How can the Jollity team possibly get any stronger, you ask? By adding someone with the skills, caliber, and attitude of Karri Cole, of course!

So, we did just that!

*Ahem, official announcement voice, engage!*

Ladies and gentlemen, Jollity is elated to officially welcome the mountain-climbing, beat-dropping, design-savvy, web-hosting-aficionado, and ball of positive energy, Karri Cole, to the Jollity team.

Karri’s Background

Karri brings a wealth of worldly work experience to our team. She’s done the agency thing while based in Miami. She’s done the one-woman-band freelance thing while traipsing around India and Nepal. Now, she joins Jollity for that happy in-between from her current home base in Virginia. 

With a background in web and graphic design, Karri has worked with a wide variety of clients, in an even wider variety of roles. From hosting and marketing to brand strategy and web design, Karri’s capable of taking on a broad range of tasks for clients, and that’s exactly what she loves about it.

“Working on a brand’s web presence is all about adapting to change,” she says. With print, you design the thing, print it, and it’s finished. But websites are living, breathing things that need to adapt to grow.

“This presents fun challenges for us on the development side. It’s not an online brochure for your brand anymore — websites are about welcoming your customers in, educating them, converting them, and retaining them. It’s not something you look at once and throw in the trash — you keep coming back for more and to see what’s new.”

Karri’s Role With Jollity

Karri joins Jollity’s web hosting and support team as a project manager, meaning she’ll be doing a little bit of everything for us and our clients.

She is excited to join forces with the Jollity team as a project manager to make it all happen. Need a quick edit to your website? She’s on it. Adding a new page to your existing site? All over it. Creating a brand-spanking-new website from scratch? Oh yeah, she can do that too. From building websites to growing brands, Karri is like a Swiss army knife of web development, and your company will be in good hands if your project crosses her desk.

“I understand the process of creating a website from start to finish,” she says. “No two days are the same — that’s the life of a troubleshooter. I love finding ways to support our clients and find tailor-made solutions. We’re here to build partnerships and align on a growth mindset. With Jollity, your success is our success — everyone says that, but we really mean it! I’m here to build connections, friendships, and lasting partnerships with clients to help build the brand of your dreams.”

Karri’s Life Outside of Work

Karri’s an outdoorswoman who loves sneaking two hours inland to the Appalachian foothills for a weekend of camping and hiking in the woods. She even lugs her husband, Matthew, and pomsky, Rex, along for the fun!

She also DJs and practices yoga in her spare time, a match that led her to create a passion project with her husband: a nonprofit based in Nepal and India.

In Nepal, the duo runs an organization that helps rescued street children with housing and education programs. In India, they focus on empowering women through a tailoring program, which helps them find employment upon completion of the program (graduates receive sewing machines). Each upholds the motto of “poverty eradication through education.”

Karri believes that small wins are the most important ones. If you can focus on those and keep the momentum going, the big-picture goals will come into view. 

“With Jollity, we’re building websites and brands, but it’s bigger,” she says. “We’re helping livelihoods and changing the lives of the people who own these businesses, just like our nonprofit changes the lives of these women and children. We get the word out on what these brands do in a beautiful way.”

Feel that passion? We love this woman! And well said, Karri! That’s what we do!

Welcome to the Jollity team, we’re so happy you’re here.

We’re thrilled to announce that Jollity has again been recognized as a leading website design and marketing agency in Denver, Colorado. Jollity was carefully chosen by the research staff at TechReviewer, and we’re extremely excited to receive this annual award. This accolade is a testament to Jollity's years of hard work, dedication, and commitment to delivering the best possible service to its clients.

Jollity has been recognized by TechReviewer before. In 2021, our agency was named one of the best WordPress developers. TechReviewer compiled the list of leaders based on a range of factors, including expertise, experience, quality of services, reliability, and reputation. To make an assessment, TechReviewer collected information about Jollity's services and client reviews, comparing the company to over 600 competitors!

TechReviewer's annual research and market leader lists are a valuable resource for those seeking service providers for complex technical tasks, WordPress engineering, or on-demand support. Being included on their list is a significant and distinguished achievement, and is a reflection of the trust that Jollity has earned with our clients.

“Founded in 2014, Jollity has experienced meteoric growth year over year. Lauren, the founder, and president of the company has built a team of experts who specialize exclusively in small to medium-business WordPress websites. Jollity is also a dedicated hosting and support provider and consultative business solutions for companies spanning the spectrum of industry. Possessing deep practical knowledge in various fields, Jollity helps its clients quickly solve their business challenges, while maintaining their high quality and efficiency.”

-TechReviewer.co

At Jollity, we are proud of our growth, reputation, agility, and proficiency. We are committed to delivering exceptional service to our clients time and time again, and this recognition from TechReviewer is a testament to that.We are thrilled to be included on this list and look forward to continuing to help businesses of all sizes succeed online!

About TechReviewer.co:

TechReviewer is an independent IT market research and analysis company. The platform helps consumers find the best companies that provide high-quality IT services for technical support, development, system integration, AI, Big Data, and business analysis. As a result of our objective market analysis, the TechReviewer platform determines the most successful and reliable IT companies and makes top ratings for each of those service categories. TechReviewer’s ranking lists help organizations select the right technology partner for their business needs.

