That kind of energy is huge this time of year, in life and in business. We want to make the most of it, so it’s tempting to do ALL THE THINGS… and yet, you probably don’t have room to do ALL of the things right now, right?

So, if one of your big changes is about a redesign of your website, I’m going to suggest you pump the brakes for a second. (A web designer telling you to slow down with your website? What?!) 

Yes, seriously, because as excited as you might be to dive in, it’s worth your while to do a quick sanity check! There are a few big things to think about that’ll help you decide whether the time is Now or Not.

Is your website actually reaching your goals?

Think about it: if your website is doing the job it’s designed to do, then there might be other parts of your business that need your attention more.

If it’s not bringing you those leads or sales or email newsletter signups, though, then now is the time to fix that!

If you’re thinking, “What do you mean, goals?” then the answer is probably No. That also means you have some thinking to do! 

Before you start to redesign your website, you’ll want to know what results you want to see from it! Even a simple website plan can be a huge help for the web designer you plan to work with.

Does your audience know how to find what they need?

Outside of serving your goals, your website’s job is to give your audience what they want. So ask yourself: can they find it?

If you’re getting constant emails and phone calls with questions that you know your website is supposed to answer, your website likely does need a tune-up.

Or, maybe your website used to be a great fit! …But now it feels more like you’re trying to fit an entire circus’ worth of content into a tiny clown car. If you’ve outgrown what you have, it could be time for something new.

Does your website feel like a maze? Simply sitting down and planning your website can help you and your web designer get a handle on what content needs to be there–and what’s most important.

Does it look appealing to you and the people you want to attract?

I’ll be the first to tell you that even the prettiest, most dynamic website won’t sell a damned thing without appealing and inviting content. 

Even so, I’m not going to tell you that looks don’t matter, because, well, they do. 

Good content does a lot of the heavy lifting on any good website, but it can’t do any lifting if you’re embarrassed to show your website to anyone!

It may be high time to redesign your website if:

• it doesn’t visually align with the look of your other marketing materials
• the design doesn’t appeal to the audience you want to attract (note: the audience you want may not be the same as the audience you’re already getting!)
• the look and feel doesn’t fit with where you want your business to go next.

So, how much do looks matter to you? They could be a good enough reason for a redesign.

If you redesign your website, do you even have time to think about it?

This is a really hard question for small businesses, because we always seem to be busy! Still, even if you hire a professional to redesign your website, it’s still going to take some of your time.

Any good web designer will at least some of your time for things like:

• giving them a sense of what you want your website to look like
• telling them what you want your visitors to do on your website
• giving them feedback about whether things are headed in the right direction
• making sure all of the information that needs to be there is included.

If it’s your busy season, and you don’t even have 5 seconds to reply to your web designer with a thumbs up emoji, you might have to put redesigning your website on hold for a bit.

Do you know you’re too busy now, but want to make sure you don’t put it off? You can book a web design consultation now, and let them know when you’ll be ready to start! Your dream web designer may not even be able to start right away, but even if they are, no creative is ever going to complain about being booked out into the future.

If all of this talk about website goals and content has you reeling, my Simplify + Sell Website Planner is just the thing! Get your own copy, organize your thoughts, and get clear on your goals for the new year.

A team like ours is ready to help, but good web designers can get it done better and faster if you have a good idea of what assistance you need. 

Before you start vetting web designers or jumping on consult calls, let’s discuss how you can start outlining a smart plan for your website design.

What Exactly Do You Do?

If you’re thinking about a website, your initial thoughts might lean more towards design elements – colors, fonts, logos, et cetera. While these elements are certainly important (and we’ll get to them!), your offering should take center stage. 

Start your design mission with clarity about who you are, what you offer, and who will benefit from this offering.

What Exactly Should Your Website Do?

Consider your website as your virtual storefront. If someone were to walk into your shop or office, what kind of experience would you want them to have? Would you make a great first impression if a potential customer had to wade through piles of boxes just to get to you? Probably not!

