Name of your website?David Mitchell Concierge
Your name?
David Mitchell
Your Location (city, etc)
Sudbury
Please give us a short summary of your website?
David Mitchell Concierge is a Personal Concierge and Virtual Assistant Service located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Our website includes information regarding the various services we offer, frequently asked questions, our contact information and a contact form, and our policies and procedures. You will also find links to more information regarding time stress and how our services can help, as well as links to our Facebook and Twitter profiles.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
The last position that I held prior to launching David Mitchell Mitchell Concierge was the Business Development Support Manager for a website development company. It was there that I learned the importance of having a professional web presence online. I opted to do the design myself as I wanted the website to have a personal touch and it was a way for me to hone my website development skills at the same time.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
David Mitchell Concierge is the first website that I have launched. I have plans to launch new ones in the near future.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I chose a variety of business names that I thought were appropriate and then asked for feedback from a variety of unbiased sources.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The design is unique and does a good job of projecting the company image that I am attempting to develop. It is also unique in the sense that it is the only website that I have ever designed and therefore will not look exactly like any other website out there.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My goal is to further develop it and to integrate more features. I would eventually like to include Partners and Vendors pages as well as an rss feed.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
All businesses require some amount of time and money invested in order to ensure success. I feel that most people know when their time and money is well spent based on how successful they feel at the end of the day.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would create a much more interactive website. I would also expand my target market area and focus on larger markets.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Due to the fact that the economy is slow and the unemployment rate is high, there are many qualified individuals looking for work. This makes it easier to ramp up and expand a workforce with competent employees in order to satisfy the level of demand for your product or service.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
So far the process has gone quite seamlessly. I am prepared though for unexpected costs and headaches down the road.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge so far has been educating my market. A personal concierge service is a relatively new concept here and therefore I have had to educate people as to the benefits of using one.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
So far I have used a combination of word of mouth, my business cards, search engine optimization and social media. I have found word of mouth to be the most successful so far as most of the traffic to my site has been direct, but I have a lot of faith that the search engines will start bringing in more traffic soon.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I expected it to take some time but it has ended up being more time consuming than I originally anticipated as I was not satisfied with the first couple of drafts that I came up with. I was expecting the design process to be more difficult however and that ended up being easier than I had anticipated.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I have 7 months left on a government grant to launch this business fully. Therefore the website will remain up for at least the next 7 months. At that point it will depend on the revenues that the business is earning.
Would you like to try designing other websites in the future?
Yes. I really enjoyed this process and it was a tremendous learning experience for me. I am looking forward to the next project that will allow me to refine my newly acquired skills.
What is your website address?
David Mitchell Concierge
