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VC Web Design nearly doubles staff, plans to add interns

Innovation & Job News
Concentrate Magazine Article
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013

VC Web Design has grown to the point it's having a hard time finding space for its new hires, leading the downtown Ypsilanti-based business to start looking for a bigger home.

"We can't fit any more people in here," says Vince Chmielewski, president of VC Web Design. "We would like to stay in downtown if possible."

The 3-year-old business was the first to spin out of Ann Arbor SPARK's downtown Ypsilanti incubator. It specializes in website construction and video work. Its revenue has doubled in the last year, allowing it to hire three people. Those new hires include a videographer and website developer.

The company now has a team of seven employees and is planning to add more interns this summer. That staff has been doing work with the Barwis Methods and Ann Arbor SPARK. Chmielewski expects the current rate of growth to continue for the rest of this year.

"So far we're on track to double again," Chmielewski says. "It's why we might not be able to be where we are for much longer."

Also helping accelerate VC Web Design is its recent switch to agile software development methodology. This new system emphasizes website developers showing updated versions of sites in the progress of development so changes can be made quickly and efficiently.

"You can change direction very easily without waiting until the end," Chmielewski says. "It changes our output because we have to do less rework."

Source: Vince Chmielewski, president of VC Web Design
Writer: Jon Zemke
To connect to the live article go to: http://concentratemedia.com/innovationnews/vcwebdesignypsilanti0237.aspx

MITTEN STRETCHER LAUNCHES NEW MICHIGAN PRIDE WEBSITE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The Ypsilanti native and founder of Mitten Stretcher, Mark Sera, just announced the launch of his new Michigan, worldwide mitten pride, website today.

The website was designed to connect people from, or just generally infatuated with Michigan, through online and real life events. This Michigan centered site promotes Michigan pride, tells the story of the communities in the state, and pushes for continual development and progress. Through this website individuals can explore the positive attributes of Michigan, without geographical restrictions.

The website offers a user-friendly design, easy to use navigation, its own social network to keep individuals connected, and has an informative blog about Michigan centered events and happenings. The website, designed and developed by VC Web Design, will immerse website visitors in the Michigan experience.
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If you would like more information please contact Mark Serra at info@mittenstretcher.com.

ACE ’13 Event Videos 

The Annual Collaboration of Entrepreneurship (ACE) is put on by a group of volunteers and partners. The goal of the event is to celebrate and promote entrepreneurship in the Great Lakes region. ACE was designed to assist entrepreneurs, service providers, investors, students, government agents, and other members of the business community in gathering to network, learn, connect and discuss new business ideas and inventions.

VC Web Design was a proud in kind sponsor ACE 2013. We provided a range of video services, in partnership with other sponsors including, Roger Rayle, the videos’ editor. It was great seeing such a large group of forward-thinking inventors and business leaders that add value to our communities. We wanted to showcase some of the helpful business topics that were shared at this year’s event.  Hopefully some of the topics will interest you, as a business owner. Take a look at the resulting videos from the event.

Advantages to Using a CMS

The acronym CMS stands for Content Management System.  A CMS site will allow you to make changes to the back end of your website without the need to use any coding. This allows you to have more control over your content, including the ability to change content quickly and easily. A CMS is ideal because of the various advantages that it offers website owners. These are the benefits that we think relate to just about any business.

A CMS offers:

Financial saving because you can make your own changes and have full ownership of your website. Whether you buy a system, have one built,
or subscribe to a CMS service, they're a more cost-effective solution versus the alternatives. This is because much of the functionality can be changed at little to no cost (depending on your needs and interests).

Options for built in functions, widgets and plug-ins provide web owners with prebuilt added functionality and greater adaptability. This allows you to customize your website to your business and client’s needs. These built in tools and functions include social media links on the website, contact forms, Google Analytics, side panel, slideshows and more.

Ease of use and updating, without the need for coding. You can make many changes to your own website quickly and easily. Which means that your clients will have the newest information quicker because it takes little time to update.

