Studio Talk 5・Lauren DeLoach
I am so happy to introduce Lauren to you today! Lauren is the founder of the awesome Launch It Girl! team who do beautiful and heart-centered work. I first met Lauren in an awesome Squarespace Facebook group and have always admired her sense of integrity and style. I hope you enjoy learning more about her as much as I did.
Lauren is a brand strategist, web designer, brand designer, and illustrator. She is the co-founder of Launch It Girl. An ever-adventurous entrepreneur, she built her businesses from her laptop while traveling around Southeast Asia. Lauren is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia (the country), and works with clients all over the world.
1) What is your professional background and how did you get into Squarespace web design?
Let's just say the path was not a straight line! :)
I've always been a very creative person. When I was younger I wanted to go to fashion school, but fell into the get-a-responsible-degree-and-job trap and ended up going to business school. After graduating and spending a few years trying to fit a square peg into a round hole (or in my case - a very creative gal into a very beige office at an insurance company), I sold everything I owned, quit my job, packed my life into a couple of suitcases, and moved to South Korea to teach English as a Second Language. I spent about three years teaching and traveling around Southeast Asia. With dreams of building a creative career, I dabbled in freelance design on the side. It took a while for me to connect the dots and erase the 'traditional career path conditioning', but eventually I came out on the other side with a freelance branding and Squarespace web design business. I am 100% self-taught in everything I do today.
I started out doing a wide range of graphic design jobs, and over time niched down to brand design. That evolved to include web design, and later Squarespace web development.
Squarespace came into my life after the task of building my own Wordpress website made me want to throw my laptop off the balcony. I thought to myself - there MUST be a better way! And if I'm on the website struggle bus, then other small business owners and my own clients probably are, too. I quickly discovered Squarespace and found it to be such a breath of fresh air. I had a blast learning the ins-and-outs, playing with code snippets, and pushing my Squarespace site as far as I could beyond the average template. I slowly started to do sites for clients, and over time that part of my business continued to grow.
My freelance brand and web business has blossomed into a company called Launch It Girl. Our team works with women-led brands and female entrepreneurs to help them launch online through brand strategy, copywriting, brand design, and web design/development. We LOVE Squarespace for our clients and primarily design and develop sites on the platform, however we also develop on Shopify and Wordpress for select projects with complex needs.
2) What was your safety net (e.g. a partner, another job, savings etc.) when you first started out and how did that help you?
In my first few years, I dabbled in different business ideas and design work on the side while living/working in Southeast Asia. Eventually I moved back to the US and had plans to take my freelance work full time in the following 1-2 years. That timeline was unexpectedly sped up when my then partner was relocated for work. I decided to join him in Pittsburgh, PA and we agreed that it would be best for me to bite the bullet and dive in full time. He supported both of us for about a year while I navigated my first year working for myself full time. I'm immensely grateful for the many ways he helped me in the early days… from putting together my Ikea desk, to being my tech support, to keeping me fed after twelve-hour work days!
3) How many websites did you design during your first year and how did your clients find you?
That is a great question! I can't remember for certain, but probably less than ten, and by now many of them have been redesigned.
As far as getting clients, it was surprisingly easy! The hard part is finding clients that are well aligned. Most of my clients came through engagement on social media. I was in every 'Women in Business' or 'Female Entrepreneur' group on Facebook and spent a lot of time engaging in those groups. When members posted questions about branding and web design, I offered up free advice. If a group member posted looking to hire a designer, I promoted my services if they seemed like a good fit. We still get some of our business today using this method. The most important thing to remember with this method is to lead with value. Yelling 'hire me, hire me!' will not land the good clients.
4) Do you have a niche market, or a speciality, or are you more of a generalist?
We work primarily with women-led brands and female entrepreneurs. We love working with other women because we can relate to their experiences as fellow women in business. It's one big girl power party around here, and not uncommon for someone to be breast-feeding on a weekly project call! :)
Within that niche, most of our clients are service-based online businesses, small online shops, infopreneurs, and direct-to-consumer brands.
