Ten Years of Websites

There are dates we all have in our diaries, from birthdays to upcoming events.  But some do pass you by.  One such date has almost passed us by – the date 79DESIGN was created.  The “inception” date.  Today is our 10th BIRTHDAY.

We are 10 years old.

We had been running a little bit before then, as of course things have to go through the ‘proper channels’, but the official date is the 2nd September.  Where has that time gone.  The business has developed in that time, as businesses do.  We started with one main client, and that client helped us develop lots more website projects.

Our aim was to be a forward thinking, friendly and approachable company that people could find easily.  When you first put a new website together it can take a long time to really be picked up on Google.  Nowadays it does that a little quicker.  We are now in a very strong position, and gathering a great reputation among our clients.

The design bug was set in stone

Our director, Simon, has been in the business much longer than that though.  Working in website design for telecoms companies, and even the largest geographical Water Utility company in the UK, Anglian Water.  Having built over 35 internal (intranet) websites, the bug was definitely set in stone.

Who’d have thought back then, that all these years on, that ‘bug’ would turn into this amazing business that is working for many companies up and down the UK.  From universities, to school academies and councils.  Providing training to these organisations, as well as website support, SEO support and social media too.

Smaller local businesses have employed 79DESIGN for their new websites, to improve what they have already got, and to develop them much further.

Spalding is where it began

We started just here in Spalding, then it progressed throughout Lincolnshire before we started touching base much further beyond, even up in Newcastle ( as well as Ireland and the USA for one main client) and across to Rochdale.  This is where our wonderful relationship with the great Jimmy Cricket began.  Now great friends with him and his wife May, with two surreal moments we would like to share with you.

Hello Jimmy

On our first meet, Simon was in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.  Having started working for Jimmy, he was invited to see him at a show he was doing and greet him back stage.  Quite a moment, if you are a Jimmy fan!  He was such a delight.  Jimmy was also there to turn on the Christmas Lights, but as he left the ‘ball room’ for the big stage, it was chucking down with rain.  He got up on stage in all his ‘get up’, and did his thing for the audience.  Simon was just backstage having kind of ‘sneaked in’ to the back stage area.

Lights are on – next?

When Jimmy was done, he came down the steps (it had thankfully stopped raining), and didn’t know where to go.  No one was there to take him back (it was a 5 min walk in a strange town).  Simon was there and Jimmy spotted him.  Over to Simon…………… “it was a surreal moment for me.  There I was with Jimmy saying ‘oh Simon, do you know the way back?’.  Yes of course I do.  I know the town really well.  So there I was with Jimmy and his wife, around the back of the stage to be greeted by several hundred (perhaps a thousand) people wanting autographs.

He did a few, but the weather wasn’t great.  So I said ‘I can take you a sneaky way out of this’.  As much as he liked it all, he wanted to get back.  Here we have this surreal moment of walking Jimmy Cricket and his wife around the back streets of Wisbech, with people in pub doorways ‘hey Jimmy… theres more…’, was quite something.”.

Jimmy Cricket and the ducks

The second of these moments with when Simon was with Jimmy at a family occasional near Skegness.  Jimmy was at a show but met with him and family in the middle of nowhere for tea and biscuits.  Back to Simon… “the surreal bit was when he had to leave for his show, we went outside and the ducks where there.  So he was walking through them and sort of ‘putting on a show’ for them.  I did of course take photos“.

Another nice moment was in April 2016.  Trish from the Spalding Guardian newspaper contacted us about her website called ‘Mums Gone to’.  She is a traveller blogger and writer and was using a platform that wasn’t doing her any favours.  So we migrated her site over to WordPress and she has never looked back.  We still host her website and support her when needed.  She did a lovely article in the local paper, here it is.  Click it to view a larger version.

We would like to thank all the clients we have worked with in the past, wishing them well as we all press through life and a grin and a coffee.
A bottle of something maybe opened today, and………. to celebrate TEN wonderful years, we would like to offer anyone who wishes to have a new website made, or a redesigned website, a 10% discount when you quote code “79TEN”.  This is for websites only.  Excludes hosting, social media and SEO work.

As always, you can call 01775 894479 to enquire about a website, or visit our Quotation page.  Or just click the Let’s Chat and we are ready to ‘livechat’ with you.