by Dan Lenehan
Angela Hall knows her makeup. As she notes on her website, she’s been obsessed with makeup since age 5, when she got a Marie Osmond makeup head for Christmas.* And while her interest in makeup continued through high school and college, it wasn’t until after slogging through a string of “soul-crushing” corporate jobs that she went into makeup professionally. She now has her own successful makeup art practice in the Chicago area and does makeup for weddings, special events, and commercial photo shoots, as well as offering makeup classes from her studio.
Apparently Angela also has a talent for building websites, as the site she built with vSites shows. We at vFlyer are simply blown away by her site; it has great branding, is well organized, balances text and images well, and makes good use of lots of different module types. It also just looks fantastic.
I caught up with Angela this week and she kindly answered my questions about her business, her website, her experience with vSites, and her advice for other business owners thinking about building a website.
Can you tell me a little about your business?
I joke that I have self-confidence in a bottle. In today’s world, appearances matter. It’s not fair, but it’s fact. As a makeup artist, I have a pretty deep bag of tricks that I use to make women look and feel their best.
I’m based in suburban Chicago and for now, I’m a one-woman show. I work with brides, but I also do commercial work for photo shoots.
How did you get into makeup?
I have always loved makeup. No matter how fat you get, lipstick always fits! I did my first makeover at 16. Back then it never occurred to me that I could make a living putting makeup on people. So I went to college and then worked in a series of soul-crushing corporate jobs. When the recession struck and being downsized seemed unavoidable, I decided to pursue my passion full-time.
How did you learn about vSites?
It was by accident. I was looking for a service that had web templates but offered a LOT of customization options. I didn’t want to hand code the whole thing, but I didn’t want to be trapped either. As I looked at people’s websites, I noticed that realtors had clean websites with lots of pictures, so Googling around, I tripped over vSites. Once I tried it and saw the vMarketing complement, I signed right up.
How did you decide how to design and structure your website?
I have a marketing background, so I knew basically that I wanted the website to be graphic but still feminine. I also wanted it to reflect my personality. I tried to design it with my different market segments in mind.
Why is it important for your business that you have a quality website?
Brides and personal clients are now doing all of their legwork online. A professional website gives people the confidence that you will handle their needs competently.
What’s your favorite vSites feature?
MODULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why no one else has thought of this I’ll never understand. You just figure out what you want and where you want it and click. Easy.
Do you have any advice for someone thinking about building a website for his or her business?
Do it yourself. It’s not about saving money, it’s about retaining control. As a business owner, you need to understand everything about how your business runs. A service like vSites makes it easy to produce professional-quality sites.
My other advice… don’t reinvent the wheel. Look at the websites of successful companies in industries with similar clients. For example, I looked at interior design and real estate because they are high-ticket, emotional services in female-dominated industries.
*Note: I was unfamiliar with “makeup heads” and intrigued by the Marie Osmond thing, so I did a series of Google image searches to try to find a picture of a Marie Osmond makeup head (which I now know was part of a celebrity makeup head line that Mattel launched in the late 70s and that also included Farrah Fawcett and the Bionic Woman). Apparently — and disappointingly — no such picture exists.
