WHAT MIGHT PUT US OFF TO SOME PEOPLE:
1. We work from home
2. Home is no longer in Didsbury, but in Istria
3. We don’t drive big, flashy, executive cars
4. There’s only two of us – me (Helen) and him (Pete)
5. We don’t bombard clients with salesy bullshit. We deliberately keep our client base very small
WHY THIS MIGHT ATTRACT US TO SOME PEOPLE:
1. Working from home means we don’t have additional overheads which could be passed onto clients. Meaning that we can price projects fairly, knowing that we don’t have to cover a huge rental payment each month for state of the art offices, for example. Which would be too corporate for us anyway.
2. We made the decision six years ago (although it had been in the offing for far longer) to move to Istria. It’s mostly sunny here, the pace of life is slower, under normal circumstances we can be in our beloved Italy in under 40 minutes and the cost of living is a bonus! If the lockdowns of 2020-21 showed us anything, it’s that working remotely is not at all strange now. And, having been doing it for years – and having all of our clients still UK based (apart from one who lives in Switzerland, but like us is from the NW of England), we think we’re a bit ahead of the curve here.
3. Our cars are our personal cars. Not associated in any way with the business, so again, no passing on of costs to cover finance repayments etc
4. So, just the two of us. We’ve found, after years of working with other people, this is what works best for us. I do all of the client contact work and keep people in the loop. Pete does all of the design – and obviously speaks to clients in this regard. But it also means that we both always know what is going on with every project and every client. No hiding behind account managers, secretaries etc. It’s always *us* you will be in contact with. No-one else.
5. We don’t up-sell or try and convince clients to part with money for things which aren’t necessary. We are very honest and open. We will advise if we think something we can do will benefit you, but we would never push anything on to you. Ultimately, we don’t want to create additional work for ourselves, if you don’t really want it. I invite clients to join our We Are Life Design mailing list and I only email if there is something we think you need to know about or could benefit from.
6. We don’t pitch for work. We don’t reply to posts on FB from people we don’t know who want a website designed. We generally only take on new clients if they come to us from an existing client, OR if the project is something which ticks all of our very particular boxes. Meaning we are not overstretched and can always respond whenever we are needed by clients.
If you like what you’ve read about us, maybe it’s time to say…
