options as a means of helping clients. Whether that be a new website development or help with their existing website. I’m genuinely here to help and in times like these we need to stick together from the comforts of our own homes (lol sorry probably not the best joke…. if we don’t laugh we’ll cry right..)

If I can be of any assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact my page or request a quote via my website.

Heading Into February – 33 Days into 2020

Web Designer Australia | Website Packages | Web Design Cessnock, Web Design Maitland, Web Design Hunter Valley

Hey there everyone!

Nat here, it’s all been a bit of a blur the last few days heading into February .. 33 days into 2020…  Wow! Wow! Wow! Can you believe it, that’s the first month of 2020 done an dusted? 

School is officially back after 6 weeks School Holidays. Believe it or not, it’s actually been quite bitter sweet in that I have been itching to get back into regular routine and reclaim that structure in my day, however on the same double edge sword, my darling daughter starts her next obstacle in 9 months as her primary school transitions them for High School in Term 4. 

To think I started this business 1 month before she was born. We’ve stood the test of time and both my “babies” are upleveling.  

January Recap & Celebration:

Well January started off on a high, we’ve been busily pumping out project work for clients and doing website maintenance.  Even though we set off on holidays mid month, two weeks into January we were already well on our way to hit our January targets.

I actually had some big goals in place, some of those included things like:

  • Maintain my commitment to honour myself by not discounting my services – after recording massive losses and burnout over the past 12 months.  I outlined a lot of this in my blog post:  Reviewing my last 10 years in business.This one was super important for me.
     
  • Save the needed cash to complete two major business courses –  I had these two courses on my vision board for 2-3 years. These two courses I believe will further my knowledge to be able to help my clients more and also support me to next level my business.  I am so excited to finally have saved enough money to be able to complete them.  I register for BSCHOOL by Marie Forleo &  MONEY BOOTCAMP by Denise Duffield-Thomas in mid February and I CANNOT wait!!
     
  • Hit more than 100 paid hours a month consistently – due to the discounting my services my books never show that I’ve done 100+ hours.. although I often work A LOT more than that.  I’ve put plans in place to help me meet this goal on a regular basis and  I am so proud of myself for sticking to my guns.
     
  • Be Present with my audience – Create solid presence online by maintaining my social media platforms and connecting with  you guys.
     
  • Monthly Newsletters – Maintain commitment to regularly communication via monthly newsletter.  (So far so good!)  and grow that following. We’ve had growth!! 🙂 
     
  • Hit  & maintain #1 organic ranking for longtail keywords:
    •  Web Design Cessnock   (Up 1)
    • Web Design Hunter Valley ( Maintained)
       
  • Prioritise my own personal health and make conscious effort to take care of me – given the fact that I’m the glue that holds my world together, my family and my clients all rely on me. I want to be the best ME I can be and ensure I’m setting a great example for my daughter.
  • Support my clients as thoroughly as I can and always over deliver –  and with the recent WordPress Hacking and Malware attacks this one of the big ones that I  have well and truly exceeded expectations.

January have been a rather colourful process – I’ve shared a little on the “Colouring”  at the foot of this email…  however it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows….

Increased WordPress Websites being hacked!

If you read my last impromptu email regarding hacking  / malware attacks on sites and my outline on making your own backups of your WordPress websites.  Then this won’t be news to you, but in recap…

Self Managed / Outdated sites were targeted:
We returned home on the 19th after our holidays to find that several clients had experience Hacking and Malware injections in their websites.  Notably all of those whom were attacked were sites that were either self-managed or hadn’t had work done with us recently and were in need of updates. 

Why would they want to hit a small-medium site ??
In essence these hackers create automated robots that look for vulnerability in websites. So things like weak usernames and passwords, week ftp logins,  outdated coding or components of a website- for example old WordPress versions, plugins and themes  or in general unsecured areas of your website. 