Turbo Boosting Your Website’s Performance with Jollity

Hey, it’s Aaron! I wanted to share some emerging expert answers to some of the most recent and pressing FAQs on speed, security, and stability for your website.

We believe in quality over speed and take the time to thoroughly understand and test tasks to ensure they meet our high standards before they go live. We prioritize your website's security with a variety of measures, including IP blocking, firewalls, two-factor authentication, and CAPTCHA/reCAPTCHA.

We constantly monitor your site for suspicious activity and take action to prevent any hacks or spam attacks. If your site crashes during an update, we've got you covered with 30 days' worth of archived backups and a development/staging environment for testing updates. Our on-demand support team is always available to guide you through the process or take over entirely if you need help.

Q: How do you prioritize security on my website?

We use a variety of measures, including IP blocking, firewalls, two-factor authentication, and CAPTCHA/reCAPTCHA.

Our expert team of web ninjas is always keeping an eye out for suspicious activity, and they're not afraid to take down any hackers or spammers who dare to mess with your site. So you can sleep soundly knowing that your website is more secure than a safe full of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets.

Q: What happens if my site crashes during an update?

Don't panic! We keep 30 days' worth of archived backups of your entire site, so we can easily restore it to a previous version if needed. Plus, we provide a development/staging environment for you to test updates on before going live, so you can avoid any potential issues.

Q: How do you handle spam comments and unwanted messages?

We offer a premium license to some of the best spam mitigation tools out there, which can help keep your resource center, contact forms, and blog posts free from unwanted messages and spam comments.

With our tools, you can rest easy knowing your website is protected and your visitors are only seeing legitimate content.

Q: Can you improve my website's page load times?

Absolutely! Our development team has a proven process for improving page load times and bringing low PSI (Page Speed Insights) scores up to where they should be. We prioritize speed in all of our projects and our improvements are permanent, so you can enjoy a fast-loading site even as it changes over time.

Q: How can you help me with Google Search Console errors?

If you're receiving emails from Google Search Console (GSC) warning you about page load issues, indexing errors, etc., we can resolve the errors and consult with you on how to improve your site's performance. Our team is always here to help! Our team is dedicated to keeping your site secure through various methods, and we provide extensive backups to prevent issues and ensure a silky smooth update process.

We're Here for You!

Our team is always working to improve page load times and bring low PSI scores up to where they should be. We also provide comprehensive sitemaps and URL redirects to make sure your site is displaying its most current content version. If you ever have any issues with Google Search Console, our team can step in and perform solution surgery for you!

At Jollity, we're committed to providing the best experience possible, and helping your website thrive!

The Top 7 Reasons Your Company Should Go Remote

Does the phenomenon of work-from-home make sense for your business? Nobody wants to go back to a maze of cubicles, nor should your team be asked to. Jollity has been working remotely long before it was mainstream, which is why I’m excited to use that hindsight to share these – 7 to be exact – insights with you!

Rather than wandering through the endless void, trying to overcome each potential objection business owners might have to underpin their reluctance in this transition, I’ll focus on established advantages we’ve enjoyed over the years. Naturally, it was an edge for us to be a remote website design, development, hosting, support, and copywriting agency from the beginning, but this adaptation can be made by most companies (especially startups) with relative ease, as long as you do it right.

Take note, leaders. I’m talking to YOU! The only effective way to break free from tradition at your organization is to start with team buy-in. Starting from the top and rolling the decision down (after making it yourself) without your team’s input will get you nowhere. Instead of keeping it hush-hush until it's all ironed out (or so you think, but if you do it without your team, you’ll be wrong) is a recipe for disaster. No ifs, ands, or buts. TALK with your team. See what they like about remote work. See if they want to commit to the organizational change needed to make this work.

Jollity has partnered with, hired, developed, and promoted proficient teammates for many years, to quickly arrive at the realization that unrestricted access to information allows people to perform their roles with unimpeded productivity. Trust, after all, is the mortar that holds the bricks of business together – especially when you don’t have a brick-and-mortar to conduct business in. Besides, neither you nor I have any national secrets to guard in our cloud folders and emails!

Advantage #1

You Don’t Have to Wear Pants!

Ok, you SHOULD wear pants, come on, but they don’t have to be dress pants! Your employees will never again have to dig through the racks at TJ Maxx on payday, to avoid the feeling they’re wearing a uniform.

We all know that feeling like we’re trapped in a Groundhog Day loop. Suits and blouses aren’t cheap, but luckily thanks to the format of webcam meetings, swapping out a shirt or tie works wonders – plus, you’ll automatically become the best-dressed professional in your “office,” aka kitchen, living room, etc.). Another win we can all relate to is not feeling the need to get dressed up for glamour shots every day. Those little video boxes nested in Zoom calls aren’t 4K resolution… so a quick run-through with a comb is the equivalent of waving a magic makeover wand! Oh, another redeeming aspect here is if you worked out the night before but skipped the shower, all I’m saying is who would know if you failed the sniff test every once in a while?

Advantage #2

You Get Mulligans, Without Having to Chase a Golf Ball!