A physical storefront exists to feature what you’re selling, and make it easy to buy. From the customer’s perspective, they want a place where what they need is within reach and easy to find. Your online storefront should have the same intentions. 

As you embark on your website design project, be clear about what you want your website to feature and how you want your potential customers to engage with you.

Put the “Fun” in “Functionality”

With your offering taking center stage, you should also think about how your new website can improve the experience you deliver to your client. 

Having your contact information accessible and easy to find is an excellent start. Perhaps there could also be questions you can add to a contact form to speed up the onboarding process.

Can your website eliminate some extra steps for the customer as well? Functionalities like online scheduling or payment portals can help them start working with you quicker. 

Online stores or e-commerce plugins can also improve the shopping experience if you’re selling products. Again: the goal is creating a clear path for your customer to get what they need.

Good Design Solves Problems!

Remember when I said we’d get to design elements earlier? Well, here we are! Smart, intentional design sets you apart from your competitors. A unique look or brand can also help attract your dream customers.

You may be thinking, “Geez, if design is so important, why’d you wait so long to bring it up?” If you’ve chosen a smart design team, their goal should be purpose-driven design. You want the look and feel of your website to support your mission and vision, and to guide your site visitors on a clear path through your site. Yes, the design should attract your ideal folks – but it’s your offering that should keep them engaged and interested.

All of this said: it definitely helps if you have at least a general idea of how you’d like things to look. If you already have a brand kit, complete with a logo and color palette, that’s a great start. 

Maybe you’ve seen other websites that inspire you (or turn you off!). Sharing these with your design team can get the creative wheels turning. Don’t be shy about letting them know about your likes and dislikes!

If a new or refreshed website is one of your 2023 goals, you know we’re ready to help! If you want an assist mapping it all out, our website planner is the perfect tool to get that started. Or jump on a consultation call with us! 

So what’s the catch? Even if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, not every testimonial is gold for online marketing. 

Not every testimonial is helping your website sell for you, either. In fact, the way you use testimonials on your website could actually be hurting you.

There are a few things to watch out for when you’re choosing your next website testimonial.

Testimonials that are too vague

We know that a good testimonial can build a potential client’s trust in your business. 72% of folks say testimonials help them trust a business, in fact. Even so, some testimonials don’t do the best job of that.

Consider this: have you ever asked a friend about a service you’re looking for, and they give you a recommendation. They’re glowing with praise, saying, “they’re so great! Totally the best in town!” When you get that service for yourself, however, you find that it’s… well, not so great?

That’s because what makes them great for your friend doesn’t necessarily make them great for you.

Testimonials on your website are like that, too. All the “greats,” and “bests,” prove that someone loved your work, but they don’t tell your audience why that is.

When you’re choosing which testimonial deserves to be on your website, look for that why. Testimonials from clients who talk about the problem you solved, the positive changes they felt, or the parts of your approach they loved are way more convincing than a bunch of vague superlatives taking up space.

Testimonials that take up too much space

Speaking of taking up space, one of the biggest ways that testimonials can cost you sales is by taking up too much space–especially on your homepage.

I’ve seen testimonials that are practically a novella pasted onto a business homepage, and let me be real with you: nobody is going to read that testimonial. They may skip over it entirely.

And when they skip over it, they may also skip over something important–like that button to book a session with you. Or they could leave your website entirely.

So, keep it brief. Choose the one or two sentences from that endless string of praises that actually communicate what’s so special about your work. Give folks just enough to keep them interested, without distracting from the most important elements of your website.

Testimonials on your website that are hidden away

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I stand by it:

Testimonials pages on your website are a waste of time.

Sure, having a testimonials page is better than having no testimonials on your website at all, but you’re missing out on a lot of the benefits of a really juicy testimonial.

Having testimonials on their own separate page just hides them away from your audience, hoping that they’ll just happen to click on the right link to see them.