With this, these hackers try and gain access to your systems in order to inject codes and malicious scripts that often either download software to the users computer  or redirect to affiliate links or ads that may result in paid incentives for them.   Essentially a hacker is either looking to obtain sensitive information or to wrought a paid scheme in order for financial gain. 

Expensive & stressful process when your sites aren’t maintained properly:
Unfortunately for website owners,  this is often a expensive and stressful time  with the loss of income, downtime for the business, damage to their online presence through the search engines (if the infections aren’t dealt with as soon as possible) and the cost outlay to restore and prevent the infection from reoccurring. 

I note here there is no way to 100% protect your site from being hacked.
It’s just not possible. But having a full backup of your site and regularly maintaining your website, completing the updates and maintenance needed is vital to limiting the chance and deterring hackers from seeing your site as a target.

Recap of Recommended D.I.Y Backup Plugins for WordPress Users :

For WordPress users there are plugins you can install on your website that will allow you to create and download relevant files. Some of these include:

  • Updraft
  • Duplicator
  • Jetpack
  • BackWpUp
  • All in one migration (Free Version) however you’ll need the paid version to be able to restore files of a certain size.  We do have the premium versions and can act on your behalf to restore if you do choose this plugin.  

Moving Forward into FANTASTIC FEBRUARY!

Well February has plenty to offer, Did you notice today’s date? 02/02/2020  –  you can look at it in reverse and it’s still the same thing..  not only that but given that it’s a leap year, February is also offering another day up for grabs to make your goals and dreams come true.. What will you do with it?

What’s on the agenda for February:

  • UP-LEVELING SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE – This month is going to focus on not only improving my skills and knowledge but I am looking to share that information and educate my clients and following on various things that will benefit them in the long run.  
    • WORDPRESS SECURITY:  1/2/2020 saw me complete another short course on WordPress website security, all be it that I knew the majority of the content I took pages upon pages of notes and am in the process of working these implementation into my clients websites.   This refresher course meant has provided a fresh prospective on how I can better serve and support all of you.
       
    • BUSINESS EDUCATION & TRAINING:   After achieving my financial goal to fund the tuition for both BSCHOOL & MONEY BOOTCAMP! I’m pumped to jump on board and partake in these courses. Getting amongst other whom are well and truly above my game is going to be such an amazing experience.  – You’re only as good as the company you keep – so for me learning from 6 and 7 figure business owners is just going to be amazing!!!

Track Your Progress!!!

So with the Awesome Marketing Planner  you have an abundance of means of tracking things and it makes things so much easier. HOWEVER if you’re like me and are working on massive goals and keeping all of your info in a book is practical but you still want the visuals in front of you then why not get creative an put together a tracker of your own…

NOTE TO SELF – YOU DON’T NEED TO BE PERFECT…
So whilst I had no intentions of sharing this in depth…  I also wanted to demonstrate the reality here.   Lol if I anticipated that I’d be sharing lol I most likely would have  tried to be neater with my colouring and handwriting!!  However this was just for me… This is the actual trackers I used to log my progress as I’m working through January.  

I’m into all the woo woo stuff about being grounded and meditations, crystals and oracles cards etc…. so for me it was given to draw a tree like figure and track my financial savings. 

The other chart shows my billed hours for the month. I’d aimed for 100 paid hours a month. Each time I billed an hour I’d colour in another square…. Whilst I did more than 114 hours in January (this was photo I took in passing when talking to colleges about my progress.)  I wanted to share as it doesn’t matter how to track, whether you just want a spreadsheet or you want vibrancy and colour over your walls, you don’t have to draw anything like what I did.. but you can if that’s what works for you.  

Tracking your progress gives you so much valuable information and shows you where you are on course and off course.

There are so many things you could track  – 

  • Sales and revenue,
  • Cost & expense
  • Time worked
  • New prospective clients whom contact you
  • New prospects you’ve converted into clients
  • Social Media Following
  • Email Newsletter Subscribes
  • General website traffic
  • Blog and webpage views
  • Enquiries  & more.

With this information you can then adjust your strategies or implement strategies to improve your results.  

