PLACE IT Care Plan
PLACE IT is San Francisco’s premier home organizing & design company. Founder and Lead Designer, Gwen McClure, founded the company after 20 years designing office spaces for large corporations like Apple, Bank of America and Price Waterhouse. PLACE IT provides organizing, interior design, staging, and move management services to help individuals create a place for everything and everything in its place.
The Goal
Gwen McClure approached us over two years ago to redesign her website. As part of the design solution, we migrated her host and upgraded her website from Wix to WordPress. This allowed Gwen to have a more sophisticated site that was faster, more reliable, and better integrated with other marketing platforms like her email provider. This turned her website into a tool she could use.
“I use my website several times a week to educate my existing clients and give potential clients information on what they can expect when they work with me. My website saves me hours and hours of time because I don’t have to repeat the same thing over and over again when I’m marketing my services. Everything I need and want to say is on my website.”
The WordPress (WP) platform gave Gwen more robust tools and integrations like speed optimizations, integration with social media, and some on-site SEO optimizations. She was able to do more with her website because the WP platform is powerful, but that kind of website is a living, breathing thing — it needs ongoing support and maintenance.
Gwen was quick to sign up for the WordPress Care Plan that included “website security, optimized performance & load time, custom updates, and most importantly, technical compliance.”
While there are many happy WP DIYers, Gwen was not interested in being one of them.
The Solution
We asked what encouraged Gwen to sign up for one of our WordPress Care Plans and with lightning speed and she answered, “I didn’t have time or the expertise to deal with sending out newsletters, social media and making sure my website was updated.”
The learning curve for WP is a steep one, especially as your digital marketing goals grow. Gwen knew that trying to figure out things like a valid security certificate, secure forms, and privacy policies on her own would take hours upon hours away from her primary focus: building her business. Gwen appreciates all the things we do to save her that time.
“Websites and technical stuff is not my area of expertise and I don’t have time to learn about it. Actually, I’m not interested in learning, I’d prefer to increase my interior design, move management, and organizing knowledge so I can help my clients.”
For everything she does want to be a part of — such as creating shareable content for her blog — she doesn’t want to rely on trial & error. Instead, Gwen takes advantage of the video tutorials & training we offer in the care plan.
If we show Gwen how to do something (such as adding an image to a blog post), we record the video and store it on her WordPress Dashboard. If she needs a quick tip or reminder, it’s all right there when she logs in.
“Having Smack Happy on board has saved me hours and hours of time, but more importantly I could never have created such a functional, beautiful and high-level website that gets the visibility I need by myself.”
The Result
We asked Gwen to share what kind of results she’s seen since purchasing this type of WordPress Support in 2017. She told us, “peace of mind! I never have to give my website a second thought!”
We dug a little deeper to get some specifics:
“Increased traffic to my website, much better content, and an easy to navigate website. My website is now a tool I use to educate and sell my services. My business has increased by 20% and the level of clients has increased. Because of this, I’ve increased my hourly rate.”
We love that Gwen is as smitten with the care plan as we are. We built many of the plan’s features around clients just like her: solopreneurs who need full-service WordPress Support to scale their business.
Like many solo run businesses, Gwen wears a lot of hats. As an entrepreneur who’s looking to balance working in her business and on her business, Gwen wanted to delegate the specialty tasks that free herself up for the things that only she can do.
“As an entrepreneur, I always thought I needed to be an expert in all aspects of my business i.e. bookkeeping, web design, social media, taxes, speech giving, networking, selling…. I’ve realized over the years this is not possible. I now call in the experts in their field so I can concentrate on what I love doing which is helping my clients love the home they live in.”
Are you a solo entrepreneur or small business looking to delegate some of the many hats you wear? Learn more about our WordPress Support Packages, including a variety of care plans and add-ons to meet the specific needs of your business.
From The Client
I hired SmackHappy because of Nicole Hanusek’s expertise and calm & positive attitude. When I was introduced to her associate, Danielle Iera, I felt like I’d won the lottery. Danielle’s technical and creative abilities are outstanding. I was blown away by these two women! They’re professional, very patient, easy to work with, collaborative, creative, did I say patient? I especially liked how they educated me throughout the project. I could ask dumb questions without feeling dumb. Their suggestions enhanced my website from an esthetic and technical standpoint. What they produced outshined my previous website because it was clearly organized and beautiful to look at. I’m moving into my next chapter, as a business owner, with more confidence because of these two talented women.
Thanks to Danielle for the first time since opening my business I feel proud of my website. Yesterday I got a call from a potential client asking a lot of questions about my interior design services. I directed her to my website and walked through a number of sections with her. My website is so complete and fun to look at she was thrilled with the info. She especially liked being able to see all the process steps and the case studies. Danielle has also been managing my social media and newsletter distribution so I no longer have to stress over it. My name is out there consistently and professionally because of Danielle. Ohh.., did I mention she’s helped me design brochures? I don’t know what I do without her. I can now focus on what I love; interior design, organizing and move management.