December 2016 will forever be burned in my head as the year GoDaddy wanted to take down my almost 9 year old business. They somehow deleted the database to my website, AND the backup, and I lost EVERYTHING. Originally discovered yesterday, but received notification that their restore team couldn't actually restore it (i'm changing their name to bore team, or a few other words I cannot type online!) By 5 something my amazing friend Liz said, "I'll make you a new website! Just come to Squarespace" and by 7AM we were importing pictures to make my new home on the web all pretty. It's now noon and I feel like i've lived for 3 weeks ;)
There's a few things I have learned today:
1. Back things up yourself. Don't expect a server in a far away land to actually do it's job. I will have to figure this out for this new site. My old site was automatically emailing me back ups, but somehow that ended in 2012. Oops.
2. Juggling too many balls only means there's a matter of time before something crashes. As a small business owner (or working mom, or stay at home mom, or teenager, or anyone else reading this blog!) You cannot go through life alone. I only in the past two months outsourced my blogging. (Sorry Sarah now we have to do it ALL over again, ha!) But for the past 8+ years I have been a photographer, accountant, tax prep'er, design builder, communication coordinator, IT support, blogger, editor, driver, designer, seamstress (really! Always carry a sewing kit to a wedding, you'd be surprised how many times i've used it) and countless other titles. The point is, we all need help because it's just too much for one person to run.
3. If something goes horribly wrong, freak out! But only for a few minutes! We all have our moments when everything spirals out of control. Take a second, have a good hard cry that you've "lost everything" and then remember it's just your online presence and you can build it back up. So chin up, buttercup! Pull those boot straps up and get to work. Hard work hasn't stopped you before!
4. Embrace the change. So now I have a new website, new blogging platform, and new EVERYTHING! But that also means that now I can implement the changes I wanted to do on my last site but dragged my feet on. My galleries will be updated with only the latest and greatest. My blog will have the same content AND I will also start a few new series I've been thinking about adding.
5. Focus on the good. It would have been so easy to go back to bed and sulk the whole day, but with a quick kick from my friend Liz to jumpstart my new website, I am feeling pretty good about where I stand right now!
So friends, I am glad you are here! I hope you will keep coming back and leaving comments so I can climb back up that crazy SEO ladder to be where I was as a Richmond VA Wedding Newborn and Family Photographer.
*Thank you Joanna for the picture!