Does your nose tell you it's time for a change?

This morning I was walking along the High St, and overheard somebody in front of me say ”everything is back to normal again now.”

I presume he meant that now all of the excitement and escapism of Christmas and New Year are over, we go back to the drudgery of our daily lives.

If I am brutally honest, his sentence did resonate with me a little. Only a little, but enough that I knew precisely what he was talking about.

Of course, it doesn’t help that today is wet and outrageously windy (so much so that I woke up to discover my fence had blown down, the felt has blown off my shed roof, and about 20% of the contents of the skip in my front garden were decorating my street…I’ll be popular when I get home tonight)

So what does back to normal mean, and why is there such a negative connotation attached to it?

I think it means that there are too many people out there that will spend tomorrow doing precisely what they do today and wishing they weren’t. I think it means that too many of us have the next year already mapped out before us, and whilst we don’t know what subtle variations will occur along the way, we do know fundamentally that unless a large helping of good or bad luck seeks us out, not a lot will change.

So how does that relate to a blog on a web design company’s website?

I suppose this post is just to say that I feel grateful that we get to work on creative projects, with ambitious, forward thinking clients. Our clients don’t just stand still and let life or business simply run it’s course. They are trying to ensure that tomorrow isn’t the same as today, it’s better.

It’s also to say that my business partner, Mark, and I spend every Tuesday night working solely on the development of Edge of the Web. We are just too busy to consider doing it during a working week, but we spend around 5 hours each Tuesday working out how to find new customers, improve our service levels, make our (excellent) staff happy, increase our margins, develop our image, understand where we want our business to be and so on. Every week, we are 10 hours of thinking and planning further ahead then we were last week.

Why not allocate a fixed time to try this for your own business weekly / monthly and see how you feel next year when it comes to “back to normal” time.

If it is normal for you to seek out new opportunities and ways to make your business (or your career/life better), then “back to normal” may be actually quite exciting.

With that said, I am not looking forward to the task of getting my garden back to normal tonight.

Aimee is leaving.

There is a big ‘ol explanation of why Aimee is leaving here, but suffice to say it is on the best possible terms and for the best reasons.

However, it’s also the start of many new exciting things.

We found a super awesome replacement for Aimee, in the form of Jacqui Brown (very much a local design celebrity). Jacqui has been off getting her photos taken to replace Aimee on our site this morning, and will be starting with us in earnest on the 1st November.

Sorry folks, that means you’ll mostly be talking to me (Tom) whilst we wait for two weeks for our replacement client manager, but she is definitely worth the wait. I can’t tell you how excited the whole team are to have Jacqui on board. Don’t worry, I definitely know my stuff when it comes to websites and advising clients…but if I’m honest, do worry a little bit because I’m a bit rubbish with regards my organising skills. I’ll do my best. Promise.

We are also celebrating some other things.

We are about to move office. Visitors to our current premises will know that we outgrew our current place a bit too quickly, and followers of our twitter feed will also know that we’ve been waiting for (bloody) ages for the contractual bits of our move to complete (7 months in fact). Anyway, that saga appears to be almost at an end, and we signed our contract last week. Just waiting on a fire certficate or something now, and we’re good to go.

We are also celebrating our growth (we’re somewhere between 300 and 400 websites in our first 2 years trading) and along the way we’ve picked up some really interesting and exciting clients. There were several jobs we promised we would (use them as an excuse to) celebrate if we won the business, and we did win that business…but we’ve just been too busy to celebrate.

So today…we’re going to have a big party. A party to send off Aimee, and welcome Jacqui, and thank our staff for the insane amount of work that they get through, and celebrate our growth and the pending move. We’ve had some exciting times already, we’ve got exciting times ahead of us, and it’s a disgrace that we left it until now until we celebrated what is happening here.

For our clients, it also means that we’ll be shutting our offices at 2:30pm today in order to party hard. We’ll be checking our emails for emergencies only, but essentially we won’t be delivering good customer service from 2:30 today…because we’ll be drinking. I’ll admit that, because we’ve earned it.

So just a final public note to tell Aimee that we’ve loved having you here, you’ve helped transform the business immeasurably, we’ll miss you and good luck.

Who would like an awesome job?

Well, hopefully, the most awesome person ever.

Here’s why you need to be awesome:

Aimee, our devoted client manager, is not devoted any more. She is going to leave.

Actually that’s not strictly true, I am one of Edge of the Web’s owners and Aimee is my sister who is (truly) awesome at customer services and client management. That’s why when Aimee came back from travelling the world a year ago, I asked if she would be willing to come and develop the client manager role for our business. We wanted to know what difference it would make to our business if we gave our customers the best level of service and care in the industry. I knew Aimee was the right person to help us find this out and consequently it has made a massive difference.

So…fast forward 1 year (and a couple of hundred websites) and it’s time for Aimee to move on. She has been travelling over 100 miles every day to be here in rain and snow, and really has become the face and voice of our business to our customers. Our loss is very much RightMove’s gain, but we always knew this day was coming.