If you’re ever stuck in that uneasy “limbo” between not quite feeling your best but not quite rushing to the ER, take a mulligan! By extending this unique option to your employees, they’ll feel less confined, like a robot always expected to flawlessly execute their assignments without fail. We’re all human, sometimes we have bad hair days externally, but we still have the motivation to be present, diligent, and dependable internally. There are times when we’re just not ready for the webcam spotlight.

While a vital part of remote work is fostering the policy of “always on” webcams, mulligans are an amazing method to provide breathing space to your staff. Be aware, however, that leading by example is central to this expectation becoming the company culture. At the end of the day, we all slice a golf ball into the sandpit or water. Mulligans humanize your company, smooth out the edges, and inspire caring cohesive support, and understanding between everyone. Employee confidence goes up when they know they can take another swing without a penalty.

Advantage #3

You Get to Enjoy a Virtual Water Cooler!

One of, if not THE, biggest concerns of going remote, is fearing a cataclysm of communication. Whether we’re talking top-down communication from leadership about an important policy update, an urgent all-points-bulletin, or casual small talk between colleagues, communication DOES NOT have to suffer (even if your workforce is divided between separate continents).

Utilizing stable and proven group messaging platforms, like Slack (our method for chatting at Jollity), perfectly bridges the gap. In fact, I’d argue having a real-time chat solution saves time, and offers more clarity. With the right software, you can collaborate, share files, send voice messages, and even hop on instant “huddles” with screen share capabilities from any device.

Again, communication isn’t all business, business, business… There’s a time to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries, tell jokes, and even share uplifting stories of life’s precious moments. We’ve recently had a couple of babies born amongst Jollity families, myself included! Ultimately, there’s no reason why professional or personal communication has to regress.

Advantage #4

You Can Hire the Best Talent From Anywhere on Earth!

There’s a large body of well-established research about average commuting time and distance, with detailed state-by-state data. The common theme repeatedly revealed is a standard 20-30-minute commute. This translates into approximately 15-20 miles, maximum, for a majority of workers (although there are outliers). Now, imagine if you expanded your available talent pool from the nearby suburbs directly surrounding your office, and you threw a net across the entire world! With a remote company, you exponentially expand your hiring harvest. This has, during my time as an Agency owner, been the single biggest contributor toward identifying and recruiting the BEST specialists in their fields of expertise. Going from a tiny blue radius search around the red maps pin of your office, to instantaneously having the entire world as your oyster, is a quantum leap in the quality of new hires that are ready to take your business to the next level.

Bonus: It’s a great idea to get everyone at your organization together for Team Catch Ups, with some regularity. We host these at least 2x monthly at Jollity, and make it a point to integrate fun games. Some of our recent games that can be played in real-time with fun leaderboards and trending topics were Trivia Maker, and Psych for iOS and Android (everyone can join the party with cross-platform compatibility).

Advantage #5

Relax, That Assignment Will Get Done!

This one is so simple, yet so overlooked. I separated this advantage from #6 below because this deserved its own highlight. When you hire professionals, they’re as intent on getting their projects done on time, as you are. A huge diamond in the rough that so often gets discounted, is how a less rigid structure actually yields higher-quality results. It might seem like an implausible dream, but it has been confirmed countless times over.

As long as you have a robust tool for task tracking, updates, and collaboration – there’s no reason to fret over someone not coming through the finish line on time. As a side note, many ‘due dates’ are arbitrary anyways, unless they relate to explicit delivery deadlines or promises made to clients, hiccups and hurdles can and will happen along the not-so-linear project path. By giving your staff the latitude to manage their own progress benchmarks, it’s exceedingly rare that they’ll misuse that leniency.

Advantage #6

Say Goodbye to Micromanagement!

“I love having all of my work, time, progress, and movements micromanaged!” said NO ONE EVER. This list would be woefully incomplete without mentioning this elephant in the room. From your perspective as a business owner or entrepreneur, the largest leap of logic might seem to revolve around this perceived loss of control. The irrefutable reality, according to landmark published studies from PubMed to enlightening editorials on LinkedIn, is that micromanagement actually SUPPRESSES all metrics of performance! It’s nice having those reputable citations to bolster this declaration, but honestly, I feel so strongly here that I don’t need the National Institute of Health or the Harvard Business Review to recertify my long-term findings.

Looking over someone’s shoulder, scrutinizing their decision-making, or compulsively demanding status updates has only been shown to be quasi-effective in the VERY short term (e.g., theatrical performances, or open heart surgery); but conclusively ends in a demoralized anxious employee that distrusts their own creative instincts. You’re diligent about your hiring practices, so the first instinct you should trust is your own, to let your team perform independently. It’s much harder for them to get any assignment done when they’re bent over in exhaustion from the weight of someone’s thumb pressing down on their back!

Hourly tracking is a tried-and-failed method to qualify or quantify productivity. When you become resolute about going remote, you must also be resolute about leaving the archaic “that’s how it’s always been done” thought process in a dusty grave where it belongs. While 40 hours per week is a decent watermark to shoot for, when needed, there’s simply no hard-and-fast measurement of a “week well done.” Some professionals who have mastered their craft can churn out flawless deliverables for clients in 3 hours, which would take someone else equally up-to-the-task and industrious – albeit not as seasoned – double that amount of time. The best way to gauge progress is through RESULTS.