Wouldn’t it be much more powerful to share the details of one of your services on your website, and then have that perfect testimonial right there alongside it, telling your audience exactly why they should book you right now?

Yes, yes it would. 

If you have that social proof, don’t hide it away. Try pairing it with your other web content for that extra punch.

Want some help figuring out what should go on your homepage instead of that college-essay-length testimonial? You can try a Website One-on-One to get some of my quick insights, or book a Website Design consultation and my team and I will hook you up with a full project that guide you through it.

Still, with this July being the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, now is a good time to think about website accessibility, too. Some accessibility issues can get pretty technical, but there are some simpler ways to improve website accessibility that will help other folks in your audience, too.

Headings can improve your website accessibility.

Using headings throughout your website is just good practice, especially if you have a longer piece of content. Larger and more visually interesting headings help break up content visually for everyone, whether they have a disability or not. 

If you’re using a website builder, making the text “look nice” isn’t enough for website accessibility. If you see text options in your builder such as Heading 1, Heading 2, etc., you want to use them! Those Heading options correspond to their own special tags in the website code, so assistive technologies can recognize them as headings, making it much easier for folks to move through your website.

An added bonus of using headings properly: they can also help your search engine rankings! Using key search terms in heading tags is great for SEO.

Use descriptive link text.

“Click here” is a frequently used phrase for links on websites, and I’m here to tell you: that is precisely what NOT to do for website accessibility. 

People who rely on screen readers to navigate your website won’t know what the purpose of the link is or where it will take them, if you just use “click here” for your link text.

Instead, be descriptive with the link text you choose. For example, you can let folks know that they’re about to learn more about web design services. For buttons, you can keep it shorter but still give a clue about what will happen when they click, like saying Book a Consultation on a button that leads to your bookings calendar.

Check your color contrast.

Colors aren’t just for making your website look engaging and pretty–they also help your audience easily distinguish different pieces of content! However, when folks in your audience have color blindness, or even just have trouble reading dark text on a darker background, you can lose their attention pretty quickly.

This is why it’s important to choose colors carefully. If you’re working with a good web designer, then they’re hopefully checking for color contrast already! If you aren’t, there are some tools that can help, such as this color contrast checker, or even a Chrome add-on that lets you see like someone who’s color blind.

Use Alt tags on your images.

Something we’ve definitely noticed in web design trends is a reliance on photos and graphics. And hey, I get it. They’re eye-catching and inviting when done right! 

Unfortunately, screen readers can’t interpret photos and graphics used on your website. (sad trombone) That’s where Alt Text comes in! In short, alt-text describes the photo that a screen reader sees when it’s on your website. That way, folks with vision impairments can at least understand what’s in the image, even if they can’t see it.

And, just as with headings, using Alt tags on your images can also boost your SEO, so it’s definitely worth doing. Just look for an area in your website builder (such as WordPress) for a place to type in the short description of your photo.

This post isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to improve website accessibility, but I hope I’ve given you a few ways to help make sure your website is inviting in all of the people who are looking for you. To learn more about website accessibility, take a peek at ADA Site Compliance’s 20 Ways To Improve Web Accessibility. If you’re looking for help from a website pro, give us a shout.

I’ll freely admit that I’m biased when I tell you that, well, I don’t exactly recommend it. Web design is my literal job, after all. And yet, I also understand that it may feel like your only option–especially when your business is young and you’re not raking in piles of cash yet.

So, I won’t tell you No, but I will say that there are important things to keep in mind if you attempt it, and they may not be what you expect.

Get organized before you build.

Nearly 20 years of designing websites has taught me that trying to create a website without knowing what kind of content you’re working with is very difficult. You need to know what content will be on your website before you can even think about the design.

When you build your own website, you know going in that it’s a design task, but it’s also an exercise in organizing! You need to choose what to say to get (and keep) your audience’s attention, and where to say it. 

