What you need for great web design/ a successful launch

​Starting an online business is really hard, but it seems like the hardest bit of all is making the decisions that have the longest-term impact.
 
How should you promote your business? What web platform is best for hosting your website? What Wordpress or SquareSpace theme will make you look the most professional? 
 
If you’re a female entrepreneur that is struggling to work through all the different choices that you have to make, and you’re not ready to outsource your web design and content marketing this episode will give you the “101 intro” that you’re looking for.
 
Because Salma Sheriff, this week’s guest works with entrepreneurs just like you!
 
About this week’s guest:
 
Salma Sheriff is an Online Business Coach, Brand Strategist and International Best-Selling Co-author who helps Passionate Entrepreneurs Launch and Scale a Profitable & Automated Business, help generate their dream income while being location independent.  She successfully runs an Online Coaching Business + Branding & Web design business from home. 
 
She is an award-winning Blogger & Entrepreneur and has been featured in various websites for her work, some of which may include, “ICICI Women Achiever Award”, in 2017 but ICICI Bank, “Entrepreneur of the Month”, by OpenDesigns in 2016, “Top 5 blogger” in India.

Salma is an Engineering Post-graduate from India and she follows her passion for Design & Coaching to help other entrepreneurs and bloggers live their Dream Life with a Business they Love!
 
 
What this episode covers:

• An intro to Salma Sheriff, who she helps via her work as a business coach/ web designer
• How Salma used her passion for entrepreneurialism and her computer science education to create the business she has today…
• The blogging-focused backstory behind Salma’s business
• Why using guest blogging to grow your business is about knowing exactly who is accepting your content
• Why Salma is a huge fan of Wordpress and why you might want to consider it for your business.
• But what if you’re not that great at web design and find Wordpress intimidating…?  Salma’s suggestion is SquareSpace and here’s why.
• The SquareSpace vs Wordpress debate: Wordpress= “good for busy people”, SquareSpace= “very clean” looking
• Salma about her first few months in business: “I had this purpose, and I wanted to create something, but I found it difficult…”
• The one thing Salma wishes she could change about the very first day of her business: the lack of strategy she had in the beginning in terms of income goals, marketing strategy, etc. and why she encourages listeners to not make that mistake.
• Salma to listeners: “you can launch a business! But you also need to understand all the different aspects, so you can grow as well!”
• What to put on your website, what is the most important, and what you can omit without it being a problem
• The most important component according to Salma…? Your homepage, which has to be clear!
• How to make your homepage clear: start by mentioning what you are, and clearly mention what your website is about
• Other key essentials like opt-in forms and clear headers, and your navigation bar…and why that’s also about clarity
• So how can you make your navigation bar clearer? A good example: Amazon where you always know what to click to select a product and where/ how to insert your payment information
• What can you learn from that? It’s about thinking about the visitor, client, or target audience and what they get when they opt-in on your website.
• How does this apply to service-based businesses? It’s all about mentioning your services.
• A mistake that many of Salma’s clients have made: a lack of contact and about me pages and why that will stop people from hiring you…
• Why you need to submit your site map to Google Search Console to increase your chances of showing up in search engine results (if you haven’t done so already)
•  How Google Analytics can make a huge difference over the long-term for helping you know who is visiting your site
• Why all your publicly available images need to be watermarked and what that actually is (basically it is about stopping your original material from being plagiarized and copied unfairly)
• How unfair use of images impacted Salma and also a friend of hers, and I also shared a story of my own relating to that!
• An easy way to protect yourself from similar issues: have your logo or website name at the bottom of your image
• Salma’s favourite part of working with female-run businesses/ entrepreneurs: she sees them as a past version of her!
• Something she finds about the female-run business demographic: even their audience is mostly women, and why that’s something she really identifies with
• The selective fears and design qualities she finds amongst her clients but that’s not just the case just with female entrepreneurs!
• Salma’s average day: a 6 to seven-hour day, but not without important components like prayer, reflection, and lunch breaks
• Why Salma doesn’t disconnect for the day completely, and how she makes it possible for her clients to respect her time (I.E: vacation days, end of the work day, etc)
• How Salma manages time zone differences, which is a very real reality of her business’s international reach: “time zone difference has never been an issue!”
• But how does she do that? It is all about their preferences and negotiating based on that.
• Money mindset: it is all about what’s there inside talented entrepreneurs relating to money fears and history of money problems: so what’s the best way to overcome that…?
• Why money mindset issues are important to address
• The most important takeaway: think forward to overcome your fears about money
• Why you need a money mantra based on what’s the most challenging for you and why being with people who share positivity can help
• Salma’s ambition to connect with even more women entrepreneurs and help them grow their business and her plan to uplevel her own business as well!
• The three words to remember Salma’s business by: professional, authentic, and result oriented, and why she believes they are the best choice!

 
 
Where you can find Salma Online:
 
 
Connect with Salma her through her website: www.salmasheriff.com
 
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/salmasheriffdesigns/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/salmasheriffdesigns/
Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/theradiantinfluencers
 
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