NOTE: According to a hefty and swiftly expanding repository of research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and many other worldwide data aggregating analysts, America is already below that subjective 40-hour false perception, at 34. In fact, some of the most innovative, wealthy, and pioneering nations on Earth have established weekly work expectations as low as 26 hours per week (e.g., Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, and much more work LESS than 30 hours each week). Oh, and guess which country was at the very TOP of the productivity index, for the entire world? It was the nation that worked the LEAST amount of time, Germany, according to the OWiD’s worldwide study.

While Jollity does use a fantastic hourly tracking system company-wide, known as EverHour, we only request time data be inputted for budget forecasting to clients, and to keep our hourly rates congruent with billables. I can’t say it any more emphatically than this: If you’re hiring people you HAVE to micromanage, you’re hiring the WRONG people!

Advantage #7

Cost and Time Savings!

This one’s easy! The cost of a building, maintenance, ongoing lease revisions, and negotiations, depreciation tables, cyclical (ever-increasing) utility bills, network monitoring IT departments, human resources, and 100 other expenses of a physical location will wreak havoc on your bottom line. By forgoing all that noise and nurturing a decentralized network of all-star experts working from their own creative spaces, revenue is instantly boosted.

This is the archetype of addition by subtraction (and what you’re subtracting – let's face it – is an inflated, expensive, recurring expense all to provide a place no one wants to battle traffic to get to every morning)!

SO WHAT’LL IT BE?

While I’ve covered the Top 7 reasons why working from home has given a meteoric rise to Jollity’s success, the important takeaway is how it can work for your company.

I could’ve titled this article “70 reasons (or even 700 reasons) why remote work, works!” I’m not minimizing the footwork that will be involved in turning a corner into the 21st century, but I am encouraging you to take an earnest inventory of any remaining reasons keeping you from doing so. At Jollity, we want everyone to experience how a team of pros can make greatness happen daily through shared effort. Remember, you can lock arms with each other from anywhere in the world, through the partnership of participation, to form an alliance that thrives no matter what walls or distances are in between!

Jollity is thrilled – in an over-the-moon sort of way – to officially announce Hannah Novak as our newest member of the J-squad! From our team in-house to our clients across the world, Hannah uplifts everyone with her bright, contagious smile and positive working attitude.

Hannah’s Background

Hannah has that rare quality of doing everything, with quality ! She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science from Kent State University.

Prior to entering the fold of like-minded specialists at Jollity, Hannah made a huge shift in her career focus and began exploring the world of websites and marketing. She found herself as the head videographer and lead graphic designer within a marketing agency, helping prepare and qualify her to then be added to our team!

In fact, Hannah’s talent aligned so well Jollity, that she found her way into our ranks by a direct referral from her former employer, after he, in a similar fashion, joined the Jollity team! Since then, Hannah has become an integral part of our ability to hit the bullseye for clients!

Hannah’s Role With Jollity

With an introduction like that, you’re probably expecting Hannah’s title at Jollity to be “Magician,” right? Well, that's what we call her anyway, but Hannah is formally known as Jollity’s Administrative Specialist… which just is another way of saying, “There’s nothing she’s not great at, so we’ll gladly enjoy her support on everything!”

Hannah is mostly responsible for Invoicing, client communication, and internal system organization, but she has also recently began revamping our marketing department! From Jollity's social media to our monthly newsletter, Hannah has taken the bull by the horns and plans to implement new marketing strategies!

Life Outside of Work

Hannah and her husband, Anthony, consider themselves avid "foodies" and enjoy traveling and trying new food. If given the chance, they would become youtubers and document their journey eating food around the world! They even started an instagram page dedicated to posting all of the amazing food they've had (pictured below).

Wherever animals are, you'll be sure to find Hannah!

It's easy to see that Hannah has quickly, and repeatedly, established herself as a marvelous member here, leaving us scratching our heads in confusion about how we EVER managed without her.

Welcome Hannah, we’re so happy you’re here!

If you blink, you might miss yet another addition to the Jollity team! Say hello to Aaron Smith who has joined our team to help solve all of your copywriting needs!

Aaron’s Background

Aaron, or should we call him “King of Content,” came to us with an extensive background and education in copywriting. 

Before joining us at Jollity, Aaron owned and operated a full service production suite providing copywriting services, SEO engineering, voiceovers, graphic design, and video/audio production.

It’s easy to tell when someone loves what they do because their work reflects that. Aaron is one of those people. He couples his passion for research with his unique writing ability and creates extremely engaging content for readers. This was obviously someone we needed to add to the Jollity team.

Aaron’s Role With Jollity

Aaron began working with Jollity as a contractor tasked with small-scale copywriting assignments. Luckily, as our company grew, so did the need for an in-house copywriting department.

During website projects, client after client struggled with providing us content for their site. This was especially prevalent for clients coming to us for a website redesign because they were already unhappy with their current site’s content and structure. Noticing this recurring problem, Aaron helped propose a solution: The Jollity Content Department.

After months of conversations and planning, Aaron was brought onboard full-time as the Manager of Content Strategy, solving the many issues our clients were facing with content creation! Even in a short few months, the content department has exponentially grown into a team of skilled copywriters.

