Anthony Mayer
Circle: Tell us about your business and mission.
Anthony: I founded Online is Easy in 2014. Our mission is to empower small businesses to make a stronger impact through digital transformation and innovation.
C: What was your “aha” moment in realizing you could use Squarespace to build sites for clients?
A: I have owned nine businesses and won multiple awards in recognition of my entrepreneurial endeavors. I love small businesses and using technology to market, streamline, and automate. One of my companies was a digital printing business that I started in 2002, which expanded into web development in 2005. At that time, we were using multiple options to build websites. There were a lot of choices and the website-building landscape was changing fast and often. Early on SaaS and CMS were in their infancy, they were clunky and lacked a design or UX focus. Business owners were—and definitely still are—overwhelmed by the technical requirements and intricacies of an effective digital footprint, partly because there are so many choices available.
In 2014, I decided to do my own research to find the best small business platform and become proficient in it, as opposed to trying to learn all of the main platforms. My “aha” was that, essentially, the platform doesn’t matter to the business owner, the outcome does! Thus, Squarespace won hands down for security, flexibility, value for money, beautiful design, ease of use for the end user, and integration of changes and innovation. Squarespace really does tick all the boxes for a sole trader or small business.
C: How did it first occur to you that this was a viable business channel?
A: Squarespace Circle has certainly helped me provide a higher level of service and expertise to my clients and the community I teach and consult. I proudly display the Circle Member badge which provides additional credibility and there are aspects of the channel I’ve yet to capitalize on.
C: What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a designer or entrepreneur?
A: Be realistic and honest. I told my first Squarespace client that it was my first build, and I gave them a large discount on the job because I said I was learning. I did the same when I created my first online store. I always discuss the possibilities with my clients, and that includes the negative ones. I own my mistakes, and I enjoy my successes. I subscribe to the thinking that people don’t necessarily buy your what or your how— they buy into your why.
The best advice I can give anyone in business is to be realistic, honest, and authentic. Understand that you are solely there to meet a customer’s needs and expectations. While we all gotta eat and ‘cash flow is king’, the real value transaction is in how your last client talks about you to your next one.
C: How do you use the community forum in your day to day?
A: I love the Circle Update emails, and when I see a topic that pricks up my ears, I follow the link into the forums to read the threads. I use the forum to gauge the community feeling for updates, get answers on specific topics and to access Squarespace help when I need it.
C: What’s your favorite Circle perk, and why?
A: While there is no direct financial gain, being able to use the Squarespace platform allows me to sell my time as an expert in small business digital strategy. In fact, it’s a fundamental part of my business offering. The perk I love the most is the ability to pass on a 20% discount to my clients when they first sign up. I also like the Circle badge to promote my abilities and enhance my credibility in this space.
C: What kind of business results have you seen over your time in Circle?
A: I almost exclusively build in Squarespace, so my business has gone from a hobby to my full-time job over the last six years, with speaking, training, and coaching work weaved in between. I’ve built or helped build over 100 Squarespace sites, and I’ve inspired or mentored many times that amount through my speaking and training work. My business has gone from a side hustle to having multiple jobs booked months in advance and people paying for my time online, even during the COVID crisis—I’ve been very lucky.
C: What work are you most proud of?
A: Hmm, that’s a tough one because I don’t let sites go live until I’m really proud of my work and my client’s love it, so I’m proud of all of my work—from the simple landing pages to an online store with hundreds of products.
A standout is the multilingual site I built for a wine company expanding to China. Chinese is not one of the supported languages, and this was two years ago, but the site still looks good and works in Chinese and English.
Another standout is for work I’ve done during COVID for a business genre that is traditionally tech averse: a butcher. They are a third-generation family farm and butcher with two retail locations in Sale and Stratford in regional Victoria. The digital transformation was a big step for them and was rolled out in small, manageable steps. Five months on, and they are almost digital natives, and with their permission, I can tell you that they added $28K to their revenue stream from online sales in under five months. Not only is that awesome for their retail business during lockdown, but it has meant their community and surrounding areas have continued to receive their food delivered in a COVID-safe way.
Finally, with another site I took live, there was a real worry that the image-rich site would load too slowly. Using the Squarespace image guidelines, image management tools, and some custom CSS, I have been able to build a beautiful site in 7.1 that the client loves and that has a PageSpeed Score of 95% and a YSlow Score of 96%—I’m very proud of that.
C: How does Squarespace’s Customer Support factor into your business?
A: The Squarespace knowledge base covers every facet of the platform. Usually after the site has gone live and I’m training the client via screen share, I will show them how to access that free help and to empower them to look up and find the help they need. If that fails for them, they contact me.
C: How is Squarespace Circle helping you pursue your passions?
A: My motivation is in seeing small businesses and sole traders tackle their own digital strategy by setting goals and gaining confidence. I love it when they see their site for the first time and they love it or when I show them how to use the platform and they inevitably state something like, “Oh, it’s that easy? Yeah, I can do that!”
Squarespace is a major part of my strategy to increase digital literacy. It facilitates user engagement by providing a clean, easy to use, and fully documented and secure content management system. I have a passion to increase digital literacy and bring digital transformation to small businesses. Squarespace is the vehicle for Online is Easy to live up to its namesake and really helps small businesses look big online.