Our team is highly specialized in their respective areas of expertise, which allows us to cover our clients from strategy to launch. Our 1:1 clients love that they are able to handle everything needed for a successful launch with one company so they don't have to manage several different contractors themselves.
Other than our 1:1 services, we are also in the midst of piloting a really exciting program geared toward new businesses launching on a budget. We are so excited about this because from day one, our mission has always been to get more women into entrepreneurship by breaking down some of the barriers to entry - in particular, the financial barrier. We believe that if you have an amazing idea or you are passionate about what you do, you shouldn't be barred from sharing your gifts with the world just because you don't have $5-10k to hire professionals to help you get there.
Our program is designed to help new businesses get online quickly and affordably without cutting corners. They can launch with confidence with a professional, polished online home base that they love. We have condensed what we do with our 1:1 clients (strategy, copy, branding, and web) into a 4-week program that results in a semi-custom website ready to launch for under $1000. The program includes 1:1 time together and group interaction, as well as a self-paced online course component that walks participants through establishing foundational strategy and communication points, designing a simple visual brand, writing compelling website copy, and organizing website content to prepare for a site build. Our team then takes the content produced from the program and customizes one of our custom Squarespace templates. The end result is a semi-custom website ready to launch under $1000.
5) What are your five top tips for starting your own business?
1. Make yourself #1 on your daily to-do list.
SELF CARE. Oh my goodness - this could have five sub tips, but I will just say this: Whatever 'self care' means to you - do it before the day gets away from you. And do it EVERY single day. I spent my first full-time year in business believing that if I wasn't working I was wasting time. I let my health and personal life fall to the wayside, and wound up burnt out and a bit depressed. My business partners and I constantly remind each other that 'if you feel like crap, your work will be crap'. Think about it - as freelancers and entrepreneurs, we ARE our business. So, we have to take care of ourselves first. For me, self care is daily meditation, an evening jog, manicures, and cooking for myself once a week.
2. Start with strategy.
Many people have things like a logo or business cards at the top of their 'New Business To-Do List'. I understand that because the visual part of your brand/business is very exciting! However, these things should actually be near the end of that to-do list. Establishing your business and brand strategy should come first because this is the foundation of your business. You need to define your offers, your audience, and your value… and many other things!
3. No one gives a toot about your logo.
That's right, this brand designer here is stating publicly that your logo is not important. You're probably wondering—well, then what IS important?
Your visual brand. Yes, a visual brand includes the logo, but that's just scratching the surface! A logo is a symbol. A visual brand is the entire visual representation of your brand, including colors and application of those colors, textures and shapes, illustrations, fonts, images, social media graphics, your website design, etc.
The visual brand should support one very important thing: the brand feeling. How do you want your audience to FEEL when they see your brand? Happy? Optimistic? Supported? Trusting? Aligned? Excited? Inspiring feelings like these can't be accomplished with a logo. It can only be accomplished with a comprehensive, cohesive visual brand that supports the brand message and goals.
So, when you're just starting up, don't stress about your logo. And certainly don't spend an arm and a leg on one. Either use a logo template or simply use a modern font for a text-based logo. Focus your time, energy, and startup funds on all the other important stuff that will give your potential clients/customers the FEELS.
P.S. The only time anyone will care about your logo is when it's terrible. So seriously, keep it simple, folks!
4. Be a slacker.
Just kidding, but do use Slack if you're working with a business partner or small team. Also, Zoom, Notion, and Google Drive. These tools have allowed Launch It Girl to run fully remotely since day one. Our team is full of travel junkies, so we are often spread across the world. Right now, we're in Washington State (USA), Mexico, and I'm currently writing this from the Republic of Georgia!
5. Haters will hate. This says everything about them, and nothing about you.
You will probably find that some of the people closest to you will be the least supportive of your biggest goals and dreams. Not everyone will be excited about your decision to go after your dream of starting a business. Many will be a little jealous. And some will just not understand. They don't understand your desire to work for yourself, just like you don't understand why they would want to work for someone else. People are different, and that's ok! However, if your immediate circle is not cheering you on (or if they are actively being unsupportive), find yourself a circle of people who will—namely other people in business who have even bigger goals than you do!