That’s why you’ve got to be awesome. Because Aimee has been, our customers now expect it, and so do we.

So… why is the job so awesome?

The job is about being the glue that holds our business together. That’s not just one of those trivial statements you make to glamorise a rubbish job, this role really does now hold our company together.

Without our client manager we would:

• Not be able to keep our promises to our existing customers
• Not have time to return all the calls to the new enquiries we get
• Not have time to meet with clients and discuss projects
• Not have time to follow up with clients once projects are complete

In fact, what we would be is just like every other web design/development company that starts to grow… a bit of a mess when it comes to communication. Poor communication is the failing of so many businesses. That’s not going to be us.

Your awesome skills

Let’s talk about you for a minute. I guess it would be helpful to know something other than “you need to be awesome”.

You must be organised. We are very busy and you will end up burning out by your next birthday if you are not super efficient.

You must have the potential to understand exactly what we do. We want our client manager to eventually attend (or even lead) sales meetings that are often worth tens of thousands of pounds, but of course that can never happen unless you really know what you are talking about. This might not happen for a long time because it is a complicated product that we sell, but you must have the potential to learn. Of course, if you do know about web stuff already, that would be amazing.

We don’t need you to have a degree, or any specific qualifications, it’s much more important that you can demonstrate that you are organised, have a great personality and interpersonal skills and the willingness and ability to learn.

You must not have a notice period of more than 4 weeks (unless you are so awesome that we would be willing to let our company start falling apart a little bit before you can start).

What if I really want to be a web designer/developer…could this be a route in?

Well, perhaps, but ideally not really. The Client Manager role is so fundamentally important to our business that we don’t just want to use it as a feeder role for a different job. There will be opportunities to learn a bit of web design along the way, and if you are competent and enthusiastic you could do some updating on websites. We definitely want the incumbent Client Manager to view this as a long term role.

If you are looking for a web design role, we’ll probably have a vacancy for this in the next few months, once we have moved. Perhaps wait until then.

Less Rambling…More Job Details

The role is to be the link between our business and our customers. That means:

• Booking in customers and managing the calendars of our designers
• Keeping customers informed of progress on their projects
• Answering the phone
• Sending out correct and accurate contracts
• Ensuring clients have provided sufficient content for their work to be carried out
• Following up on completed projects with clients

In time you will learn to:

• Make minor changes to client websites
• Provide strategic advice to clients on their projects
• Attend sales meetings for higher value projects (this may take a while)

Everybody in the team is expected to:

• Contribute to any area of the business that requires help
• Be actively involved in the development of our company, service levels and products
• Engage in occasional face to face networking / events
• Get involved in our online networking / blogging

We work normal hours (9-5:30) and provide normal holidays (23 + bank holidays).

This is a full time, permanent role based in our office in Warwick (we are about to move to nicer and shinier offices but we are staying in Warwick town centre)

Salary depends on the person. Annoying not to have a salary range I appreciate, but if you already understand websites and the internet, and have the same great interpersonal / organisational skills as another candidate, we would offer you more money.

So, if you think you would like to do this role, please send an email with your CV, a covering note and your salary range to:

awesomejob@edgeoftheweb.co.uk

We will start interviewing straight away and will hold the vacancy live until we find the right person. If you are offered an interview, we will not make an appointment until we have met you.

No Agencies Yet.

The Slums of Mumbai as we land

Before we left, I had a very romantic view of India. Rising early to practice yoga and embracing a free-spirit lifestyle whilst eating all the vegetarian food my body would allow (I haven’t eaten anything with a face for 15 years so this particularly excited me). However in reality, we slummed it on the floor of a train next to the (leaking) toilet for 14 hours, we were stranded in the Himalayas due to a political assassination and we spent 5 days locked in a hotel room due to partner’s severe case of Delhi belly. Not quite the travelling experience I had imagined.

So why were my expectations so unrealistic? Well, I am ashamed to admit that… I didn’t do my research. I didn’t know where the yoga retreats were. I didn’t know that May is possibly the hottest time of the year in India. I didn’t know that my bank card would not be recognised by the Indian Railway services (without naming names, I thought they were the worlds local bank?!) and to be honest, I was living in a bit of a dream world.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my Indian adventure, I loved it and I fell in love with Darjeeling,  it was just very very different to what I imagined.

Tea Fields in Darjeeling

So why am I telling you this little story? Well, I love telling anyone who’ll listen but mainly because I speak to so many people who say to me they want their website to rank number 1. Unfortunately, so does everyone else so it may not be as easy as you initially think. Tom wrote a fantastic blog post last August that I wanted to remind you of: Will I be number 1 in the search engines?

In summary though, you can always learn from my travelling experience:

1. Do your research
2. Have a bank card that works (Pay per click allows you to set your own budget)
3. Be realistic about what you hope to achieve

Namaste!