Anyways lovelies!  Let’s wrap this us!

So my questions for you :

  1. What’s your focus for FEBRUARY in your business
  2. If you’re tracking or have decided to track – what will you be tracking?

I would love to hear from you, you can reply directly to this newsletter and your messages will come straight through my inbox or send me a message via my Facebook page or website.

Have an amazing day and if I don’t speak to you beforehand enjoy and make the most of FANTASTIC FEBRUARY!! 

Kind Regards,

Natalie Crowe
OWNER/OPERATOR of 
Natalie Crowe Designs
Web Design & Business Mentoring
______________________________________
http://www.nataliecrowedesigns.com
support@nataliecrowedesigns.com
Ph: 0423285233
www.facebook.com/nataliecrowedesigns
___________________________________________
 

WordPress sites being hacked by “Adsformarket” scripts

WordPress Websites Malware & Hacking Help

January saw so many sites attacked by automated hackers looking for websites with vulnerabilities in which they can exploit for personal information.

Some of these hackers attack websites for the purposes of siphoning personal and financial information which they can attempt to utilise as a means of financial gain.

Common activities include:

  • Obtaining email address to send spam
  • Installing malicious codes and software which may result in forms of payment.
  • Redirecting visitors & website traffic to other websites which often they are setup as an affiliate which may create funds for them.

Whilst being one of the best content management systems out there, WordPress;  like any open source content management systems, does have vulnerabilities when not correctly maintained.  

In this case, a number of clients who were currently self-managing their accounts – whom had not kept up with internet security, backed up the website or completed the needed website maintenance, were the hardest hit.

But what on earth does that “correctly maintaining your WordPress website” mean?? 

“Self-Managed WordPress Websites” are basically WordPress websites that have been built for you, whereby you take over the responsibility of maintaining the website, ensuring the website is running the latest versions of each of it’s components and making relevant changes as need to the pages and page content. 

In order to correctly maintain your WordPress websites, it means you need to keep the WordPress software and it’s relevant plugins and themes regularly updated.  It means making a regular backup of the website files and the database.  It means making sure you’re not using the default settings for  things like login credentials or non secure settings, and using plugins that are regularly update by their developer. 

You can also look to utilise more advance strategies like customising your WordPress database tables names to make then unique, changing your SALT keys regularly and if you were implementing new functionality for your website, that you’re using tested and regularly updated plugins and themes. 

I think my WordPress website got hacked / How can I tell if I’ve been hacked? 

There are 3 main characteristics we’ve seen of late with websites who have been hacked, some are more obvious thank others. However, Hackers have accessed the website and injected malicious code into the websites and modified files that resulted in:

  • onscreen errors,
  • search engines such as Google – identifying the site as containing malicious code / marked them unsafe 
  • or the most commonly –  the website has a series of codes injected into the website that force visits to be redirected to unsafe and undesired websites.

AdsForMarket – WordPress Website Attacks

One of the primary redirects or spam codes injected into some of these websites were for a domain called “Adsformarket”.

This adsformarket is owned to a private entity and was registered through a domain provider Eranet, whom I’ve contacted to ask them to look at what their users are doing. However hackers can easily change their domains names and use the same scripts elsewhere, whilst we can try and have these creators dealt with, it’s hard to prove and it won’t entirely stop the from doing this again.   So the best way to counteract this is to implement stronger security measures.

I make note here NO WEBSITE IS 100% HACK PROOF. However we can make various modifications to help strengthen the website boundaries and with regular maintenance, website backups & updates. Website owners can decrease the downtime and the cost it would take for their websites to be recovered.

Getting help – if you think your WordPress website has been hacked:

If you think you may have been hacked or you’d like some help with your website.

Natalie Crowe Designs is happy to work with you to address the issue.

Please contact us or give us a call to discuss your options: 0423285233

 

Reviewing my last 10 years in business | Web Design Cessnock

10 Year Review | Natalie Crowe Designs | Web Design Cessnock , Web Design Hunter Valley, Web Design Maitland

3650 days of life and business lessons!

