Armin Braunsberger
Circle: Tell us about your career trajectory.
Armin: I’ve been in the media business since I was 16. I left school, and started working for a local TV station as a camera operator and learned media design on the job. My hunger for knowledge brought me to night school where I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Production.
In 2010, I started a media production company in Salzburg. We made a name for ourselves by focusing on high-quality compositing in Photoshop, print design, and video production. During our first years, web design wasn’t part of our core business.
I often encountered clients saying “That’s good, but do you know someone who could build our new website first?” Thus, after having had these conversations time and again, one day I said: “Yes, we do that, too.” That’s when I started offering web design services to my clients and eventually becoming a Squarespace Expert, a business exclusively dedicated to building sites on Squarespace.
Circle: Why did you decide to start building sites on Squarespace?
A: Running a web design business, I had to deal with developers on one hand and clients on the other. The projects kept growing and we even built custom web tools for multi-national companies. Eventually, one of the projects totally collapsed because I outsourced too much of it. That was the day when I decided never to accept website projects where I’m not fully in control of the complete workflow.
A former employee heard about Squarespace and suggested we give it a try. It felt like we found the Holy Grail of website-building because we were able to build the entire website ourselves. I started offering Squarespace as the “new cool thing from the US” to potential clients. They were super excited about the fact that I could provide an easier-to-use CMS than the ones they used to work with.
Squarespace covers a unique array of services—from domains, Scheduling, and email marketing to e-commerce—in the most efficient way. Marketplace is my touchpoint with new clients, and Circle is my direct line to the community, and it’s a very vibrant community.
Circle: You’re very involved on Squarespace Marketplace—tell us about how you become an Expert.
A: While building websites for national clients, I saw the Squarespace Specialist application on the Squarespace website. I applied and, a week later, I had my profile online.
This was an impressive experience, and I started working with international Squarespace clients.
When the Specialist directory evolved into the new Squarespace Marketplace, I was honestly a bit skeptical about the completely new workflow that came with it. In fact, it was my wife who told me to give it a try. It proved to be an absolute game-changer, and Squarespace and Marketplace became a huge success for us. In 2019, I did about 120 Marketplace projects.
It's a great workflow and guarantees safety for clients and designers as well. I think one of the best facts of globalization is that you can work on exciting projects all over the world, no matter where you are. It has become one the most important sales funnels for me.
“Squarespace Marketplace is a great workflow and guarantees safety for clients and designers as well. ”
Circle: What advice would you give to someone considering Squarespace as a professional endeavor?
A: After building a few hundred sites, I know that anybody can have a fully professional website. As a designer you have to constantly evolve your skill set to make the best out of the client’s material. For example, I taught myself CSS.
Besides the great tools that Squarespace offers, you should keep in mind that clients hire an expert to get a result way beyond their own skills and expectations. And I think we owe it to clients to merge their strategy into a Squarespace website in the best possible way.
Circle: How do you maintain work/life balance?
A: I used to travel a lot to meetings with potential and existing clients. Even though I work a lot, I’m freer than ever because of Squarespace. I work on all aspects of the website myself, instead of delegating to others, which meant I could adapt my working hours to different time zones.
Circle: What are you most proud of?
A: It’s one thing to get a good review from a client, but it does really warm my heart to see all the statistics and analytics on their increased sales and business growth. I believe in data-driven marketing.
Special thanks to Armin for sharing his story.
To learn more about Armin or to hire him for your project, visit Squarespace Marketplace.