The thing is, you can’t organize something if there’s nothing there to organize! Moreover, you don’t want your website to be disorganized, either.

Taking the time to map out what content needs to be on your website will save you a lot of time, and it’ll keep all of the important details on your website from looking clunky or feeling like an afterthought.

Know what you want to say.

I know what you’re thinking: writing website content takes SO MUCH time. This is time that, as a small business owner, you rarely have.

Before you talk yourself out of it, though, take it from me: good content is too important to gloss over or skip out on, if you want your website to be useful! 

Getting a clear idea of what your website needs to say is a great starting point to getting organized. If you’re not sure where to begin, think about your differentiators–you know, those unique-to-you aspects that marketers love to point out. 

You want to be sure the messaging on your website clearly communicates what you love to do, and who you love to do it for, while letting your authentic voice shine through. Content that’s clear, concise, and authentic will make sure that folks get what they want from your website, and that they actually take the next step towards working with you.

Know what images fit your business.

Words are important when it comes to planning your website, but when you’re trying to communicate a lot with a limited number of words, the right image can convey things that might not fit into your copy.

That’s also not to mention the fact that web design is more dependent on images than ever. Current web design trends show websites full of high-quality photos or bold, modern, and fun graphics and illustrations. So, if you do build your own business website, take the time to gather images that really speak to what you do.

Before you plop a stock photo into your new website, remember: images are another opportunity to stand out and differentiate yourself! Choose unique images, or even do a quick photoshoot, if you have the resources.

Know what your customers need to accomplish.

Speaking of taking the next step, what does your audience need to do to get started with you? “Send me a message” may seem like the simplest answer, but it’s often not very satisfying for you, or for your potential client. They’re left hanging out in limbo waiting for your answer, and you’re left with another email to reply to–and said email may not even be a request to work with you.

On a basic level, your current and potential customers need to determine if you’re able to help them with their problem. And, once they’ve done that, they’ll want a concrete next step.

So, think about this: is there a way for you to make that Get Started step feel more satisfying? Consider adding a few pre-screening questions to your inquiry form, or allowing potential clients to book a short consultation. 

And, most importantly, make sure they know how to GET THERE. Your inquiry page isn’t going to be useful if no one can find it! Some folks will need a virtual signpost to get where they need to go, so put it out there clearly and visibly. And don’t be afraid to put more than one signpost up along the way.

It’s no small feat to build your own business website, but taking the time to plan and create strong web content will make it more effective, even if it isn’t pixel-perfect. 

If you need some extra support to make it happen, try our self-paced program that guides you through planning your website journey and creating your content.

…but before you can take advantage of that, you’ll need to actually set up Google Analytics tracking on your website.

This process–and Google’s overly-complex web of sub-menus ;)–can be tricky to navigate, so this video will take you on a quick spin through initial setup, to help get you to the next step.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that it’d take a long time to teach you how to make your website look sharp. Still, there are a few basics of design that you can use to make your website more user-friendly.

User Expectations: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Most of us have been using the web long enough to see that there are certain patterns and trends to how websites are laid out. That’s not an accident! Experienced website experts have tried and tested a lot of different structures and design standards over the years, so we’ve learned a lot about what’s intuitive.

The good news: that means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel—in fact, we should avoid getting too wild with structural changes in your website design! Folks have come to expect certain structures because of the time they’ve spent on other websites in the past. When you stick with those patterns, your website is going to be more familiar, and users will have an easier time finding what they need.

Don’t be afraid to look at websites of other brands you admire, and see how they’ve laid things out and what they have in common with each other. They can provide clues for how you can make your own website more intuitive.

The Most Important Info Comes First

You’ve probably heard me say it before: you have a tremendously short amount of time to capture your audience’s attention on your website. Furthermore, nobody visits a website because they want to do things the hard way! Doing business online is supposed to make life easier for your audience.

You can make their experience with you easy from the start, by making it easy to find important information on your website.

