Then all of a sudden, despite forebodings about the easing of lockdown, I felt able to do something. Inspired by P.J. Wallman, who had asked me to help him with his website, I decided I should build my own. I have a lot of contacts who could have built the site for me - they are experts and I felt I should rely on them. But what Peter Wallman made me think about was having the hands-on experience of using the template-based tools so that I could help other businesses who were also doing it themselves.

So the next week was spent visiting SquareSpace, Go Daddy, Wordpress and Names Co, Shopify etc. to delve into what they have to offer in terms of flexibility, ease of use, background tools e.g. being able to enter your SEO elements like keywords, and of course, cost. Names Co worked best for me - simple to use with lots of template options (templates within templates too) along with a thorough set of background tools including being able to add code for Google Analytics, add the favicon (that little pic you see in the browser tab, cute!) and other important SEO things like Page Description, with the added bonus of explanations about number of characters, where it'll appear etc. 

My site, as you see, is very simple - just text and images, but I'm happy with its look and the fact that if you type in emthax digital into google, a link will be shown. Result! I knew that I needed to plan out the content, I'd done it enough when I was a website manager, but I hadn't realised that it's a lot harder to do when it's all about your own business than when it's about someone else's. I reckon the planning took about 2 weeks, and even then it changed when I came to look at building the site. Building it probably took half the time. Once I had decided what I needed to say and worked out how to create (drag and drop!) areas where I could say it, I was off. None of the photos are mine either, well, except the one of me - all supplied through the tool for free.

Clearly, if your business is more complex or involves e-commerce, then you will need to make sure that the tool you choose gives you the flexibility you need for your particular set up. You may have very specific requirements for the product you are selling and it's this you need to plan out, so you are confident you're using the tool that's right for you. It can work though - a good friend of mine has her own florist shop near Brighton - her skill set is arranging and selling flowers and yet she was able to build a beautiful and robust online shop for herself too, using SquareSpace. Check it out here, pretty impressive. 

So here I am. From a 4-hour daily commute on Thameslink to a cottage on a farm in Amble, Northumberland; from a life within one great company to a life less ordinary on my own - emthax digital has been born and already has a website!