My story: From 9-5 grind to a successful Squarespace templates business
Hi, I’m Erica, and I’m the founder of Big Cat Creative, an online design business that specializes in Squarespace Templates.
We've been selling Squarespace Templates since 2017, and have sold over 6000 of them (and counting!), but that's not where I started!
In this post, I want to share my journey from working in a corporate job, to running my own custom web design business, and how I transitioned into selling Squarespace Templates full time.
If you're thinking about starting to sell Squarespace Templates in your business, or just need some inspiration to start your own thing, this post will be worth a read!
Let's turn back the clock...
I studied graphic design in high school, and I started my career as a Graphic Designer not long after (that's right folks, I didn't go to university!). I worked in a few different printing studios as a designer in between my international travels and other random qualifications that I took (I'm technically a qualified Adventure Tourism Instructor, and Vet Nurse, seriously 🤷🏼♀️)
It was 2017 and I was back from my most recent adventure (summer camp outdoor adventure lead, somewhere in Indiana 😂) and back working as a Graphic Designer in yet another print studio.
I always knew I wanted to do something more. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do, and I definitely didn't want to run my own business (woops!)
I actually wanted to be a travel blogger! Well, I wanted to travel a lot. And I did! But I didn't really want to share my life online, and I always forgot to take photos of where I was, or document anything fun that I was doing. So, that wasn't going to work (lol).
How did I learn Squarespace?
Long story short, I was on Instagram one day and I got an ad for the Bucketlist Bombshells (If you don't know who they are, check them out!). They very quickly opened my mind to using your graphic design skills to make money online, and being able to work from anywhere and travel while you made money. This was perfect for me, I was sold!
So, I took all of their courses and learned the basics of how to start earning money online with the skills I already had. I also quickly took an interest in Squarespace (learning about it through their courses!) and started teaching myself how to use it.
I didn't take any courses for Squarespace design, I'm completely self taught with the help of youtube and trial and error. No fancy qualifications here!
I LOVED Squarespace. It felt really intuitive. And because there's no coding, it didn't feel too techy or scary, it was more design based, which is what I enjoyed. (Queue: official love affair with Squarespace begins)
Leap #1: From corporate job to online business
Taking these courses, and reading all the blogs online about how to get clients, how to run an online design business, and everything in between, really helped propel my move into starting my own online business.
Within a few months, I took a leap of faith and quit my full-time corporate role to officially launch my business, Big Cat Creative! (I told myself that if I hadn't replaced my corporate income within 6 months, then I would go get another job, so I could pay my bills 😅)
At the beginning, I offered custom Squarespace Website Design and Branding packages as my main services. I loved it! It was fun, I was making money, and you guessed it, I was traveling!
I did this for about six months before I started thinking of the idea of selling Squarespace Templates.
How I started designing and selling Squarespace Templates:
I wanted to sell Squarespace Templates because it felt like a perfect option for my audience. A lot of my audience were in a place where they could not afford my full prices yet, but I wanted to be able to help them still get an amazing website. I really loved helping people in the very beginning stages of business, but I also didn't want them to have to pay thousandsjust to get started. A semi DIY template seemed like the perfect option for them, and something I could easily offer!
I also wanted to sell Squarespace Templates because I knew it was going to allow me to work less, make more money and grow my business in a way that isn't possible with custom web design. I didn't want to trade my time for money anymore. If I had a product that I could sell in addition to creating custom websites, it would give me much more freedom in my business.
So I started working on designing templates. In the beginning, I didn't have anyone to learn from. There was only 1 or 2 others selling Squarespace Templates, and it was really hard to know what the process should be (Google, unusually, was super unhelpful!). I threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick and pieced a lot of it together as I went.
I created 6 different designs to officially "launch" with (looking back I really didn't need to start with 6, it's a lot, but that's what I did!) I didn't have much strategy for my first line of templates, they were just designs that I wanted to create that I also thought my audience would like, and that was about it!
I created separate tutorial videos for each template using no fancy equipment - the quality of these was very questionable, I was running a 2011 Macbook Pro at the time that overheated as soon as I started recording anything, and the audio would start to sound like I was underwater 😂 - but in the end, it didn't seem to matter much.
I had already been marketing my custom design services and growing an audience on Instagram prior to this template shop launch, so I had a small audience already established, maybe about 500 Instagram followers.
I was posting lots about what I was creating while I was in the process of creating the templates, and doing sneak peeks of each design as I created them. This helped to build some interest and excitement around the templates! And when the templates were ready to launch I ran a giveaway on Instagram and also a discount code for those people who were interested in purchasing.
I think I sold 2 or 3 templates in that first launch week, which was amazing! It might not sound like a lot, but I knew as soon as I had sold 1 that I had made the right decision to start a Squarespace Template shop. Making just 1 sale instantly confirmed to me that I was doing the right thing and that if I continued to grow my audience and market these templates, I was going to be able to sell lots of them. An important reminder: If you can sell one, you can sell lots!
I never had the idea in my head that I was going to stop doing custom branding website design. I just thought selling templates would be a great way for me to give myself some extra income and serve more of the audience that couldn't work with me (which it was!) And at the time, I still loved working on custom branding and website design.
Every month I continued to market my templates alongside my custom website and branding design business and every month I was consistently making more and more template sales, which was amazing!
I was totally surprised by just how many people wanted and needed templates. The online business world was (and still is) growing rapidly, there are thousands of people every day starting online businesses, and the one thing they need? A website! There was, and is still, SUCH a large audience for people who need templates.