Think about the last time you wanted to visit a local restaurant. You probably wanted to know their hours, their address, and maybe check out their menu. Did they make it easy to find that information? (A surprising number of eateries still don’t!) You probably didn’t want to read a whole page of information just to find a few small-but-necessary details.

When you’re planning out each page of your website, think about the information that your audience needs the most, and make it easy to spot. If getting vital information feels like a scavenger hunt, your visitors may just give up.

Fair warning: this can be a challenging task. Too much information too soon can intimidate your visitors. Still, planning your content intelligently in order to strike that fine balance does pay off, so it’s worth the effort!

Make Calls-to-Action Catch Their Eye

Remember what it felt like walking into the Apple Store for the first time in a long while? Did you look around and think to yourself, “I’m here… but what am I supposed to do next?” That feeling is exactly what you don’t want your website audience to have.

If we’re already unsure of how far the average visitor will read, they also may not read very carefully. That means they could skim right over that booking link or purchase button you’re dying for them to click!

Luckily, this is a problem that’s easily solved: a splash of color, a bold icon or border, or larger text are all ways you can draw more attention to that call-to-action. Catch their eye with visuals, and make it clear what will happen when they click through.

It’s natural to want to stand out online—we want that for you, too!—but we also want to be sure it doesn’t muddy your audience’s experience. If you stay in touch with what your audience needs, you can have fun experimenting with brand voice and visuals, while still giving folks an easy-as-pie experience that delivers on what you promise.

Want to know more about making your website serve you and your customers better? Our Purpose-Powered Website course is designed to guide you through dialing in your content strategy and structure, and our next cohort starts in just a few weeks! Learn more about the program and reserve your spot.

You don’t have to know everything about it, but having a basic understanding will help you make the right choice!

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a bit like renting an apartment. Once your website is ready to be born, it needs a place to live on the web, and it needs an address where folks can easily find it.

You can think of your domain name–as in, the .com, .org, etc. address you purchase–as the address that lets visitors know where to find you.

Your web host, on the other hand, is who you’re renting space from. Web hosts store your website on a server that’s online 24/7. That means it’s ready to serve up your website whenever someone asks for it.

How Do I Choose A Good Web Host?

There are a few big considerations when you’re deciding on web hosting:

Speed and Reliability. It may seem like a no-brainer, but the web host you choose should be fast and reliable! That means it should load your website quickly, and it should very rarely have downtime–even when a lot of people are visiting. Some low-cost web hosting plans will have tight limits on traffic, because they hope you’ll upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Customer Support. If your website does go down for some reason, your web host could be the reason. If your web host simply tries to sell you an upgrade every time something goes wrong, however, they may not have your best interests in mind.  When you contact their customer support team, do you get prompt responses? Do they offer you useful, easy-to-understand details? Do they actually resolve the problem?

Control Over Your Website. Some web hosting companies will insist you get all of your services through them, or they’ll make you pay additional fees for add-ons that are free elsewhere. Do they require you to buy your domain name through them? Do they require you to use their page builder, or pay for extra email addresses? If there are a lot of restrictions on what you can do, chances are there are hidden fees waiting in the wings.

Shopping Your Values. The tech industry has a history of being, well, pretty problematic. Web hosts are no exception, so you may want to keep an eye on what they’re putting out there (anybody remember GoDaddy’s cringe-y Super Bowl ad? CW: gross kissing audio) to see if they reflect values that you’re comfortable with.

Why Does Website Maintenance Matter?

Every website needs a bit of regular maintenance, such as software and plugin updates, to make sure it stays up-to-date and secure. Maintenance plans can vary wildly from one provider to the next, however, and your web host may or may not offer the right service at a reasonable cost. Before you dive in with the first option that seems easy, consider this:

Don’t get scared into overpaying. Unless something in your website gets seriously broken, it should not cost you $1000/month just to keep your plugins updated. Some website companies will intimidate you with tech jargon to sell you an expensive package, but hold steady and make sure to do a little research before you commit.