Life Outside of Work

When Aaron isn’t in his office cranking out content, he spends his time with those he loves most: his wife, his daughter, and his 7 dogs. Yes… you read that right… SEVEN dogs! Liam, Kiki, Hermione, Tombo, Cookie, Scamper, and Snowflake, to be exact.

Even though Aaron’s newborn daughter, Eve Grace, is his only actual child, it’s probably more accurate to say Aaron has 8 “children” if we’re including the pups. 

He and his wife, Sarah, are quite the active couple and love to explore the outdoors. Whether it’s hiking, mountain biking, or bodybuilding, you can count them in (granted they can find a dog-sitter) !

Welcome to the Jollity team, Aaron! We are lucky to have a team member like you! 

The tenacious and talented Jollity team keeps growing! Say hello to our newest project manager, Julie Shafer of Littleton, Colorado. She’s here to renovate your website!

Julie’s Background

Julie comes to Jollity from a background in law enforcement… sort of. “For the past 16 years, I’ve worked in marketing with software companies in the public safety industry (law enforcement, etc.),” she said. “The company I was with for 8 of those years was acquired–twice in one year–by a bigger company and they phased out my role, so I pivoted to freelance marketing and design. I continued serving small companies in that sector developing campaigns, content, and designs for their unique audience.”

Along the way, Julie reconnected with a friend from grad school at the University of Denver — Jollity president, Lauren Perfors.

“Lauren and I have kept in touch since school and would occasionally flip each other referrals,” she said. “I had a client who needed two websites rebuilt and I knew just the company! So I called Lauren and she said, ‘Wait a minute you’re not employed anymore? We need to talk!’

After a few projects together, Julie is now coming aboard full-time as a project manager.

Julie’s Role With Jollity

Julie’s background in marketing and design along with some coding skills allow her to see the big and small picture when developing websites. She knows the ins and outs of web development and can (and will) roll up her sleeves to move projects forward when needed.

She’s passionate about client relationships and is here to get to know the people behind the brands.

“It sounds cheesy but I’m excited to learn more about our clients and their businesses,” she said. “I love learning their stories — especially small businesses. What got them started, what motivates them, what keeps them going? It all helps me create and manage a website that matches their individual personality to their brand.”

Away From Your Projects

When she’s not redesigning projects, Julie is renovating homes, with a team that sounds like an HGTV series waiting to be greenlit.

During weekly Friday night family “happy hours,” Julie, her husband, Clint, and two very active boys, Grayson, 8, and Cyrus, 4, work on home renovation projects for themselves and others. Clint handles the construction while Julie lends her keen eye to the arrangement and decoration (she studied interior design in undergrad). The boys mostly carry around tape measures and help with demo.

When they’re not working on home improvement, they’re making music. Clint plays guitar, Grayson is on bass, and Cyrus plays the drums.

Julie? She’s the band manager, of course.

Welcome, Julie!

Who says work can’t be fun?

Certainly not Lauren Perfors, founder and fearless leader of Jollity.

A former VP at a prominent SEO agency, something clicked in Lauren that made her want to launch her own shop. Actually, it was more like a metronome slowly picking up the pace. Or lo-fi beats stirring up some creative energy. Whatever tunes make you want to make a plan, essentially.

Point is — this was no spur-of-the-moment jump into entrepreneurship — Jollity was meticulously planned for years.

“We built up to this,” says Lauren. “I wanted to grow something. I wanted to help small businesses. I wanted to do it better.”

So in 2011, she did.

What Makes Jollity Uncommon

“I wanted to create something different than what I saw in the current marketplace,” she says. “We were fully remote from the start. I thought it could be done and that everyone would enjoy a better lifestyle. You don’t need to be at your desk from eight to five, it just isn’t necessary. You can take care of your clients without micromanaging your team.”

“People will succeed when you give them the flexibility to do it on their own.”

Jollity was fully remote a decade before COVID made it the norm. Yet despite being spread across the country, Jollity’s workload is more shared than the average in-office agency.

“There’s no reason why everything shouldn’t be shared,” she says. “I’m a huge proponent of collaboration, communication, and sharing. All email correspondence and client-facing communications are accessible between our team members.

“That way, for example, if a team member gets sick, someone else can step in right away and see exactly where everything stands with the client. We share so we don’t miss a beat. It allows everyone to stay up to speed.”

Why Jollity Is The Best At What They Do

Humble but confidently cutting edge, Lauren leads the Jollity team to deliver on promises, every time. Jollity does so by sticking to what they do best.

“I don’t believe that you can be the very best at what you do if you continue to upsell with new services,” says Lauren. “We are the best at WordPress website design and development for small businesses, hosting and managing your site, and keeping it up to date with around-the-clock support. Because no website is ever really done, you always need someone to manage and grow with your business. We’re a partner for life”

While growth and onboarding are attractive and part of business, Jollity keeps its focus on existing clientele.

“Existing clients always come first,” says Lauren. “This allows me to be stable with our existing client base.  At a company level, we take care of them by staying up to date. Standards are constantly changing, we need to always recommend the latest trends, services, etc. We jump on the bandwagon extremely fast to make sure sites are up-to-date and compliant.”

What’s In The Jollity Name?

Jollity
noun

lively and cheerful activity or celebration.
"a night of riotous jollity"
the quality of being cheerful.