But it's one thing the people being out there, it's also another thing trying to get their attention online. So marketing is obviously a large part of selling templates, and my marketing efforts were paying off.
At this point I was still selling more and more templates every month, and adding new templates to my shop every now and then. It was so much fun! And for me, it started to become more fun than the custom work I was doing.
Leap #2: From custom website design studio to selling Squarespace Templates full time
I didn't have any trouble getting clients and I had a list of people wanting to work with me, but one month, I was working with one particularly tough client (no hate - we've all had them, and we've all been them!) and I was getting tired of the project that seemed to really drag out.
In the same month I had sold more templates then I had ever sold in one month, and we were only halfway through!
It hit me like a ton of bricks: This is what you should be doing full time!
If I started selling Squarespace Templates full time, I wouldn't have to work with any of these tough clients anymore. All of the stresses of my current work situation would be gone. A bit drastic? Maybe! But I run my business pretty impulsively and intuitively, and I knew in my gut that this was the right move.
I was also traveling at the time and my lifestyle was very much on the road, so not having to get on calls with clients, be as responsive, or meet strict deadlines felt like a great match for the life I wanted to live (then, and now!)
So, it was time for another leap of faith! I decided that when I had finished with all of the clients I was currently working with and had booked in, I was only going to focus on Squarespace Templates. No more actively looking for, or booking clients!
Funny side story and a message from the universe:
After I had made the decision that I wasn't going to take on any more clients from here on out and only focus on selling Squarespace Templates, I got an inquiry from a very keen customer looking to get a website built. The job was right up my alley, I knew I could knock it out of the park, and pretty fast. So I thought, hey, why not just oooone more job before I actually commit fully to a Squarespace-Template-only-biz?
I treated this like any other job and booked in a consultation call so I could get all of the details and get started! In the consultation calls we generally would go over the process, what was required, the timeline, the fees, etc, etc. Then, I sent through a proposal, they would sign the contract and we would get started! So far in my business, I had landed 100% of the clients that I had had consultation calls with. Generally, contracts were signed within 24 hours. This was such a common thing that I didn't even consider that this client might decide they don't want to work with me after all.
So when I got the email "Thanks so much for the call, but we've decided to move forward with someone else!" I was initially shocked, and then I laughed!
Ok universe, I get it! I'm not supposed to be doing these jobs anymore. Thanks for the reminder, and vote of confidence. Back to focussing on Squarespace Templates! After getting the first rejection in my business, on the last client I was going to take on, I felt even more confident in what I was going to do.
Just like my original plan of leaving my corporate job and replacing my income within 6 months, I decided that if it wasn't financially sustainable for me to just sell templates, then I would start accepting clients again.
So while it was a leap of faith, it was a pretty safe one. I knew I could always go back to working with clients!
Then I put all of the time I would have been working 1:1 with clients into marketing my templates. Now I had so much more free time, but I wasn't getting paid, so I had to be smart and use this to promote my templates.
Within a few months, it had paid off! I was still selling more and more templates every month, and officially making more money selling templates than I had been working with clients a few months previous.
From 2018 to 2023, what happened, and what's changed?
This was near the end of 2018, and now we're in 2023, and although the world has changed A LOT in that time, my business model and day to day things I do are a lot of the same.
We still sell Squarespace Templates as our main product, and creating Squarespace Templates was the best decision I ever made in my business! (I kinda think this is what I was supposed to do with this business all along 🌈)
There was lots of trial and error along the way of how to perfect the templates, deal with customers, set boundaries with the templates and in business, create systems to run the business behind the scenes, and how to continue to get new customers month after month. Just like any business it has its challenges, and it's always evolving!
I do have a small team now, but for a long time I didn't, and you definitely don't need one to run a successful Squarespace Template business.
What do you actually do running a Squarespace Template business?
Although it's always evolving, the main things I focus on in business remain the same:
Marketing
Selling anything requires marketing! So this is a big focus in our business. It's a machine that needs to be fed consistently and regularly, so that we can continue to make sales every month.
Product development and updates
Our templates have come a long way since I first launched them. The actual website designs, the process for the customers, the tutorials, everything! This is one area that we're constantly striving to make better. We want our templates to make our customers' life so much easier. We want everyone who buys one of our templates to come out the other end with a website that they love. And how they get there is all up to us, so we're constantly getting feedback and using that to improve our templates!
Also, being in the website space means that there are always updates (to Squarespace, or whatever platform you're using!). Tech is updated regularly, so keeping on top of these updates keeps us busy.
Customer support and general customer service
Something that we do quite a lot is customer support. This is optional depending on if you offer support with your templates, it isn't something that you have to offer, but it's something that we offer. So it is quite a big part of our job! Answering peoples' questions and helping them out with the templates.
Even if you don't offer support, you'll still get lots of general questions about your templates and people inquiring before they buy.
And lastly, just the ins and outs of running a business!
Accounting, emails, admin, all of this stuff takes time! But if you have a business that's not really something you can avoid 😉
So, that's my story! I hope this inspires you to take a leap of faith and start selling Squarespace Templates in your business. It's such a great business model, and it's also an amazing way to help a lot of people. What do you have to lose?
If you're interested in starting your own template shop, make sure to check out our super actionable FREE training teaching you our top tips to set your template shop up for success from the very beginning, including:
Why should become a Squarespace circle member;
How to create live demos of your templates (without having to pay for a plan!); and
A full breakdown of exactly how to send templates to your customers with ease!
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