…But don’t skip out, either. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s tempting to skip a maintenance plan altogether, especially if you’re a newer business on a tight budget. The trouble is, ignoring maintenance could easily lead to security vulnerabilities (leaving you open to hacking!) or cause issues with how your website looks and functions–especially if your website uses a lot of plugins.

Using WordPress? Look for managed hosting. If your website is built in WordPress, managed WordPress hosting is the way to go. It’ll cost a bit more per month than standard hosting, but the web host will also install software updates for you, so you’ll always be up-to-date.

Hopefully, you’re now more confident about finding the right home for your website, but if you’re still feeling nervous, you can always ask your web designer for recommendations. They may even have a hosting partner they can set you up with, like we do!

Or, if you’re ready to shift your WordPress site away from an underwhelming web host, let us take care of you with one of our Maintenance Plans. That means one less thing for you to worry about, which I’ll wager sounds like a sweet deal to most any business owner.

If you’re a beginner, or if you’re peeking under the hood of a WordPress website you’ve paid to have built, you might ask: What exactly is going on with that Plugins panel?

What is a WordPress plugin?

In short, a plugin is an add-on that serves a specific function on your website, which isn’t normally included in WordPress core software. Not everybody needs every single functionality under the sun, so developers have created little modules that you can “plug in” to your website when you need them.

Some WordPress plugins are completely free, while others have “lite” versions with paid upgrades, and still others are available for a fee.

Just as it is with everything else in life, you get what you pay for with plugins. That free plugin you have your eye on may be less powerful or harder to use than a paid plugin that serves the same function.

Why should I use WordPress plugins?

There’s a lot to like about WordPress plugins, whether you’re a website pro like me, or you’re just getting your feet wet.

Plugins are a huge time-saver. Custom development is really valuable for solving specific website problems! For more common functions, however, there’s no reason to waste time reinventing the wheel. Just take a spin through the WordPress plugins directory, and see if someone’s already created a plugin to handle that functions for you!

Plugins give you flexibility. Not only can they make life easier for developers, they can also give regular users more control. Instead of dealing with code every time you want to add or change a web form, for example, the right forms plugin will let you build and make changes in an easy drag-and-drop interface.

Plugins are actively maintained by developers! “Actively maintained” means that the plugin is regularly updated to ensure it works with the most current version of WordPress. That means less potential for problems, inconsistencies, or security issues as the WordPress core evolves and improves.

Okay, what’s the down side?

There’s no perfect system, unfortunately, and while plugins can be a really powerful problem-solving tool for WordPress web design, there are also a few reasons why you might not want to go wild and install 20+ plugins on your website.

Not all plugins are actively maintained. One drawback of free plugins, in particular, is that their developers may not have the capacity to maintain them, and that can spell bad news over time. Updates to the WordPress core can cause outdated plugins to stop functioning correctly, leaving you scrambling to find an up-to-date solution when something breaks.

Luckily, paid plugins are almost always actively maintained, so a small investment up-front can buy you security in the longer term.

Too many plugins can slow down your website. This is mostly in more extreme cases, but think of it this way: each item you add to a process adds to how long it takes. A few plugins is 100% fine, but dozens of plugins can bog things down–and if your website takes forever to load, a lot of potential clients will leave before it does.

Not all plugins will play nicely together. Let’s think of your plugins like children on the playground: a group of just a few kids can have a totally fun and harmonious afternoon together, but as that group of kids gets bigger, so does the potential for conflicts! Your plugins are the same: the more plugins there are, the more

The key to WordPress website success? Moderation.

When I develop a WordPress website, I always aim for moderation with my plugins. I look for the ideal balance of saved time and overall site performance, which often means that I end up using fewer plugins than many other developers.

