When I was growing up my parents splashed out and we had our own computer (just like the ones we had at school the BBC “model B” that loaded games via a tape recorder, and you could programme with simple little codes to do draw on the screen. I loved playing with it, and tried the coding several times from codes in the odd book or magazine my Mum had found. I used the computer on and off through my school and college life, but not to any big extreme, just the basics.
Then in 1997 I moved in with my then fiancé and other than the flat one of our first big buys was a home computer. I couldn’t see the point of having a computer at home. He was the one pushing for it, he’s heard about the Internet and couldn’t wait. Me I wasn’t fussed and was just looking forward to re-learning the wordprocessor and spreadsheets. However after we got it, I spent more and more time on the Internet finding more and more things of interest to learn.
Then I found a site that let you create your own website, “ wow how exciting”, but what could I possibly do it on. Other than being on the computer and working I didn’t do much but my Hubby played cricket for his local friendly side. So I thought I’d do a site for them to share team news etc. so I created my first site. Over the next few years I found out that you could learn a code to create sites not just use the online software, but didn’t have the time or now where to start learning it. However having slipped down some steps at work and one swollen ankle later meant that I had some time one my hand so I spent the week with an online course teaching myself HTML on the computer, my foot up resting. So having worked through the course I wanted a challenge. So I decided to re-design that cricket club web site and coded every page by hand. Well that site did the trick the club loved it, and I was really proud of my achievement.
From there I created several different sites over the years for different reasons but all for either me or my family. I created a site for my Mum who had re-trained as a hypnotherapist and a year or so later for a theatre group. I got enough feedback from people that they loved the sites that I decided to do more reading to see how i could develop my own html coding. So through online courses again I learnt about CSS and JavaScript, and then turned my attention to SEO (search engine optimisation) to help my Mum’s site out.
I was working as an analyst for a utilities company when I went on maternity leave with my second child, my department was relocated 45mins down the road. So I took the opportunity to leave and decided to give Pippas Web – web design a try to see if there was a need for my work. So here I am, this is me and my story.
So what can you take from this to start out on your own.
Enjoy what you do – find something of interest , a hobby, a craft, computer coding. If you’re going to go into business for yourself, then you want to enjoy what you do.
Continue to learn – read around your chosen business, expand your knowledge, the theory and then learn new related skills things that will give you an edge.
– what do they want from you, do you need to change anything, do you need to be able to do anything different?
Make the most of your opportunities – I had a week off work, where all I could was sit there. I made good use of that time by teaching myself a new skill. You never know where that new skill might just take you.
This is my story why not share yours with me below.
Pippas Web
I am Pippa and I have run Pippas Web - web design for small businesses for 13 years. I help small business owners find their bit of cyberspace. I provide the technical know-how, so they can get back to running their business. If you like what I write in my blogs, you can sign up to my newsletter for more tips straight to your door. All list members get a copy of "How to get your business seen online in 2021".