Yes, it’s a real word. Fit for a web design team with new-school tools and an old-school work ethic, Jollity can most aptly be defined as “have fun and get sh*t done.”

“I really feel like client and internal communication can get stale,” says Lauren. “You can have a lot of fun doing your job. One of the best ways is to hang out, interact, and actually get to know your clients and team. Who are they? What makes them tick? What makes them happy?

“When you understand your team members and client at their core, you know how to give them what they need. You know how to ask for and offer help. And you know how to have fun getting those results. I wanted a brand that represented that theme and approach.

The proof is in the results and the thriving client relationships.

“We’re not only going to do an amazing job taking care of your website, but we’re also going to have a damn lot of fun while we’re doing it. That makes work/life joyful. Jollity came out of that ideology.”

Outside Of Work

When she has time away from Jollity, Lauren is either being a Mom, playing outside or best yet — both.

“My kids are only going to be young once but my job is going to be here the rest of my working life,” she says. “When my kids get out of school, I am spending time with them.”

Lauren is a breast cancer survivor and skier who hikes 14ers with her husband as an anniversary getaway. But more than anything, she’s a runner.

“Running is my everything,” she says. “I just need to go. I’m slower now, I hit my peak, but I’m not giving up. It’s my fun. It’s how I explore new cities. It’s how I recharge and reset my mind.”

Lauren grew up just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, but when her family moved to Utah, she felt the mountains calling. Now, she can’t be far from them.

After 15 years in Denver and a short stint in Missouri, Lauren, her husband, Steve, four-year-old Adelyn, and five-month-old Olivia Jade, currently reside in Fort Collins. It’s a mountain and college town lined with bike paths that get plowed before the roads, close access to a lifetime's worth of world-class hiking, dotted with lakes for paddling or swimming, and an active-lifestyle-loving community. Both kids and adults are here to thrive and play.

Much like Jollity.

New team member alert! Meet Brittany Picard, Cincinnati, Ohio’s finest project manager/UX graphic designer/actress/human mom/cat mom. Brittany has joined the Jollity team as our new Project Manager/Web Designer.

Yes — a lot of slashes there, but that’s what this self-described unicorn does — a bit of everything!

ABOUT BRITTANY

Brittany did her learning at Kent State University and still resides in good old Ohio with her family, including her 16-year-old daughter, eight-year-old son, and plethora of cats (more on this later). She went to school for Visual Communications and Design with a focus on UX, 2D, & Web Design.

A fiercely detail-oriented person, Brittany has parlayed her expertise and organizational skills into project management, with the ability to creatively oversee and execute a design project herself from beginning to end.

She knows every step of the web design process and, thanks to her flexible, unicorn-like abilities, she has had her hands in every phase at one point or another depending on the project.

BRITTANY’S ROLE WITH JOLLITY

Brittany is here to ensure each web project runs smoothly & efficiently while also contributing her UX and design skills along the way. Her versatile skill set allows her to do it all and do it well. She’s all-in for projects that allow her to let her creativity flow. Jollity provides her that freedom and she is so thankful to be a part of such an amazing company and team!

The former Freelance Designer and Marketing Director is onboard full-time with Jollity and a gift for anyone who gets to work with her.

OUTSIDE OF WORK

Brittany spends most of her time being a mom — both to her daughter and son, as well as her clowder of cats (yes, a group of cats is called a “clowder.”) A devoted kitten and cat foster, Brittany tries not to get attached but… it happens. She manages the clowder with a “catio” (cat patio) where the cats can go in and out through a window. Her record for cats and kittens at one time? 11.

When she’s not at soccer or swim practice with her daughter or playing video games with her son, she’s also an actor with SAG-credited films and commercials under her belt.

And lastly, what you’ve all been waiting for… Brittany is devotedly PRO Skyline chili. In fact, she not only worked there for 10+ years, but also met her husband there!

Welcome, Brittany!

I am so excited to introduce Jacob "Jake" Edlund! Jake has joined the Jollity team as our new Hosting & Support Project Manager.

NEW JOLLITY TEAM MEMBER

Jake comes to us with experience in both digital marketing and digital infrastructure, which makes him the perfect fit for the role of Project Manager. Jollity's clients will certainly share in our excitement to have Jake on our team and theirs. In his new position, Jake will be responsible for ensuring that hosting and support projects are completed on time and within budget - music to our clients' ears.

EDUCATION. EXPERIENCE. EXECUTION

Jake holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a professional background in digital media production (a B.S. in Digital Media and Broadcasting to be specific). Early in his career, he found a passion and aptitude for marketing and digital infrastructure. After Jake moved his graduation cap tassel to the left, he discovered his talent for client/team collaboration, and expertly guiding projects to the finish line.

Now more than ever, Jake looks forward to continuing that collaborative nature and building bridges from concept to completion. While the projects he'll manage may be digital, Jake's zeal revolves around developing meaningful relationships while surpassing client expectations.

PEAK PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Jake has an authentic, unmistakable fervor for outside-the-box problem-solving and a knack for intense critical thinking. Jake’s ability to communicate with clients is paralleled by his honest ability to listen to them, helping guide their decision-making during a project. Jake is thrilled to know Jollity uses cutting-edge platforms, tools, and methods of communication to achieve peak results through their style of project management.

