Susan Finch Solutions

Entrepreneur Perk: Took a half day to celebrate my son.

Couldn't muster more than a half-day today. I'm just too excited that it is my son's seventh birthday.  I am grateful to my fabulous clients who not only didn't make a stink as to my limited availability today, but sent along their wishes to Austin.

In addition to solving email issues, prepping to launch four blogs for clients, and a final design for a law firm, I created my first shaped fondant cake. I've never used fondant before. My friend, Heidi of Fun and Fancy Cakes gave me her secret fondant recipe and some VERY helpful hints.  I still need a ton of practice.

Back to it tomorrow, but today it's cake for breakfast, 18" donut cake from Sesame Donuts for after-lunch classroom treat and laser tag tonight to work off the cake.  Happy Birthday, my sweet boy.

Site Launch: Casey's Plumbing, Portland Metro Area

 

Cause for celebration today!  Launched Casey's Plumbing new site and blog.  We'll be adding more content in the next week, but it was time.  Video to come - continue evolution AND we have a new look.  Everyone is excited at their more uplifiting colors, more efficient content and tools.  The conversation has been opened with the "ask the plumber" form and blog.

 

Casey's Plumbing has an amazing reputation as "The Picky People's Plumber."  They pride themselves on providing the highest quality professional services and products.  Their newsletter is packed with helpful DIY articles, reminders and even recipes.

I will continue to write content for their site and act as project manager. I'm working closely with Maggie Palmer of MKP Creative. She's handling portions of social media and ad campaigns.

Site Re-launch: Laguna Woods Village

The 55+ community of Laguna Woods Village still may be known by its former name, Leisure World in Laguna Woods, California. That's a long story for another time. This active retirement community of 18,500+ residents boasts 200 clubs, five pools, six clubhouses, a theater and their own bus system.

The community has been my client since 1996 and we've been through many versions of their website. "We" refers to Commpro, LLC - the hosting company, owner of the content management system for this site, and web solutions provider that I work with on this account.  I was employed by Commpro when we were all in California, near what was then Leisure World.  I've been working on this account since 1996 with Commpro President, Greg Smith.

Here are some of the inceptions, thanks to the web.archive.org/ site.

If you haven't tried that site before, it's handy to look at previous versions of websites, track growth and have a laugh sometimes. I wince when I look at my old stuff.

Laguna Woods Village is very progressive and its boards and property management company, PCM, embrace new technology. They see it as a way to improve the lives of the residents, inform potential residents and be more efficient in communication. Laguna Woods Village also has its own television station: TV6 that's just for residents of the community. They were ready for a more streamlined site with less clutter and images that better depicted their lifestyle. I'm grateful to them and to Commpro for allowing me to work with them on this site.

Site redesign: City of La Habra, California

The City of La Habra has been my client since 2000.  We've been through a few redesigns over the years as technology and needs have expanded to include RSS, at-a-glance calendar, syndicated content and social media automation and tie-ins.  The site uses Commpro CMS.  They are quite fond of this CMS because it's easy every time a new person comes on staff.  They can easily train them through the video library and there is no need to send someone away to an all-day or two-day seminar to learn how to update the website.  Commpro is available to answer questions whenever they call, crate customization reasonably and quickly and custom training videos as requested for typical tasks.  This makes our client happy.

This site launched today.  We are still refinding the nav, but staff is thrilled with the outcome.

This newest version of the City of La Habra's site includes more links to online services, as they have greatly expanded their offerings. 

There are fewer images in the template and a print friendly version to cut down on inks.  Below is the previous version.  I'm looking forward to help them to continue to evolve to best serve the needs of their residents, visitors and businesses.

 

Site Re-launch: Pacific Medical Supply Salem

Tom Ruddy is a neighbor who came to me a couple of years ago to help him reclaim his website for his company, Pacific Medical Supply Salem. It was with a local telephone directory and hosted by their online division. He wasn't pleased and wanted out. He also wanted to really push his products and gain more exposure. At the time, he wasn't ready for a redesign, so I worked with the inherited design for the blog and the site. His customers increased, sales increased and he tracked it all down to the work being done online to increase his exposure.

