Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Carver. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Web development is an ever changing environment and today there are a slew of web builders to choose from. WordPress obviously is incredibly popular, but it’s super cumbersome. Because of code based web builders like this most web developers charge a monthly premium to manage a website once it is built. I don’t think that’s always necessary. Something that I do with each and every client is ensure we’re choosing a web platform that allows them to take control of their website and use it as a tool within their business. Each of my web build projects involves an intensive owner training component so that my clients feel confident when using their website. So many times I start work with people who are feeling so overwhelmed by their website and it’s because they don’t understand how to use it to automate processes or showcase their product or service. Why? In most cases it’s for one of two reasons. Either they were never shown or their previous web developer has gate kept that information in order to charge a monthly service fee. If a past client reaches out to me with a question I always give them the opportunity to hop on a call to walk them through how I added this new feature or how they can manage the process themselves if they want to moving forward. I think it’s really important to give someone a beautiful website, but also ensure they feel confident that it’s a tool they themselves can use to move their business forward.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Hannah Carver and I am the face behind Carver Creative. I offer branding and web development services to small to medium sized business owners. I graduated from Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia with a marketing degree and jumped right into work as a Marketing Manager at an anesthesia management company post college. I was freelancing on the side while in college and had some really great internships, but I wasn’t quite confident enough to do my own thing. I am so grateful that I didn’t venture out on my own at first because I learned so much in the first few years after college.

I stuck around the anesthesia management company for about two years before deciding going into a 9-5 in a business park everyday was crushing my soul. Around that time I met Bill Kaelin of Bill Kaelin Marketing. Bill took a chance on me after a few wild hires the Summer before I started and I am eternally grateful to him because it really changed my life. From the beginning Bill was very clear that this was a contracted position and I was free to freelance while working with him. As a Senior Project Manager I worked with bigger brands like Marriott, The Atlanta Hawks, Tito’s, the Atlanta BeltLine, etc. on a wide range of projects. Sometimes we were running social media for a hotel and other times we were filling that hotel lobby with a flash mob of drag queens in pajamas armed with pillows filled with feathers for a surprise pillow fight.

At the start of covid this all changed and I started freelancing on my own full time. I have a running joke with another web designer, Annie Franceschi, that I have a salad bar brain meaning I was doing a little bit of everything. During that time I was approached by Wix to beta test their partner program because they noticed I had a number of websites in my account. I started designing websites full time via Wix and shortly after joined Shopify’s partner program.

In the Summer of 2021 I was approached by a friend of a friend whose B2B digital marketing agency was taking off. He was in need of systems and structure as he scaled so I spent the next 14 months working full time as his Director of Operations. We were working with big name brands to bridge their sales and marketing teams efforts via omni-channel digital ads. I left that company in August of 2022 to focus on my business again. I missed working directly with small business owners and watching them benefit from our work together.

What sets Carver Creative apart is the comprehensive owner training we provide each client. I firmly believe you should be able to feel in control of your website and use it as a tool in your business. Each website is beautifully designed while also providing you with the systems needed to automate everyday processes. I am most proud of my clients and their wins. It is so rewarding to watch them start a business and succeed. Whether it’s an ecommerce sites first sale or a service based business owners first booking, it’s really awesome to watch their dream come to life and know that I helped facilitate that through an online platform for their business.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Oh boy, yes! Three things: Mentorship, Community, and a book called Establish Yourself. I am a part of a business accelerator program called Mind Your Business. It is run by two serial entrepreneurs, Darrah Brustein and Kate Rosenow. It’s a close knit, invitation only community for business owners looking for stability in their business. They host weekly office hours where we collaboratively discuss different aspects of running our businesses like pricing and packaging or niching to find our ideal client. Additionally they bring in guest experts to cover common topics like putting together airtight contracts or filing taxes. It is so nice to have a community of other business owners who are experiencing the same ups and downs of running your own business. I find myself turning to this community when I have a new idea or if an issue arises. It was through MYB that I met Annie Franceshi. Annie left Disney to start her own branding and web design firm. We were paired together by Kate and Darrah at the start of MYB. Annie was writing her second book, Establish Yourself, and I was just starting out freelancing solo for the first time. We met regularly to discuss my business and the structure of her book. Her book is the single greatest resource I have stumbled upon to date. It’s a very straight forward guide to running a successful service based business.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I do not have a large social media following or email list. I actually don’t market my business at all. Terrible, I know! The majority of my business comes from word of mouth referrals. Why? Because I’ve developed a process for my service that leaves my clients feeling so satisfied that they are ready and willing to tell their network when the time comes. I used to think I needed a consistent social media calendar or to run ads, but then when I would close the deal and start work everything would be a mess. The client wasn’t quite sure what was going on at times and truthfully, neither was I! I can thank Mind Your Business and Annie Franceshi who I’ve mentioned above for helping me realize this and helping to implement a process. It is so important that you have a fool proof system to deliver your service offering or product so there is no room for error. Things like setting milestones, sending client gifts, and checking in a few weeks after launch really make a difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carvercreative.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahlouise_carver/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/carvercreative

Image Credits
The moxy images were taken by Dylan York.