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About BYOB
Our goal is to help small businesses develop their own effective business web presence. We do that by teaching folks how build and customize websites that they can control, manage and maintain themselves. We know from personal experience that an effective web presence can be a low cost high return marketing tool.
The Problem
BYOBWebsite.com was founded by me, Rick Anderson. I’ve been running a residential architectural firm since 1992. In the fall of 2008 the bottom dropped out of our business, as it did with most residential architects. At the time, Laura and I had 3 kids in college and one in high school and we couldn’t afford a significant loss of income. All of a sudden we needed to find some way of getting more work.
The Solution
Watch the video – Is this guy for real?
I’d been dabbling with a website (www.rickandersonaia.com) for a couple of years but it was just for fun and wasn’t necessary from a business standpoint. In October of 2008 I purchased the domain name www.hungryarchitect.com and decided to revamp my site toward single family home owners. A friend suggested I add a blog to the site so I did some research and discovered WordPress. I installed WordPress on my site and started blogging about northwest residential architecture in November.
By December homeowners in the Seattle area started calling me and in January we got our first internet related job. Within 3 months we’d gotten 14 new projects and were getting new calls every week.
The Hungry Mason
Along comes my brick layer buddy who for the first time in over 20 years didn’t have any work. I told him what I’d been doing and showed him how to setup WordPress on his domain. He bought the domain name www.hungrymason.com and built his portfolio website entirely in WordPress. All of a sudden he starts getting phone calls and emails. Before you know it he’s turning away work. In the fall of 2009 all of his work comes from people searching the internet, finding his site and calling him.
Far Beyond our Expectations
In early summer our architecture workload has increased to the point where we hire another staff person. We raise our rates back to normal. We stop taking every job that comes our way. We actually get behind because we have too much work.
Unexpected Advice
In mid summer I hire Victoria Fann, a small business consultant, to help me hone the message and content on the new website I’m building (www.rickandersonarchitects.com). I confess to Victoria that I’ve really enjoyed marketing my architectural business online. The surprise result of my consultation with her is the recommendation that I pursue a new business venture helping other small business owners accomplish what I’ve accomplished.
It’s not Rocket Science
So here I am. I’m a Washington State Registered Architect. I’m not actually a web design expert, or an internet marketing expert. However, I am someone who successfully used the knowledge I had to develop a website and market my own local service business online. Just to show that it wasn’t a fluke I showed my mason friend how to do it as well and it’s working for him.
I have a long history in volunteer style adult education. I’ve taught adult courses for the Washington State PTA, The King County chapter of the American Red Cross and for The Mountaineers. Folks say I have a way of explaining things that is easy to understand.
I’d love to teach you how to develop your own website.
