As a website design company, a big part of our job involves getting the opportunity to hear our client’s stories.
It’s absolutely essential to have the full picture to build a website and the best way to capture it is by listening to the client speak passionately about their business. When that happens, we are able to create a website that accurately represents what they are all about and ensure that it will be tailored to meet their specific goals.
But now we are flipping the script and bringing you the Net Designs story!
Here’s a little bit about how it all started, what we care about, and why we do what we do.
Who We Are:
Wendy Bedell
It all began when Wendy was working as a Communications Specialist at a public school and was sent to a training seminar on website design. She was terrified.
“I did not excel at computer programming in college and struggled with basic computer language—which everyone over 40 will understand.”
But she went to the seminar, determined not to fail, and oddly fell in love with website design. Upon her return, she bought a stack of website design books and continued her education in the WWW. She dove into building the school website, and was soon contacted by other schools, businesses, and organizations asking her to help them out with their websites.
Wendy began her foray into the world of website design without even having a home computer—which was an issue. Then, the school had a garage sale and she was able to snap up an old computer for around $20. Needless to say, she was pretty excited when she brought it home and it actually turned on and connected to the Internet.
With her new computer in tow, Wendy officially began moonlighting and teaching website design classes through the school’s community enrichment program. Then, it came time to make a decision. After working at the school for over a decade, and moonlighting for several years, Wendy left her day job in September 2006. Net Designs was born and Wendy began her journey as a business owner.
Carol Churchill
After 28 years of farming, Carol returned to college at age 35 to get her Baccalaureate degree. Unable to find a teaching job upon graduation, she took a low paid, temporary administrative job at Southwestern Michigan College and fell in love with the work.
Fifteen years later, Carol left SMC after having risen to the role of Vice President of Student Services. She then served at Macomb Community College, the second largest community college in the state, as Vice Provost for Economic and Workforce Development before moving on to Mid Michigan Community College as College President.
“A college presidency is one of those 24/7 type jobs, so upon retirement my primary concern was being bored.”
Thankfully, her concerns about retirement were short lived once Net Designs welcomed her to the team as Content Coordinator, drawing on many of the writing strengths Carol had honed as a college administrator. When she’s not writing for Net Designs, Carol enjoys writing fiction and has completed her first novel! Besides writing, she enjoys modestly beating her male opponents in golf (shown above) and refinishing furniture that was probably headed to the landfill before unleashing her creative magic all over it.
Joe Daniel
In his early teenage years, this self-taught and self-proclaimed “web guy” started tinkering with website design.
“The first website I ever designed was for my Delta Force clan. I remember the colors being neon green and black. I cringe just thinking about it.”
Very much to his relief, that website has been off the web for a long, long time. But alas, you have to start somewhere.
Joe began his career working for a radio station where he was able to put his skills to use doing website maintenance. Even so, web design continued to be primarily a hobby for many more years. Then, Joe partnered up with an old friend and decided to start an online business where his knowledge of website design rapidly grew out of necessity. When the partnership dissolved, Joe re-entered the workforce full-time in the finance industry, but he kept getting calls from friends and affiliates asking him to build their websites.
After building a few websites for local business, he decided to legitimize his part-time website building business while dreaming of owning his own web design company. Naturally, he began by researching local competitors and Net Designs popped up first in his Google search. After looking through Wendy’s portfolio and realizing she had done websites for the majority of the clients he was hoping to land, he decided it was in his best interest to just ask her for a job.
Kendall Dick
When school projects asked the question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Kendall cannot recall a single instance when ‘writer’ was the flavor of the week. Despite splattering ever-changing and lofty dream jobs across neon trifold poster boards, the only consistent thing about her projects was that she could write an A+ essay for them.
“Writing has always come naturally to me and is an endeavor I never had to trudge through, but something I always enjoyed.”
Over the years as Kendall pursued a slew of different ventures, her knack for writing remained constant. When she was finishing up college, she started doing a little freelance writing here and there for a few websites. What started out as a hobby quickly grew into a part-time gig as more and more people started asking her to write for them.
One of those people was Wendy. After reading some of Kendall’s work, Wendy reached out and asked if she would be interested in joining the Net Designs team. Now, Kendall is in charge of the Net Designs blog as well as contributing as a content writer.
So there you have it!
At the end of the day, we are just a handful of real people that like to challenge when life says this is all there is to offer and are always questioning how things can be done better.
This is one of the things we always relate to when we get to hear your story.
When we hear you tell your story, we know you share the same attitude that actively seeks out change, rather than waiting to adapt to change, and have a mindset that embraces innovation and continuous improvement. We recognize that you too have a passion for building great things from scratch and are willing to push yourself to the limits to achieve big goals.
If we haven’t already, we want to hear your story! Contact Net Designs today and let’s start a conversation!
Author: Kendall Dick, Net Designs Blogger
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Net Designs, Wendy Bedell | (269) 428-5016 | wendy.bedell@netdesignsonline.com | Contact