Back in 2022, just months after Jax was born, I needed something more flexible to provide for my family. I was new to being a husband and father, plus my wife and I were thick in the middle of our undergraduate studies. I worked as a food delivery driver.
Another student, Ben, was also studying Computer Science and one day shared how he had built several websites for businesses in the area. My interest was piqued, so I asked him several questions. Hearing Ben talk about his website design ventures was exciting and inspiring. He shared just enough information with me to help me understand the tools I would need to get started.
I wasn’t very technical and hardly knew anything about website design, but I loved the ideas of business and technology. I began sitting at the Casper College Library trying to create my own website. And you know what?
It… was… terrible. I couldn’t get anything to function properly no matter how hard I tried. Day after day, I spent weeks and various attempts to build something presentable. Oh, how I’m grateful Rachel supported me even from those early months when I would come home and there was no progress to be had.
I pounded away endlessly at that code, trying to work out bugs. I started to understand terms like website hosting, DNS records, SSL certificates, wire-framing, WordPress, and backend development. It certainly wasn’t the path of least resistance. But it was a real learning experience.
There were a lot of obstacles to come, but I believed that this path—a website design business—would be a blessing for my family. Although I never finished a personal website back then, I successfully discarded several website iterations and felt confident that I could build a business website.
One day, while applying for website design internships and trying to determine the next step to develop my skillset, I saw that Redneck Pizza had an awful website. My sister worked there, and she helped me land a delivery driver job. My plan was to win the owner’s trust and build them a free, improved website. That would help them, and it would definitely help me to have one real project in my portfolio.
…
The plan worked. It took me the entire summer to build Redneck Pizza a new website, but the plan worked! It definitely wasn’t profitable, but I had my first free client and was on my way to learning more and more. A few more website opportunities soon came.
Later that year in November, I waited in my run-down 2002 Chevrolet Impala for more DoorDash orders to come through. It was 9pm, and there were absolutely no orders for delivery. As a miracle and blessing from God, I came across an online job listing for an internship at Stellar Programming just hours before the job listing expired. I applied and was selected for the temporary position.
I learned even more at Stellar but missed the fulfillment of growing my own business. When my internship was up, it was time for another big change: my wife and I welcomed Ashtin into our family and moved to Provo, UT to continue learning at Brigham Young University. I returned to working for my own company and Stellar continued to enlist my services remotely.
Business Website Design LLC has been operating for days, and I will continue to develop websites and help business owners grow their ventures for decades to come. Running my own business has been a dream come true, and I enjoy being involved with professionals in multiple industries across Utah, Montana, and Wyoming.