There’s a reason they call it growing pains

You may have noticed we launched a new Web site last week.  New look, new layout, new logo and everything. I’m really excited with how everything turned out, and am grateful and humbled by the work of everyone on our team who put in many, many hours to make this happen.

When I started the business 6+ years ago, there was no Web site.  Then, for a brief time, it was a GoDaddy “Website Tonight” page.  It even had a flash intro!  Our very first logo was designed in PowerPoint, then a couple months later crowdsourced from Infinity Logo Design.

About five years ago I worked with a great local designer to build & launch a real Web site.  And until last week, that Web site – and the logo from Infinity – sustained us and saw us through years of strong growth.

In retrospect and from a distance, it’s easy to see what a great leap we’ve made now with the new site and logo.  I truly believe it’s a significant advance from where we were.  But in the weeds, the decision to change wasn’t nearly as easy.

We started with the idea of upgrading the Web site.  I wasn’t sure it was really a priority.  Wasn’t the current site fine? Didn’t we have other more pressing places to spend our time and money?

It wasn’t until we were midway through the site design that we started talking about changing the logo as well.  And that took some real getting used to, at least for me.  Our previous logo was who we were, it was us and it was me!  My comfort with the previous state of things was keeping me from seeing the value of change.

It was hard for me to let go of what we had, but the new “us” is a dramatic improvement.   In just the last 10 days, it’s had a measurable impact on several marketing and sales pipeline measures.

Change isn’t always easy.  It isn’t always immediately welcome.  It can be hard to accept, harder to initiate.

Growing can be painful.  But if you have the outcome in mind and prioritized, isn’t it worth it?