Running a business is like building a den – you are never finished.
But with the help of Superfast Business Wales, creative coordinator Angela Dowdell has the digital building blocks in place to improve on Make It In Wales’ already solid structure.
Founded in 2015 by director Suzi Park, Make It In Wales is a community interest group whose core business offering comes in the shape of a full range of craft courses delivered by locally experienced professional Welsh creatives.
Courses include upholstery, stained glass, felting, macrame, coat making, book binding, marbling, jewellery, leatherwork, dress making, printing, and creative writing.
The premises in Cardigan also affords Make It In Wales space for a retail shop and café called Stiwdio 3, which operates on the ground floor.
Having originally worked as a course tutor, Angela took a more hands-on approach to the running of the enterprise just a matter of days before lockdown hit in March 2020.
She said: “The chance to take a bigger role in Make It In Wales operationally presented itself and I was eager to get stuck in.
“But then Covid-19 struck, and it was a great big pause. A chance to stop, draw breath and look at every aspect of the business.”
Angela decided to change the website platform to Squarespace to help make the online booking process a smoother one.
A one-to-one with Superfast Business Wales adviser Paul Gadd helped confirm that Angela’s choice was a smart one and the results have more than backed that up.
Due to the modifications, bookings via the website for this year are up 25 per cent when compared with the whole of 2021.
She said: “Speaking with Paul was absolutely fantastic as it’s great to have someone who really knows their stuff give you feedback.
“I always say that there’s always at least one thing to come out of every meeting or webinar that makes you go ‘ah, I hadn’t thought of doing that’.
“A lot of what we spoke about was focusing on the incremental gains and fine-tuning the processes that were already in place.
“For example, before we changed the website platform, the booking procedure was a case of jumping through so many hoops and being sent to various pages to complete the process.
“Looking at the numbers from before the changes and again now those modifications have been made shows just how valuable the expertise is.”
Another process Paul suggested could be fine-tuned saw Angela utilise her new website’s customer relationship management (CRM) system to improve communication with clients.
This change in approach has yielded eye-catching results for the business.
Angela continued: “I was looking at processes and I decided to set up a form for people who were greeted by sold out courses to fill in and be notified of the next ones.
“Filling this in generates a maximum of two emails from me to the person, but it has had a staggering impact with more than 40 per cent of those leaving their details booking onto a course later down the line.
“I also want everyone who has attended a workshop to feel valued and the feedback form I send to each participant has a more than 50 per cent return rate.
“I read every single piece of feedback to make sure that we are doing the right things and to flag up anything that requires attention.”
With an improved booking process and plenty of interest in courses being run from its base in Ceredigion, Angela is looking to expand the offering by running online tutorials.
“At the moment, more than 80 per cent of our workshop attendees live within two hours of Cardigan,” she said. “Setting up an online resource will open these up to people who are further away.
“Superfast Business Wales has helped with specifics, such as the best platforms available for online courses to attract a wider audience.
“We know we have a quality product, so the main aim is to make sure that we offer a varied and interesting range of workshops.”
Angela is always eager to learn in her quest to automate as many things through software as possible, whilst maintaining a personal touch.
One aspect that has required Angela’s attention is search engine optimisation (SEO) for Make It In Wales.
She added: “With the help of Superfast Business Wales I have been able to think about SEO a little clearer.
“I am thinking about the what the customer would type in to search for us and I’ve been focusing on the questions that people ask when on Google.
“It feels as though I am on the right track, but the analytics side of things still needs more work.
“I’ve been using Squarespace for basic analytics, before upgrading to Google Analytics, which is something I really want to dig deeper into.
“But as I always say, a business is like building a den – you are never finished.”
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