It Starts Off Thrilling . . .

There are few things as alluring as starting a business - getting out on your own, being independant, doing something new, creating something cool.

Small business owners usually feed off of the energy of their small, new venture. It’s infectious, and new employees who come into the business pick up on the atmosphere and are almost as giddy as the owners.

Customers of the small business benefit from the energy, too. They get individual attention, high quality, and the status of using something new and outside the mainstream.

. . . But it Takes Work to Keep Going

There’s a reason that 4 out of 5 new businesses fail, just like so many relationships end: the romance is hard to keep alive. “Familiarity breeds contempt . . . ” as Mark Twain put it. We get tired of the hard parts. The work keeps piling up. Unforeseen challenges rear their ugly heads like your partner’s bad habits.

The good news is that it is possible. The people who make it, who survive and even start another small business, are called entrepreneurs. They’re the ones who are just crazy enough to stick it out until the business is no longer in jeopardy of turning into a “spring fling” or a “summer romance.” They somehow manage to keep the romance of owning their small business alive until it becomes something that can survive on its own.

Are You Crazy Enough?

So, are you crazy enough to be an entrepreneur? I know that I hope that I am. I’m very excited when I get to design a new web site or start a new business venture. DiamondLime is in those stages now, where I’m giddy to do new stuff and to work extra hard. The only way to know for sure if we’re crazy enough is to give it a go. So start something new. And stick to it until it is either dumb to stick around or dumb to leave!

What Kind of Website Makes a Man Want to Tear His Eyes Out?

Have you ever been to a website that is so poorly designed, so hard to understand, and so hard to navigate that you wanted to scream? I have, and if I didn’t absolutely have to be there, I would have left about .016 seconds after I arrived. But because I had to get some information from THAT site and no other, I had to muddle around looking for what I needed.

KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

The major sin in web design is to try to include too much. Web sites aren’t like teddy bears - they won’t collapse if you miss stuffing a spot. White space is as important as content on your page; in fact, I’d dare say it is a necessary piece of content for every page. Make sure to have enough white space.

Some of the best reasons for including white space in a page include the following:

• It emphasizes important points. The object in the middle of a blank area will catch more attention.
• It guides the human eye. People’s eyes aren’t drawn to white space. They are drawn to objects or text. Proper placement of white space will draw visitors’ eyes to important objects. You can practically plot the eye’s course ahead of time when you properly include white space.
• It gives the eye some rest. White space keeps looking at a web page from being so much work.

One more comment - if you feel that you must have all that information on one page, simply make the page larger, and include some anchors and links to move about. Otherwise, move what’s too much to another page.

Clarity

Take-home advice: make it clear what each page is supposed to do. Stick to a page’s purpose, and don’t be tempted to add more.

Pick readable fonts. Don’t hide links in nested menus. Describe what each link will do in the link text.

In short, do everything you can to make it easy for your visitor to understand your site. It won’t matter in the long run whether your site is hip/stylish/cutting-edge if no one stays around long enough to actually look at your site.

What would be more appropriate for the first lime sketch blog than a lime? In this sketch blog, I recorded four of the stages of drawing a lime. Click the images for a larger view.

Rough Sketch

Stronger Form

Rough Shading

Final Image