Ecommerce Website Designer UK

Show me your website…

Hello, my name is Ala and I’m a web programmer and an ecommerce website designer. If you don’t have a website, or you have one but it doesn’t make much money, I’m the person who will turn it into the major source of your income. Especially if you are a UK based manufacturer or trader.

You are probably wondering, “what on earth does she know about trades or manufacturing?”. Well… I guess it’s a right place to include some flashbacks of my past. Hear me out.

I only wanted to learn…

Oh yes, did I mention that English is not my first language? 12 years ago I could only speak Polish (I’m now on my fifth language, that’s excluding all the programming languages I know).

Now, we need to go back to that time, when I graduated with my fancy MA degree in Computer Applications for Business. At this point, I was already a full-time geek teaching fellow students applied mathematics and killing my free time by developing first websites, such as the one, that used advanced analytical methods to help make better business decisions (true story).

Anyway, I got that degree, packed my bags and moved to the UK. My intention was to stay there for a year, study English like there’s no mercy, and go back to Poland to finish off my MA in Mechanics (did I mention I’m a nerd?).

To pay my college fees, rent and put some food on the table I had to get a job, whatever type, as long as it would fit nicely around my studies. So I took the first one that came across – I became an extremely low-paid “unskilled” production operative in a factory manufacturing a range of electrical boxes.

The turning point

Before my bosses realised that I know one or two things about business and online marketing, I was a pro in almost every aspect of the production process, from operating heavy machinery to hand wiring electrical dashboards. I even got myself an NVQ in Manufacturing in the meantime!

However, my plan to go back to Poland got ruined (that’s another story). But at that point, I felt there must be something more to life than making aluminium boxes. So I got myself a promotion. I became a junior web developer… only to get sacked three months later.

The company was in trouble, I was last in, so first to go. Tough luck. Did it hurt? Hell yes! Even more so, because a few weeks before I declined a nice position in a different company (on the advice of my then bosses!). I cried my eyes out, but not for long.

Within a month I landed a fantastic job at the local college, along with my former tutors. My task was to provide NVQs in lean manufacturing to the West Midlands based companies. All sorts of companies! From small factories to the internationally known names.

I also took over our lean faculty’s website and made it a “thing”. Building it wasn’t an issue. With my programming skills, I can put a unicorn on your website and even make it fly to the beat of background music. The trick was to get the website noticed. This is when I started taking an interest in SEO, and very soon it turned into a new hobby. Yes, that’s right! A hobby, not something I have to do, because I have to do it.

If you do what you love, you don’t have to work a day in your life

… Or you turn into a zombie. Which is what I did.

As soon as I started to see the first results of the lean website, I knew that web marketing is my destiny. So, I promptly set my web dev business and started spending my evenings making websites for anyone who needed one, often for free (I don’t do free anymore, so please, do not try 🙂 ). I found myself helping companies with their websites and digital marketing, while still providing the NVQs, and then… there was an opening in the college for a web dev job. I got the job, moved to the IT department… and pretty much ended up working all days, from 7 am till 11 pm with short breaks for food (often eaten in front of the computer). Living a dream, huh?

What doesn’t break you, makes you stronger

I carried on living my lovely zombie life for another 3 years but moved from the college back to the manufacturing and became a full-time fairy godmother of around 20 trades and construction websites, including a couple of globally known names. I’m still godmothering them now, but at more decent working hours.

It’s been over ten years now since my journey with British manufacturing has begun. And even though there was a time when I was longing to, for once, to make a “girly” website, I know perfectly well what type of industry benefits from my skills the most.

So, if you are based in the UK, have an automotive, manufacturing, construction or a trades business, get in touch, and I’ll tell you your online future!