Wow! Wow! Wow! As we come to the closure of a decade and 2020 rolls on in. It’s amazing to take a look back at where we’ve come from and where we’re going in business. 3650 days?!  What did we do with them all?

The last 10 years have altered and changed my course tremendously. I’ve seen highs and lows in my personal life and business however the continual indicators show I’m onto a good thing here.

Business is growing, I’m busier than I’ve ever been. I’ve established myself and my brand as a strong local contender in various communities both online and offline and most importantly I’m enjoying the process and as I always intended… I’m HELPING people. Win Win!

Do you need website help? Web Design Cessnock | Web Design Maitland, Web Design Hunter Valley

Adapting to change – Same Great Services

Whilst technology has definitely changed and we’re more mobile or responsive device focused, the decade of instant gratification, social media and being able to find pretty much anything from the palm of your hand in a matter of seconds, has meant as a business owner we’ve needed to be adaptive and responsive to our clients needs.

 
Whilst much has change, we’ve built onto our service and have continued to offer the same great services only with more experience as a web designer and business mentor . These services include:  
  • Building new websites,
  • Improving existing websites,
  • Specialising in WordPress Websites,
  • Offering Website Help, Technical Support and Training,
  • Providing Website Management and monthly update packages,
  • Helping you get found through Search Engine Optimisation,
  • Engagement Marketing,
  • Provision of Hosting and domains,
  • Social Media setup and management
  • &  so more.
One of our primary aims of diversifying into these various elements is so that when you become a client of Natalie Crowe Designs, we offer a one stop shop.  Whether you’re in need someone to demystify the technological side of having a website or you just need a website expert to take care of things for you. We’ve got you covered.
 

Events that have shaped Natalie Crowe Designs

10 years is such a massive timeframe, and with the diversity of events that have occurred; some of them big, some of them small, all of them have contributed to the person I am and who I’ve become and how my business has evolved.

  • From deciding I wanted to help people with their websites and shaping that into a tangible business idea as a means of supporting myself, then that need and desire growing with the birth of my daughter.
  • Having to re-establish my life in the Hunter Valley, after an 8 year relation dissolving and continuing to make a living, working through Family Courts / Custody Battle that set me back $25k+ in legal fees all whilst simultaneously keeping our heads above water. My business supported us.

Web Design Cessnock | Web Design Maitand | Web Design Australia

An old Facebook Image  Also Used as a slideshow image from our website in 2015 celebrating 7 years in business.


  • Through moving 7 times before eventually generating & saving enough money through my business and finding a bank that would accept me as a self employed business owner, and validate that my business was more than a hobby in order to purchase our own home in the Hunter Valley.
  • To, continuing my studies getting additional qualifications and improving myself and expanding my services from not only WEB DESIGN but to BUSINESS MENTORING evolving my business into a one stop shop.
  • To supporting hundreds of local businesses over the years and through the growth and trajectory of my business being able to contribute to countless causes in our local community, donating thousands of dollars to help people get back on their feet, and utilise my experience to better themselves.
  • To finding the love of my life, having same sex marriage laws passed and to being able to get married which for the most part was funded by my ability to generate an income and paid outright which meant we didn’t have to go into debt to be able to bring our family together to celebrate our union.  Something I was so ecstatic about in 2018. 

I am so grateful and proud of each and every moment and what I’ve overcome to create a life that I love and a business that supports me and my goals.  Acknowledging, not all of these things are solely business related but they were possible due to my business or have have contributed as pieces of the puzzle that’s formed the Natalie Crowe Designs of today.


2020 – A year of continuing to offer enormous value & honouring my self worth

In 2020, I’ll be working closely on my message, whilst wanting to help people hasn’t changed, I have spent a great deal of time analysing my business and one thing is clear, I always go above and beyond. My clients are the most important part of my business but at times I’ve found myself over extending, over delivering and ultimately to my own detriment burning out.