He and I met recently and we came up with a plan for a new site design, modifications to some section and a new focus of products. The site launched earlier this week.  We'll tackle the blog design next so that it matches the main site.

You can see the previous look here and on his blog: blog.pacmedsupplysalem.com

Site Launch - Ribary & Associates - Tia Ribary

This morning the new tiaribary.com launched.  Tia and I met through Women Entrepreneurs of Oregon.  She worked miracles in my office, helped me think differently about organizing and was ready to revamp her website.  Actually, she was ready to blow it up and start over.  With the aid of Maggie Palmer's copywriting and my design/build she has a new WordPress site that gives her a unique, not purchased template look and allows her to engage with her clients and associates through blog posts, twitter and other venues.  The goal was to quickly spell out all of the services offered by Ribary & Associates, state Tia's role in the business community and engage the visitors quickly. Tia is pleased, as am I. The site is uplifting and accomplishes all of her goals.

It was a pleasure to design this site after I had redesigned her logo at the beginning of the year.  Image at right is the "before."

Women Entrepreneurs of Oregon Launches New Site

Here's the challenge:  gather a group of 12 or so Oregon and SW Washington women who own their own businesses, most have families to coordinate AND the volunteer on the board of WEO - Women Entrepreneurs of Oregon.  These busy and fantastic women spent countless hours honing their needs for the organization to continue on its growth tragectory. A new website was definintely in order, as well as a new way to manage event and sponsor registration and membership renewals. 

The solution: After reviewing several CMS solutions and event management ideas, they landed on Commpro's CMS because of the VERY friendly admin, ability to easily manage private content, create a member directory with a few clicks for each new member and ease in communicating with the membership.

They also needed an event management system that could be twisted to handle membership registration, sponsorships, etc.  cVent had the solution.  It meant that several members had a lot of new procedures to learn, but everyone is very happy with the new system.

Thank you, WEO, for allowing me to do this project with you.

Revisiting some favorite projects from the past year or so.

Sometimes I forget how much I like a design I've done in the past.  I ran across a few via Twitter and wanted to share them again.

• http://www.elegantcateringandwines.com/ - resource for discount wines
• http://kayhunter.info/ - helping you improve your professional image
• http://lagunawoodsvillage.com/ - 18,500 seniors in one community
• http://www.cityofbrea.net/ - flash opener, but still a beautiful site.
• http://www.smilecare.com - affordable dental care
• http://www.lairhillmusic.com/ - lessons in music
• http://www.smithsdoglodge.com - a great place for your dog to hang out in Colorado
• http://antiickypoo.com/ - come on - you just have to click on this one.

Thanks for allowing me this trip down memory lane.  I have fabulous clients!

 

Product and Site Launch - Diamond Elite Ultrasonic Toothbrush

Dr. Raymond Frye is at it again.  We have his two sites:  Bling Dental and Icing Teeth Whitening.  Now he has developed a revolutionary toothbrush and is accepting preorders for - the Diamond!  It's gorgeous and has been a lot of fun to launch.

The final site is yet to come, this is just to get the ball rolling and the ability to pre-order a $219 toothbrush for $89 up and running right away.  The client is pleased and we are all excited.  This campaign involves a blow in postcard to go with Icing30 orders and will also have an eblast to promote the presale launch.

When Dr. Raymond has an idea, the sparkling snowball grows rather quickly, and it's always a success.  Its' his talent.  I'm so happy to be a part of his ideas and creative process. He gives me the freedom to come up with ideas and venues.  It allows our realtionship to succeed for the benefit of all involved.

Lair Hill Music Launches First of Three New Sites

Brandy Keehn and Marc Hutchinson are talented musicians and teachers.  They wanted a new online presence to give people the feeling they've already met these two in person as they make a decision on which teacher to choose for their children.

Next will be a site for each Brandy and Marc to promote their performance careers.

Please visit lairhillmusic.com, especially if you are in the Portland, Oregon area and in search of a music teacher for your child,teen or yourself.