JAKE’S INSPIRATION


As a husband and father, who loves spending time with his wife, son, and two dogs, Jake also tries to find time to chase his passions - such as boating, learning code, and spending time with friends. When the stars align, he may even squeeze some Xbox in with distant, long-time friends. At the end of the day, he also can't resist the allure of cracking open a speculative fiction book to unwind. His favorite authors include A.G. Riddle, Pierce Brown, and Ernest Cline. Speaking of family, we are beyond uplifted to welcome Jake to ours at Jollity!

WELCOME TO JOLLITY, JAKE!


His blend of positivity, genuine client concern, and an unmatched history of successful experience in his field creates ultra-effective project management for our clients - and we couldn't be more pleased! Welcome home, Jake.

What should you look for when hiring a web design and development agency? Well, I could hire a copywriter to write this post, who would list off the things you likely already know – look for a solid work portfolio, a company with a reputation, ask for referrals, blah blah blah. So, now you know the easy things that everyone else’s blog post already says. Let’s move onto the good tips.

1. Make Sure You Own Your Website!!

I can NOT stress this enough. Make sure you aren’t renting the website from the company who builds it for you. If you break up, you should be able to take your website with you. Don’t get screwed in a divorce. Sign a prenup. Any web design or development agency who doesn’t guarantee you ownership (IN WRITING) of your website and their work on it is a huge red flag.

I can’t even count on my own fingers the number of clients who have come to me with websites that they have just discovered that they don’t own, and that they will lose as soon as they switch. We now have to start from scratch.

2. NO Templated Copy!

Recently, there have been a ton of pop-up website agencies that specialize exclusively in a very specific industry like law firms, construction companies, and real estate agencies. The agency handles ALL of the content for you for a ridiculously cheap price. Here’s why: the content and design is templated and duplicated across all of their clients’ sites.

Why am I aghast at this atrocity? Glad you asked. Duplicating content is a HUGE SEO (search engine optimization) no-no. Google it if you don’t believe me – you can NOT have a bunch of copy on your site that is identical to copy on a bunch of other websites. Google will snub you. Don’t do it. Also, your website looks like everyone else’s, and will not be fit to get your message across to your potential website visitors.

For me, what really gets my blood boiling with these specialized agencies who dup websites for each of their clients is that they 100% know what they’re doing, and how they’re screwing you for SEO, and they DON’T TELL YOU THE TRUTH. GAAAAAAA!!!!!

3. Do the Designers Need a Degree in Web Design?

Until very recently, there was no such thing as a degree in web design. It’s still pretty scant. These days, there are bootcamps. So, recruit veterans! All jokes aside, anyone can learn to code. Coding knowledge is really the bare minimum of what you need in a web designer.

There are now certificates and specialized programs in web design, which is certainly a great step in the right direction for education in the industry. But most agencies don’t look for a degree in their new hires. They look for (and you should look for) EXPERIENCE. How long has the agency been around? I’m sorry to the new entrepreneurs — I’ve been there, but you just can’t learn in your first 6 months the processes and workflows that you need in order to be the best. It takes time, no matter how many years of corporate agency the founder had before they got started, new agencies are going to make mistakes before they learn to get it right. A good agency is always working on bettering themselves and great if you’re on a very tight budget, but if you have the choice then go for one who has been around for at least 2-3 years.

4. Host Where YOU Want After Launch (but for goodness sakes choose a good one)

After your website launches, many website agencies will offer to host your site for you. Host where you want!!! Make sure that you are allowed to host wherever you want. Because, remember, YOU own your website.

Honestly, sometimes the hosting they offer is really good. Jollity, for example, has a fantastic managed WordPress hosting service for small businesses (toot, toot). There’s nothing wrong with hosting with your web dev agency if what they offer is solid. Hosting requirements is definitely a separate blog post, but the important takeaway here is choice: you should have the right to choose where to host after your new site launches.

Look for another post on our blog talking about what to look for in a solid WordPress managed hosting and care plan solution. For today’s purposes, know that if they’re throwing your site up on a shared BlueHost or GoDaddy hosting server, steer clear. You know better.

5. No Templates. No Templates. No Templates.

Don’t work from a template. If your website design agency is asking you to pick a theme from ThemeForest, then they’re not a real developer. Sorry. Look, I was that person in the past, shame on me. I knew how to code, but having the client pick a theme let me make cheap websites quickly. Here’s the rub: the website wasn’t designed for your company’s goals, brand, and lead generation. It will not be as effective.

Using a WordPress theme is a solution for DIYers and early stage unfunded start-ups who only plan to keep their site up for their 1st year in business while they save up some money for a better one. Hey, if that’s where you’re at, then by all means, go for it. I get it. But plan to sale up to a custom-designed site in a year or so.

EVERY new website page should start with a design through a professional designer. I know, I know. I hear you whine “but it costs more” and “but it takes longer”. Damn right it does. Doing it right takes more time and costs more money.

Designers and developers have completely different skill sets, and you need both on your website team. If you find a dude who is truly good at both; congrats, you’ve found a unicorn. Please send pictures.