$30,000 in uncollected payments, donations, volunteer work and unpaid accounts.

‘There’s always more’ mentality and my generosity can often get the better of me.  It’s been a few years now, but prior to our hourly price increase of $80/hr the tally of discounts alone given to the community in one 12 month span equated to close to $30,000!!

At the time I couldn’t even fathom that I’d discounted developments or not collected payments, volunteered a multitude of hours through that year / completed unpaid work, however it was clear, come the end of the year how burnt out and exhausted I was, how disappointed I felt not attaining the goals I’d set and how much that $30,000 would have made a difference in my life at the time if I’d only honoured my selfworth and trusted that my effort and contributions to all of these amazing causes was worth receiving payment.

Your time is worth the money & you are worthy of payment:

My aim for 2020 will be to shape my business in a way that still delivers enormous value for my beautiful clients, however values my worth, my time, my contributions and supports and nurtures healthy boundaries.

This year, will be the year that will enable me to set and reach my goals and still allows me to honour myself, avoid massive burnout that I’ve experience in the past and also enable be me carve out time to create new products and services, study further, connect with all of you and improve what I can offer you as a part of my web design and business mentoring services.

What to expect as of January 2020

In summary, 2020 will still very much be a year of service, I’m still going to offer the same amazing customer service, delivering enormous value through my products and services and doing my very best to continue to help and support your businesses in the best ways I know how.

I’ll be restructuring my pricing and packages a little to ensure that I’m honouring my boundaries,  however most of the modifications will be behind the scenes and all be it that it sounds a little confronting, I am enormously excited for the factor that implementing these new strategies will mean I’m utilising my time and resources better and I essentially will be able to engage and support more business owners and causes whilst simultaneously supporting and honouring myself.

I can not wait to share the progress of 2020 with you. From works in progress, completed projects, to resources and tools, tips and insights, causes and community events we’re getting behind and so much more.

If I can be of any assistance moving forward to help you establish and grow your online presence, provide website help and support please don’t hesitate to contact me. 

To have a chat about your requirements and start moving forward with your goals in 2020.


I would LOVE to arrange a FREE 30 Minute discovery call with you to discuss your options and help you get your goals underway!

Send a message via the form below or feel free to give me a call on 0423285233.

Natalie Crowe Designs
Web Design & Business Mentoring

Website Launch: Nixon’s Lawn & Garden Service – Lawn Mowing Newcastle

Lawn Mowing Newcastle | Nixon's Lawn & Garden Service | 0418687167

Lawn Mowing Newcastle

Call Nixon’s Lawn & Garden 0418687167

Hey guys, Nat here,  I’ve been exceptionally busy offering working on clients websites and offer website help to my amazing clients, however I’ve made time to continue to grow and improve my knowledge and skills as  having a website and keeping up with the constant changes happening in the online world means you need to be constantly aware of what’s new and fresh, what changes Google has made to the search engine algorithms and more.  So in addition to completing further training to improve my skills in order to be able to help more clients.  I’ve been improving my local search optimisation skills and well as honing in on improving my development skills.  I am super excited to start putting more of my skillset to use and have been powering through on the goal front! So many targets hit and superseded so many! I have so much more to share about those goes in the coming week  as we are catapulted into 2020…  However today’s post is all about a local lawn mowing service; Nixon’s Lawn & Garden Service which I’ve spent the last few weeks building the new site, optimising the site presence and working on getting this awesome local business in front of as many customers looking for Lawn Mowing Service Newcastle & Lake Macquarie. So without further delay!   I’m proud to announce the lawn of Nixon’s Lawn & Garden Service https://nixonlawns.com.au   Lawn Mowing Newcastle - Nixon's Lawn & Garden Service

Nixon’s Lawn Mowing Newcastle

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Alan, from  Nixon’s Lawn & Garden Service – A Newcastle Lawn Mowing & Garden Company who offer a variety of services to commercial and private clients, including:

  • Lawn Mowing
  • Edging / Whipper Snipping
  • Hedging / Hedge Trimming & Pruning
  • General Gardening
  • Weed Spraying
  • Tree lopping
  • Pressure Washing
  • Rubbish Removal
  • Acreage Mowing
  • Small Space Mowing
  • Mowing for Industrial, Corporate or Real Estate

& a whole lot of other services .