Still, not using any plugins at all would be a less effective use of our time and our clients’ resources overall—that would add up to extra coding time that could be better used on other aspects of the site. So, I always have some plugins in the mix, just not so many that it becomes unwieldy!

In short, choose wisely with your WordPress plugins. Think about what functionalities you really need, and which ones you could solve another way without much trouble. And, if you like a particular plugin, consider buying the paid version!

Still feel overwhelmed by your WordPress web design? Good thing you’re here, because design for WordPress is our jam! Book a consultation with Upswept, and let us take care of your website headaches for you.

I’m one of those who felt fired up to make a difference, and together, Team Upswept took the Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge last June. Now that we’re in a new year, it feels like a good time to take a look at how our own efforts towards anti-racism are going so far.

Supporting Black People, Supporting Our Community

We’d already been providing support to our small business friends during COVID with our online learning series, so one of our first moves was to harness that audience by collecting and matching community donations for local, Black-led nonprofits. Since June of 2020, we’ve been able to support a different organization each month, and I’ve loved having the chance to shine a light on some of the amazing work that’s being done in our community.

I also more recently had the pleasure of offering pay-what-you-will scholarships for our new Purpose-Powered Website program to Black and Indigenous small businesses and nonprofits. It feels like a small step, but making education and resources accessible, especially for marginalized populations, is something I feel strongly about. It’s one step of hopefully several to follow.

I also did some digging on the companies we support with our dollars each month for services like website hosting, social media analytics, etc. I found that the companies we’ve come to trust with online support have made clear statements and efforts in the realm of equity and inclusion.

Many of them have a long way to go when it comes to bringing BIPOC folks into their ranks, particularly in leadership roles. That wasn’t exactly surprising, given how the tech industry has historically been, shall we say, less-than-welcoming towards folks who aren’t white and male. However, there was one bright spot: I was delighted to learn that our scheduling app of choice, Calendly, is Black-owned!

Learning, Refining, and Raising Our Voices

Even though we’re a small company, I want to make sure that embracing anti-racism as a business feels like a group effort for our team. Even though Upswept is a woman- and minority-owned business (fun fact: one of my parents is a Taiwanese immigrant), we all recognized that we are a predominantly white crew, and we almost certainly have quite a bit left to learn.

I’m lucky to have a very mindful social media manager, and being able to trust her judgment was a gift during tough times. Anna did an incredible job of being both aware of and sensitive to the maelstrom of current events, and adapting our content to better suit the moment.

Still, we as a team know how massively important content is in creating actually-good, impactful website design and social media, so I chose Alison Tedford’s “Stay Woke Not Broke” summer program as a starting point for our education. The program focused on creating content that better speaks to our values, and it guided us through creating our first honest-to-god DEI Statement. 

Upswept has never been particularly shy about our politics, but we collectively felt that fully stepping into our values in a public way was the right call. Not only did we strive to do more of that ourselves, we also encouraged other small businesses to do the same. Every small business who stands up for their values creates more space for others to follow!

There’s Always Room to Grow

There were so, so many things I’d hoped to do and give, but I have to admit that anti-racism efforts haven’t always been top-of-mind. After all, I not only had to keep running a small business, I had to do so at a time when many small businesses who might have become our clients were hit hard by a global pandemic. 

I would have loved to add some Black folks to our team, but hiring just wasn’t in the cards in 2020. I definitely wanted to do more learning, both on my own and with my team, but there were a lot of evenings when chowing on cookies and watching the DuckTales reboot was all my brain could hold. The reality is, 2020 gave everyone a LOT of emotional weight to carry, and it’s hard to do the work each day when you can barely muster the energy to get out of bed. 

That’s part of why this needs to be an ongoing effort: change needs to be sustainable if it’s going to be lasting. Burning ourselves out doesn’t help the movement—we need to be doing the work and giving ourselves breaks when we need them. If enough of us are working at making an anti-racist world a reality, we’ll still be collectively moving forward even when some of us need a break.