WHY FOCUS ON SMALL BUSINESS?
I am passionate about small business because I have lived and breathed small and micro business well before I started my first micro business. Working in small business after working in the corporate world, I gained an understanding of the personal investment small business owners put into their own businesses, often on a shoestring budget.
After working full time for many years with not much money left over at the end of the week, I was looking for a way to earn some extra money to support some mission work our Church was involved in. In January 2012, I started Outdoor Beanbags as my side hustle with a mission, a product I loved (hello beanbags!) and no money. I had a super big learning curve learning how to start-up and run an online product based business with very limited resources and funds!
Over the years, I took advantage of attending many different small business focused workshops. I found that they mostly had great content, but always found that the information or training was very general in nature. When I got home and tried to apply it to my own business I was confused and left scratching my head trying to work out how I could apply that learning to my own business.
In 2016 I got some great foundational business training… it was here that I realised what was missing in the small business space… it was a tug of war between money to invest in the business and the limit of growth due to the limit of money to invest back into the business – this is when our Little Biz Foundations workshop series was born. The ability to bring that learning to many tiny businesses to allow them to grow became my focus.
Little Biz: Small Business supporting Small Business!
HOW I GOT INTO WEB DESIGN
I understand that small businesses need some help, often with a very limited (or non-existent) resources. Whilst I spent hours upon hours learning to build my own website and learning how to build my own business from scratch with next to no money, my desire is that other small and micro businesses don’t have to.
Over the years I have heard too many stories from small and micro business owners that their web developer (often a friend) has gone missing in action, leaving them out on their own with no idea how to update their own website, or add any new content when their services or pricing has changed. Or, they never were given access to their website and were stuck with a website they couldn’t update themselves, paying huge amounts of money just to make small changes. On the flip side, if they did have access, many other web designers and developers would refuse to work on a website that someone else has built, pushing the small biz owner to take the expensive jump to engage another designer or developer to build a new website for them.
I am a WordPress gal, so happy to jump in and assist small businesses with their WordPress website issues, re-designs for outdated and non functioning websites, and new website builds when it is needed. You can find more information about our website services here.
Take advantage of my knowledge and experience and get yourself into one of my workshops, have a chat with me about getting a website built or book me for a consulting session where you can bounce your ideas off me and we can come up with a plan together for you to move forward in your business.
OUR MISSION AT LITTLE BIZ
It is our mission at Little Biz, to educate and empower small business owners on how to use and update their websites, how to do their own SEO, how to manage their own social media accounts and how to create good and lasting business relationships with like minded, local small businesses.
Little Biz is perfect for the start-up’s and also those who have already started their business, but are not quite sure what they are doing.
Starting with developing business foundations, small businesses can then grow on a stable foundation. From mindset, to branding, to advertising – everything a small business does comes from their business foundations.
Just as the story goes, the foolish man builds his house on the sand, which is forever moving and crumbles in the wind and rain, yet the wise man builds his house on the rock, a firm foundation, which stands firm when the storms come and is not destroyed.
We will also happily create new WordPress websites for new and existing businesses, update existing websites, and work with small business owners to create the resources they require to run their business.
Little Biz has a small business focus and will guide you, step-by-step through the process of creating and documenting the foundations of YOUR business.
WHO IS LITTLE BIZ?
The Founder of Little Biz, Melissa Ahlquist, is an ideas person who is passionate about establishing and growing small and micro businesses. She is multi-passionate and loves running her own small businesses. Melissa has extensive experience in administration, WordPress website design, online marketing, asset creation and delivering training in a small group environment.
When she isn’t dreaming up new product and business ideas, Melissa enjoys travelling, spending time with her family on their hobby farm, baking and reading.
She also has a special interest in making a difference in the world – by feeding the hungry, protecting the vulnerable and inspiring people to be all they can be.
Melissa is available as a guest speaker for your podcast or event, or provide workshops & presentations. See more about Melissa as a speaker here.
If you want to read more about Melissa, her working career, and her little biz’s you can read all about it here.