We’ll keep all the boring stuff to ourselves, we know that visitors to our site really want to see some pictures of how one of the richest companies in the world pimps out its offices:

OK, let's see what's happening to all these PPC pounds we're spending! In we go.

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take pics at this point! Turns out there is a clue in the background that this is ok.

Wow an interactive earth simulator...seems right they should have one of those!

everything was branded!

free massages for staff? OK, well good people need looking after

wtf...is that a bus in the middle of the office?...no, it's a customised meeting room...oh

A boat and deckchairs? Now you are just showing off!

Seems like Google have found a unique way to clear down their cookies

ahhh...this is where the work happens

It was an excellent day, with lots of great information and I got to meet with lots of inspiring people.

Thanks to Emily, Jono, Timo, Esra, Raja, Simon, Vanessa and everyone else that made the day so enjoyable and useful.

First of all we’d like to thank the many organisers and contributors who put on one of the finest networking events we have been to in a long time. It was a superb venue, which ran with just the right balance of structure and open networking.

Here are a few of the things we most enjoyed about the whole event:

Here are some of the people we enjoyed meeting:

We can’t wait to meet the rest of you at the next event (he said presumptiously).

Here are some snaps from the night:

greedy greedy...blame the person who made them

head shot

Aimee highlights the failing of the Iphone camera in tungsten light conditions. I bet her Blackberry would have done a better job.

hair-do shot

I'm sure the raffle was rigged, as was the Estaminet which may explain my head this morning

a novel way to remember who you spoke to

So before we can look to 2011, I would like to have a look back on how amazing 2010 was.

This time last year, Edge of the Web was a 4 man band, a quartet if you like! Now we have almost doubled in size and have an additional 3 people on the team. Sam joined in April, I joined in July and Jon arrived in December just in time for the Christmas Party (we’ll let you come to your own conclusion).

In addition to this, we now have a portfolio with almost 200 websites!

We have been very busy.

So what about 2011?
Many people see the new year as a way of creating a better version on themselves and we are no exception to the rule. We hope to continue to grow, build more amazing websites and create even more great relationships with our customers.

So what are all our individual new year’s resolutions?

• Tom – To get a better phone (he hates the one he has at the mo)
• Hannah – To voice her opinion more (she’s always sitting on the fence)
• Mark – Listen to better music (he has decided to let go of his 80’s fascination)
• Bhups – Pursue his rap career and stop drinking so much tea
• Sam – Sample new foods (The daily Chicken Soup diet is now a bit boring)
• Jon – To take rock climbing to the next level and try Extreme Ironing
• Aimee – I don’t need to change anything

Please feel free to share your New Year’s resolutions with us.

One final thing, we hope you have a fantastic 2011!

So this year there were 7 of us and we were all a year older. Would it be any more civilised and mature as a result? Not a chance.

We’d like to thank @Catalan for their DELICIOUS food (possibly the best xmas food I have had at a work party and it was ridiculously good value!).

We’d also like to thank the various pubs and bars of Warwick for their tolerance of some of the worst dancing since boyzone made their television debut.

Below are a selection of photos from a thoroughly good messy night. The snaps are all a bit rubbish because they were taken on my phone, and were very much an afterthought.

I think they give you a flavour of the distinct lack of class we demonstrated.

A rough night was on the cards

Aimee shows us her unique skill of balancing a glass of wine on her bicep

Hannah came dressed as the Phantom of the Opera

Jon recalls the taste of human flesh

Please feel free to provide us with your own caption for this one. Avoid anything to do with toilets.

Sam had a cracking evening (once, about 6 years ago, or so we are told)

Bhups gets caught sexting

Mark is not amused as Aimee bursts in to steel his limelight

So…would you trust these people to build you a website?

Seriously?

(“we promise we are now sober and ready to be professional again!”)

Jon arrived naturally and is a bonny male weighing in at a healthy 140lbs (estimate).

Company and new employee are doing just fine.

So what does our new arrival mean?

It means we have a shiny new developer with some awesome talents which will expand both our work capacity and range of development skills.

Jon joins us after working freelance in the local area and previously completing his degree in Computer Science at Warwick.

On a more serious note, it took us (significantly) over 1 year, hundreds of C.V.’s and about 20 interviewees to find someone with just the right skills, and Jon was exactly that.

We never expected it to be so hard, and many times we questioned whether we were just being too specific in our requirements.

Along the way, we did meet some very employable candidates with some very interesting and exciting skills. We would like to thank everybody who applied and interviewed and we wish them all the best in their future.

Most of all we would like to wish Jon a happy, rewarding and exciting career with Edge of the Web.

After I wiped the tears away from my eyes and the red dye from my forehead, I began to think about those who build their own websites using a DIY package. I speak to at least one customer every day who says they have tried to build a website but they think it looks unprofessional, is not very user friendly and to be frank, admit to not having a clue how websites should be designed.

So I from now on, I say that DIY should be left to home improvements and everything else should be done by the pros.