Web designer, graphic designer, former network engineer, serial problem-solver and firm believer that getting things done beats dragging them out for months.
I haven’t taken the most obvious route to becoming a web designer.
In fact, considering I didn’t do particularly well in either Art or Computing at GCSE, despite them both being my favourite subjects you could argue I’ve spent a large part of my career proving my school results wrong.
I now have a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design, spent years working as a Cisco-qualified network engineer and have been designing websites professionally since 2013.
But there were quite a few twists and turns in between.
I’ve always wanted to know how things work
After leaving school, I studied Electronics, a dream course for someone who loved taking things apart, figuring out how they worked and solving problems. I was the only girl on the course, but I loved it.
That led to my first job as an electronics and computing technician and, after moving to St Albans and studying various computing courses, eventually to an agency contract at JP Morgan.
I started at the bottom, setting up PCs, installing software and spending a frankly undignified amount of time crawling underneath desks.
Eventually, I volunteered to become the “eyes and ears on the ground” for the network team, doing the physical work they needed in the Technical Operations Centre (or data centre, to everyone else).
That opportunity turned into a career.
I became part of the network team, qualified as a Cisco CCNA and CCNP and spent years working in data networking, mostly within JP Morgan despite passing through several different companies and takeovers along the way.
I even considered going for my CCIE qualification.
Then I had children.
More studying suddenly became considerably less appealing.
A career I loved… that no longer fitted
I genuinely loved working in networking. It was technical, challenging and came with some very good banter.
It also came with long hours.
In an investment bank, network changes often have to happen when everyone else isn’t working, which means weekends. After returning to JP Morgan as a contractor when my youngest was around one, I found myself frequently working six days a week and barely seeing my children.
We had a nanny. My husband was stressed. I was working far too much.
Something had to give.
So I left.
I knew I wasn’t going back to corporate life, but I also knew that being a full-time stay-at-home mum with no work, business or income of my own wasn’t for me.
As it happens, I’d already started experimenting with another possibility.
My first website wasn’t actually a web-design project
While I was still working, I’d started a business called Toddlers Day Out.
The idea was to help parents discover things to do with young children locally, something I needed myself at the time.
It became an online directory with free and paid listings, sponsored positions and affiliate advertising. I made some great contacts, had fun trying out activities with my son and, for a relatively early-stage business, it was doing pretty well.
There was one fairly significant detail:
I’d built and designed the website myself.
And it wasn’t a simple little brochure site. I’d built a functioning directory website in Joomla.
Eventually Joomla needed a major update and I had a decision to make: invest the time in rebuilding and upgrading it, or move on.
I moved on.
Naturally, I then decided to start another business.
Then I became the frustrated web-design client
My next idea was The Nursery Exchange.
This time I was short on time, so I tried building the prototype using DIY website software.
It couldn’t do what I needed it to do.
After getting increasingly frustrated, I did what plenty of small business owners do.
I hired a web designer.
And then I experienced one of the most frustrating processes I’d ever been through.
The website itself wasn’t simple, but that wasn’t really the problem. The agency had lots of projects running simultaneously. Ours would move forward, then sit waiting. We’d send amendments, then wait again. Each stage seemed to take forever.
The whole project dragged on for months.
Years later, that experience would become rather important.
Although apparently I needed to make the same mistake myself first.
So naturally, I became a web designer…
By then I’d decided corporate life wasn’t where I wanted to return.
I loved technology. I’d always loved design. So in 2012, with young children at home, I started studying part-time for a Graphic Design degree.
And while I was studying, I started Lacon Design in 2013.
I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design in November 2016, at Edinburgh Castle, on a freezing cold November day, with my husband and children there celebrating with me.
I’d combined the two things I’d always loved: design and technology.
There was just one small problem.
I built my web-design business using pretty much the same traditional project model I’d hated when I was a client.
Four-to-six-week projects. Multiple clients at once. Work going backwards and forwards.
Apparently some lessons take a while to sink in.
Then Covid changed everything
When Covid struck, I suddenly had more enquiries from people who needed to get their businesses online than I could cope with.
And it made something very obvious.
The traditional four-to-six-week website model simply didn’t work for me.
I’d been following Sarah Masci, creator of the Day Rate Mastery model, for a while and had bought one of her introductory programmes. When the opportunity came up to complete her full Focused & Free programme and coaching, I took it.
I became a VIP Day Certified Expert™ and completely changed the way I worked.
Since 2022, VIP Days have been the only way to work with me.
And I haven’t looked back.
Why I work differently now
VIP Days haven’t just made me more efficient. They’ve completely changed the amount of brain space it takes to run my business, and given my clients a much faster, more focused way to move theirs forward.
Because small, founder-led businesses don’t necessarily need months of waiting, endless rounds of amendments and projects disappearing into somebody else’s workflow.
Sometimes they need someone experienced to sit down, focus entirely on their business and get things done.
I believe action breeds confidence.
When the website that’s been hanging over you finally starts taking shape, decisions become easier. You can see where you’re going. You have something you’re proud to share. And you can get back to doing the work you actually started your business to do.
Today I bring together more than a decade of professional web and graphic design experience with the technical problem-solving that’s been part of my working life from the beginning.
I design strategic WordPress websites for small service-based businesses, particularly in health and wellbeing, that need to build trust, communicate expertise and turn the right visitors into enquiries.
And I still really like figuring out how things work.
A few things you probably don’t need to know about me…
I’ve ridden my motorbike around Snetterton race track on a track day.
I’ve abseiled down a 13-storey JP Morgan building in Stratford, East London for charity.
I’ve worked on Wall Street for a week. Sadly, not as a trader.
My first part-time job was in a fish and chip shop. I hated it. The holidaymakers could be rude and I came home smelling terrible.
My next was waitressing, which was considerably more lucrative. People used to give me £5 tips, and that was when a fiver was a proper tip!
These days life is a little calmer. When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me spending time with my family, walking our Labrador or cooking something simple and healthy at home.
Although given the evidence above, I probably shouldn’t rule anything out.
Ready to get your website moving?
If you’re a small business owner who cares deeply about what you do and you’re ready for a website that properly reflects your expertise, I’d love to hear about it.
My process is guided, collaborative and focused, without dragging your website project out for months.
or Book a free 20-minute discovery call to tell me about your business and we can discuss your requirements and see if we’re a good fit. I’ll help you determine how many VIP Days you need and answer any questions.