Consistency of appearance is possible because of the template/theme options available in a CMS. This will provide you with the appearance of a professionally designed website.

Premade templates available will make it easy for you to choose a professional design that will be a fit for your online presence. It is also very easy to change by installing a new theme.

Tightened website security is inherently provided in a CMS. There are also security updates that are provided, and are easy to download when needed.

The ability for you stay in control of all of the content on your website and who has access to that content. You will be able to provide different levels of permission for different individuals and control the level of access to the site. The level of control will allow you to share only what you want to share with different parties(for visitors or authors).

Keeping up with web standards is important. Each CMS displays your content using current web standards which help “future proof” your website, its easy to update to stay current, and also provides built-in search capability.

Being blog ready is an option that most CMS sites offer now. Many sites on the Internet now are built as blogs, but function as web sites. These types of sites allow for greater flexibility and communication with visitors as well as search features through site archives that keep your site organized and easily used by visitors looking for something specific. You can choose to enable a blog on your CMS site or not.

Obtaining a CMS is one of the most important steps you will take in creating your web presence. A CMS site is simple and easy to use which makes them perfect for small to medium sized companies.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a Predesigned Theme

Many website owners experience the pros and cons of using a predesigned, prebuilt website theme. Numerous clients have asked us to use a prebuilt theme to save money and time. While both the free and purchasable themes available can save money and time, expectations of predesigned themes must be managed. Most users of a new theme will not know the details of the theme’s functionality until it is installed. There are many advantages and disadvantages that our clients have come across with these themes. We would like to share some of those with you.

Predesigned theme advantages:
• Most themes offer a large range of layout options and are quite flexible in their design, look, and feel. It is common that the user can change the color, the background, the fonts and add functionality to their website fairly easily.
• You can maintain your site relatively easily. Updates are usually just a click on the theme update or at worst a file (ftp) upload.
• Many are well designed and allow a good level of customization options without a need for coding.
• Many are mobile friendly and read well on phones or other mobile devices.
• There are thousands of quality and well-maintained themes to choose from and they are easy to change.
• Less expensive option than a static website because the template is already built, has a consistent layout, and design. Once you add your content there is not as much to do to complete the website. This speeds up time and that greatly lessens cost.
• You don’t need any costly or special software in order to use a prebuilt, predesigned theme.
• Many have built in functionality that help to save time. This can include widgets or plug-ins that you do not have to search for. These functions can assist you with social media links, contact forms, side panels, slideshows and many other options that users may find useful.

Predesigned theme disadvantages:
The biggest disadvantage to using a predesigned theme is that it may not be quite what you expected. Anything can be changed in a prebuilt theme, but most changes will likely require coding. If you need to have someone else change the code there will most often be a cost. It could be extremely difficult for most developers to provide you with a cost estimate upfront because they will first need to learn the capabilities of the theme before they will know what it will take to change it.

• It may not have the functionality your site will need, including being mobile ready, etc.
• It may not look the way you thought that it would look, out of the box. If it doesn’t look like the demo then you will most likely have to have a developer make changes to the code to assist you with the final product.
• In most cases the developer has not worked with that theme in the past so they would have to learn as they go to see how everything functions and discover what changes can be made within the administrative area. The developer will then be able to determine what, if any, coding will be needed. This could take time and potentially increase your cost. There is always a learning curve with new prebuilt designs because each theme is different with different capabilities.

Most likely there is not enough information about these prebuilt themes and their default settings to know everything you will need or want to know about using that theme. Each theme is different. You should not expect that the theme’s description or demo will provide all possibilities or limitations. It merely showcases what could be done, but not typically what you should expect ‘out of the box’. So even if there was an excellent description, there would likely be things that were encountered along the way that could not have been anticipated. There is really no way that there could be information posted that would address all scenarios specific to your needs.

Ultimately you are in control of the final product. If you want your website to look a very specific way let the developer know. After the theme is installed and they have an understanding of the theme’s capabilities, a developer should be able to give you an estimate for any change requests you may encounter.

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