If you've started to fall out of love with web design, it's usually not the design that's the problem.

It's the invoices, the contract wording, the awkward client emails, and all the other bits that crept in and took over your week. Let's fix that.

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I'm talking about how to work out which parts of your web design business you actually love, how to hand over the parts you don't, and why that usually costs a lot less than you think.

We get into:

Why getting stuck “in the weeds” makes good designers fall out of love with the work

How to identify the parts of the business you genuinely enjoy

Why not every web designer loves designing, and why that's completely fine

How designers and developers work brilliantly hand in hand

What to do if you're a techie who struggles with the design side

Why outsourcing makes you money rather than costing you money

Whether you're selling the website, or selling you as the person who builds it

How to bring team members onto a project without the client feeling dropped

Why there's a hard ceiling on how many websites you can build in a year

The five income streams I run, and the freelance team behind them

How to map what you love, what you don't, and what you could delegate

If you're busy but no longer enjoying it, this one will help you get the good bits back.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk

And here's the link if you want to learn more about Neal and Podknows: https://podknows.co.uk/

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 How to do more of what you love

00:38 When you fall out of love with web design

01:40 Work out which parts you actually love

02:25 Not every designer loves designing

02:53 Why designers and developers need each other

03:44 What to do if design isn't your strength

05:22 Outsourcing is how you make more money

06:28 “But I don't charge enough to outsource”

06:54 Are you selling the website, or selling you?

07:49 Bringing in your team without losing the client

09:40 The ceiling on building websites alone

10:00 Holly's five income streams

10:43 The freelance team behind the business

11:51 Map what you love, delegate the rest

12:29 Where to find Holly

If accessibility has never really come up in your work, it isn’t because you’re careless — it’s because almost nobody teaches it. Not the courses, not the diplomas, and definitely not the platforms we all build on.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode of Websites Made Simple, I'm joined by Rachel Mess of The Inclusive Design Company, a website designer and trainer who specialises in accessible websites. Rachel got into accessibility because her sister is visually impaired — and was mortified to realise that in years of web design training, not one course had mentioned it.

Together we cover the single biggest accessibility failure on the internet, why the drag-and-drop components you trust might be unreadable to both screen readers and Google, why “let the website breathe” is an accessibility decision, the argument that finally brings a reluctant client round, why “click here” hurts you twice over, and the free tools you should be running on every site before you hand it over.

🔗 Rachel Mess — The Inclusive Design Company: https://inclusivedesigncompany.co.uk

🔗 Sparks group mentoring: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/

🌐 More from Holly: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk

✉️ Email Holly: hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk

🎙️ Podcast produced by Podknows Podcasting: https://podknows.co.uk/

Connect with Holly on LinkedIn: Holly Christie.

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn: Rachel Mess

Chapters:

00:00 Meet Rachel Meess, accessible web design specialist

01:08 How Rachel got into accessibility

01:50 Why accessibility never came up in her training

02:46 “I can’t charge for a website somebody can’t access”

03:09 Web design is a self-taught industry

03:40 Why the platforms are part of the problem

05:21 Accessibility has to be front of mind as you design

05:39 Colour contrast is the biggest issue on the internet

06:14 Dropdowns, div blocks and what a screen reader hears

07:03 If Google can’t read it, nobody sees your content

07:45 Holly’s pet hate: emojis as bullet points

09:07 When industry experts quietly ignore best practice

10:57 Lived experience is good for business

12:49 Consulting with Diversity Scotland

13:38 DEI, blog images and seeing yourself on a website

14:44 Accessibility is the infrastructure inclusion sits on

17:32 Accessibility in your blog posts

17:58 Let the website breathe

20:46 How to bring a reluctant client round

21:32 Why Shopify sites keep coming up

22:42 The contrast checker every platform should build in

24:06 Why “click here” is a problem

25:30 Stop stuffing keywords into alt tags

26:29 Test with Lighthouse and WAVE

27:36 Graphic designers are not website designers

29:04 Where to find Rachel

If your clients keep coming back with “How do I log in?” and “How do I change an image?”, it isn’t because they’re difficult.

It’s because nobody ever handed them a manual for the thing you just built them.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m walking you through exactly how I create a website user manual for every single client: what goes in it, how it’s built, and how it went from a job that ate my time to a template I barely have to touch.

There’s a free template to go with this episode, so you can start your own straight away: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/website-manual

We get into:

Why a user manual is the difference between a delighted client and endless “how do I…” emails

How to build yours in Canva and send it as a PDF, and why I never host it on my own site

What to tell clients about themes, plug-ins and premium licences before they’re your problem

The front page details that protect you months down the line

The five minute “Welcome to Your Website” screen recording that shows them the back end

Why a page speed screenshot on handover day saves you an argument with an SEO later

The dedicated log-in page that kills half your support emails

How to record your tutorial videos once and reuse them on every single website

The troubleshooting page that says “clear your cache” in ten different ways

Where to point clients for extra help, and how you want them to contact you afterwards

If you want fewer support emails, happier clients, and a handover you can repeat without thinking about it, this one will sort you out.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 How to create a website user manual

00:46 My confession about website handovers

01:33 Why user manuals became my biggest win

02:16 How web designers actually hand over websites

02:58 Why video and written content work best together

03:25 Build it in Canva, send it as a PDF

04:22 Themes, plug-ins and licensing

05:05 What clients need to know about premium licences

06:21 The front page: logo, date and screenshot

07:32 The table of contents

07:57 The “Welcome to Your Website” video

09:01 Page speed screenshots that protect you later

10:06 The log-in page everyone forgets

11:07 Keeping the site updated, and key things to remember

12:01 Record once, use everywhere

14:03 The troubleshooting page

14:53 Additional resources and knowledge centres

15:37 How clients get in touch after handover

16:21 Grab the free template

Mentioned in this episode:

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme