About Me
About Me
Thames Web Design is run by me, Kim Buchanan, a Thames local, and solopreneur who loves Thames and loves to work from home overlooking the Firth.
But really, it's not about me - it's actually about WHAT I DO FOR YOU.
Within 6 seconds of someone landing on your website, I have to be able to crystallise exactly what the unique thing is that only you do, so the RIGHT clients for you resonate deeply. They know instantly that you're the person/business/solution they need right now to help them.
And yes, you are unique!
Together, we'll find and capture what makes you special, something that most of my clients find very hard to express. And even if they know that part, they can sometimes find it hard to "blow their own trumpet".
I help (the RIGHT clients) find you and take the action they need to achieve their (and your) goals.
Your website needs to be beautiful, sure, but it must also convert. Your website's job at the end of the day is to convert the right people into clients.
Don't waste time on rubbish enquiries. The goal is "pre-sold", ready-to-buy, delightful clients who have the budget to work with you. Life's too short to waste time trying to convince poorly matched prospects to work with you... With the right website messaging, to the right people for your service, those who are not a good fit will rule themselves out, saving both you and them a lot of time.
How did I get to know all this stuff?
(If you're a "proof is in the pudding" person, skip the LONG backstory and just pop over to my portfolio to see examples of some of my local Thames websites).
My background
As a child, I was always making things, creative and good at art and writing. I loved colouring and drawing competitions and won a few books and movie tickets over the years. With a career in advertising in mind, I gained qualifications in graphic design, marketing, advertising and photo journalism at WINTEC in Hamilton.
My first "real career job" was a PR Assistant at the Waikato Valley Authority. I designed brochures, promotional materials, displays and wrote press releases.
Hoping to move higher into marketing, I moved to Telecom as a business account manager. I discovered I also enjoyed helping people identify and resolve their problems through technology (see the pattern here!)
Later, I moved to selling real estate. Apart from selling houses, I loved doing my own marketing, ad writing, photography and brochures. My real estate colleagues sometimes even paid me to do their marketing! I created a successful niche as "the Art Deco Specialist", writing a newsletter I actually mailed to my list (LOL) and articles in local newspapers and magazines. This was early direct marketing. I also did a certificate in "Direct Marketing" through the NZ Institute of Marketing.
Once our children arrived, I wanted to stay self-employed, but I wanted to work from 100 percent from home. Happily, the internet had arrived, bringing new ways to do business online.
So when our cat went missing, that gave me the business opportunity I'd been looking for - a website service for lost and found pets in NZ. But first, I had to learn how to make websites! Many months later, petsonthenet.co.nz was launched in 2002.
In 2003, Petsonthenet won "Best New Website" in the Netguide awards. Later we were highly commended for "Excellence in the Use of IT through Customer Service" in the Computer World Excellence Awards 2003. All this was against hefty and well financially resourced competition while I was running this from my lounge... For a hilarious (now) blast from the past of what was at the time, award winning web design, see this "Wayback Machine" screenshot of our awards page in 2004. The internet was still "new"-ish and industry awards were BIG and hotly contested "social proof" at the time.
![FireShot Capture 1162 - Awards for petsonthenet.co.nz - [web.archive.org].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d65ae9_b97517ed9cac4530ac7bd3c381cd90cc~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_223,h_77,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/FireShot%20Capture%201162%20-%20Awards%20for%20petsonthenet_co_nz%20-%20%5Bweb_archive_org%5D.png)
The PetsontheNet website successfully reunited and rehomed thousands of pets each year. During that time, I was continually upskilling around websites, marketing, facebook, social media and online sales. I was fascinated by the psychology of selling online - with words and design, and how to improve customer experience to create raving fans.
In 2008, we moved our young family from Auckland to the lovely town of Thames.
In 2018, I sold the PetsontheNet business, staying on a part-time contract basis to do blogs and social media. That same year, I designed the website for my husband's business, Thames Driver Training. Thames people immediately wanted me to design their website too. So Thames Web Design was born, offering website design, copywriting and social media management for small local Thames businesses and organisations.
Although I spend hours every week learning the latest and newest things in the online world, I still only know the tip of the iceberg. There are less "certificates" now - pieces of paper to prove what you learnt. I just learn what interests me and what I need to know from various courses and webinars etc. But that takes a lot of time. So, I understand how it would be almost impossible for a small business owner to learn and try to keep up with the constant changes in online marketing.
I understand the challenges of being in a small business too - just like you. Let's have a chat and see how I can help make things work better for you.