Designers know where to put the pretty buttons that make visitors more likely to click “Buy Now.” Designers know how to attract the website visitors’ eye to the video you think will convince them to fill out your lead form.

Developers, by contrast, will make that awesome video load on your site in less than 3 seconds. They’ll code the site efficiently so that it can be crawled by Google. Good developers code your back-end so that it’s ready to scale as your company grows.

Think about the difference between an architect and a construction worker. The architect designs the layout, and the construction worker builds it to stand strong for years to come. Try telling that construction worker to sit down for 40 hours to perfect the aesthetics of your home on brand new architecture software. You’ll soon find yourself in need of a new construction crew.

6. They Should Specialize in Your CMS

Statistically, your site is most likely in WordPress. Stay away from firms who say they do WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, custom sites, and 18 other CMSs. To be really good at a CMS, developers have to be in it all day every day. That’s why specialists are so good!

Don’t hire the yes man: Drupal? Oh, yes! You’re thinking Joomla now? Oh, yes.

Ummm, no. Just say no to the “yes man”.

If your site is built in WordPress, hire a WordPress design and development agency. The only exception would be an agency big enough to have a department dedicated to each CMS, and that would be like finding another unicorn.

7. What Size of Agency Do I want?

Freelancer

Need the absolute cheapest solution that you can find? Well, you can probably find a decent dude (or dudette, ahem) who works in his [Mom’s] basement and knows how to code. Since he has very little overhead, he can charge you less. There’s honestly nothing wrong with hiring this guy or girl. Your biggest risk is that they ghost. A lot.

Quite frankly, these freelancers are an excellent source of business for us here at Jollity: businesses get sick of being ghosted on, and they upgrade to an agency. Which brings us to…

Small business / established agency

This is Jollity’s size! We are a tight-knit small team of about 5.

We are large enough to provide consistently fast turnaround times, but small enough that we get to know you personally. At Jollity, we have a lot of fun with our clients, joke around on calls, know when our clients’ kids go to college, you get the idea. Established agencies are more expensive than a freelancer – the stability and broader talent base of a full team comes with more overhead. Nearly 100% of clients whose websites we built chose to continue working with us. You knew this blog post was going to talk about Jollity at some point, so quit eye-rolling at my sales plug. I’m proud of our agency, we are really damn good :-).

Large agency

Need a 50,000 page website with custom designs on each page built in 3 months? You need a bigger agency. Ironically, a larger agency doesn’t always result in faster communication turnaround times, but they can get a much larger volume of work done much faster than a small agency. They’re also more likely to have more departments in-house. So, if your company’s process for hiring new agencies is long and arduous, then it can be beneficial to go with a larger agency that offers you everything — web design and dev, copy, marketing strategy, SEO, paid search advertising, and more. Just make sure they’re actually really good at all of the services that you plan to hire them for. Often, agencies start launching new departments after seeing a revenue opportunity without actually building up the expertise needed to truly be the best in each service area. Be wary. Remember not to hire the “yes man.”

8. How Should They Price The Project?

Some agencies now go with an hourly pricing model for a website project. Truth be told, I envy them. It’s super hard to accurately price out a fixed bid for a website design and development in advance, regardless of how much time I invest with the client prior to getting started. They rarely, if ever, come out how they’re written in the SOW. Agencies with the size and reputation to get away with it have moved to hourly pricing for web projects for exactly that reason. I don’t blame them. But plan for your original website estimate from the agency to completely balloon, especially if your company has several levels of management who will want to get involved throughout the project. Yep, the meddling VPs and CEOs who like to blow things up near the finish line, you know who you are.

The other pricing model is a fixed bid. That’s how Jollity prices most of our website design and development projects. Our secret sauce is to spend a lot of time with you to make sure we truly understand all of the features your website needs. For a well-scoped fixed bid, the website agency should first be asking you:

  1. About your business – goals, how you make money.
  2. About your CRM – how do you manage sales?
  3. About your marketing – what role does the website serve in your marketing strategy?
  4. (for redesigns) Whether you intend to change the navigation and content.
  5. Who is writing the copy, if any copy at ALL is changing?
  6. Who is providing the assets (images, graphics)?
  7. When do you need it done by? If it’s a hard deadline, what’s coming up that we need to know about?
  8. Do you want your blog posts migrated? Why or why not?

That’s just a quick summary. Each of the above has sub-questions, and often generates further conversation. They’re all vital to determining an accurate scope.

Overall, your agency needs to be your website consultant. They should be talking with you about the topics above and helping you work through them. They should be advising you and helping you weigh the pros and cons of different website decisions and options. The sales process prior to signing is a great opportunity to get a taste of the consulting capabilities of the agency.

Tech support tell you to clear your browser cache? Here's how. It takes less than 5 seconds once you know how! While it seems simple, there are a lot of settings you need to get right to make the cache clear effective. Example used in this video is the Chrome browser.

The instructions below are a great set of notes to supplement the video above.

  1. In Chrome, from the top menu bar select "Chrome."
  2. From the menu that appears, select "Clear Browsing Data."
  3. From the popup that appears, toggle the top tab to "Advanced."
  4. Set the timeframe to "all time".
  5. Uncheck all the boxes except "cached images and files."
  6. Click the blue "Clear data" button at the bottom right of the pop-up window.

Phew! You did it!

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