Prompt Lawn mowing services in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & Hunter Valley

Nixon’s Lawn & Garden service has a fleet of vehicles on the road covering around Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland & the Hunter Valley. This means they’re able to service more clients in multiple areas  with their affordable, prompt and reliable lawn care and garden service. We’re not talking about one man and a mower!  Nixon’s has been around for decades. Check out the video below of just some of the vehicles  & equipment Nixon’s Lawn Mowing has to compliment their amazing customer service and dedicated and trained staff. 

Your Local Lawn Mowing Company passionate about providing a quality service:

In the short, this local family business  which has been operating for 28 years, taking care of lawn and garden maintenance for your homes, businesses and workplaces offering:

  • Great pricing and fully insured
  • A team of dedicated and experienced staff.
  • A fleet of vehicles on the road covering all areas of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & the Hunter.
  • NO JOB TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL
  • LARGE commercial / industrial areas through to SMALL spaces
  • All size residential properties & businesses

If you’d be interested in finding out more, or would like to request a lawn mowing quote, feel free to visit the new website. The team are more than happy to provide written quotations on request. Contact Nixon’s Lawn today for a no obligation free quote. – 0418687167 Lawn Mowing Newcastle | Affordable Lawn Mowing Hunter Valley | Reliable Lawn Mowing Lake Macquarie   Call Nixon's Lawn Mowing & Garden Service Newcastle 0418687167

The Importance of working ON your business as well as IN it!

Importance of working ON your business as well as IN it | Business Mentoring Hunter Valley

Business Tip:  Make time to Work ON your business as well as in it!

Hey  guys,
Something I’ve learnt in more than a decade of business as a Web Designer & Business Mentor,  it’s important to work ON your business as well as IN it.  

For me, Working ON and IN my business has had different meanings at different times. However in a nutshell,  if you’re only doing one not the other you run the chance of creating imbalance or feast and famine in your business.

So what on earth am I talking about ?

WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS:

Working ON your business could include things to improve your business and gain more exposure:

  • Writing a blog post
  • Sharing an update on your social pages
  • Planning out content for your website
  • Creating ideas of how to market your business
  • Making changes to your website
  • Doing product or service research

WORKING IN YOUR BUSINESS:

Whereas, working IN your business usually includes doing the tasks to make revenue:

  • Creating your product or service
  • Engaging with your customers about their orders
  • Following up on accounts/ collecting payment
  • Tasks that are needed to keep your business ticking

Because every business is different. Finding that perfect balance between: Doing enough Marketing VS. Selling / Making / Delivery enough products or services, can be challenging.

Here’s a couple of things you can do:

  1. Schedule time in your diary at least once a month, ideally if you can, once a week , to work ON your business. Look at ways to grow your following, market your business and look at how you can improve the business – what information do your prospects need to know right now?
  2. Whilst you’re working IN your business keep a running list of things you could do – sometimes it can be hard to come up with ideas in the moment so keeping a list of ideas can be super helpful.
  3. Keep track of your progress. After you’ve spent time working ON your business take 5 minutes to summarise and track your progress in a journal – today’s  session I did XYZ and I had these additional ideas.    So next time you go to sit down and work on your business you’ll have a starting point rather than having to reinvent the wheel again.

Business Mentoring Hunter Valley | Australia

One of the many things I love about my business is that it allows me to help you with things just like this!   Working ON your business can be a little daunting and it’s great to have someone who has a technical background however is down to earth and can help you overcome obstacles.

If you’d like to have a chat about your business and see how we can work together on your business to help market and grow your business, please visit our Contact Us page or send me a message via our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/nataliecrowedesigns