Naomi (left) and Louise (right) of Lucky Night Studio.
Photo credit: Fran Minifi Photography
In this instalment of Meet the Member, we meet the dynamic design duo Naomi and Louise from Lucky Night Studio. We have been connected to these ladies for quite some time now and absolutely love everything about them. Not only are they amazing human beings who are approachable, friendly, supportive and collaborative, so basically everything we look for from our community members. But they also know their stuff when it comes to website design. If you are not following them on Instagram and you’re not on their mailing list, you should be as they continually put out really insightful, educational and helpful content to ensure you get the best from your website.
But first, let’s get to know them a little better, shall we?
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Naomi: I’m Naomi, and I’m a South Devon girl born and bred! I currently live by the sea in Torquay with my partner and our Border Terrier, Chuckie.
Lousie: And I’m Louise, also based in Torquay but with family all over London and Ireland. I live with my partner and our two pups Bixby and Enzo.
Naomi: I went to University in Leicester and graduated in 2013 with a First Class BSc in Media Production. Since then I’ve worked in a few digital design roles (websites, apps, print etc) but have found a massive passion for business ownership!
Louise: I’ve freelanced on and off since my Choreography & Arts Management degree which I studied at Dartington. Quite the career change to go from dance to development, but I’ve always been a bit of a geek so working in tech felt right for me. I love to learn new skills, and something about development and coding that is really important to me is how much you can learn when you apply yourself. There’s so much information out there as so much code and development info is open-source. I feel like there’s nothing I can’t learn and I find the opportunities really exciting.
Naomi: We both actually met while working in a bar just after graduation. We both had entry-level day jobs and were working 15-16 hour days to get the bills paid and get a foot in the door of this creative techy industry. In Torbay especially, the opportunities in these kinds of roles – especially 10 years ago – felt very few and far between. I think we were both drawn to each other because we could tell we wanted more from our careers and lives.
Louise: Definitely. Personal growth and development has always been really important to us. When we’re not working we both read a lot, we’re both gamers and spend a lot of time outdoors.
Naomi: We also love a good pub afternoon, especially when the sun’s out! There’s no better way to get some content planning done in our opinion.
And what about your business?
Naomi: We launched Lucky Night Studio in January of 2022, so almost 18 months ago. We work with female business owners in all kinds of different industries to create websites that are full of colour, personality and character, and that provide an amazing user experience.
Louise: When we first started out, we literally only worked on 1-2-1 projects but it got difficult for us to balance our time with the money we were making. We knew we wanted to support women with smaller businesses who maybe didn’t have massive budgets, but because we’re a team of two our expenses can get much higher.
We decided to start selling DIY website templates as a way to support women just getting started to create their own website masterpieces, and also give us a way of earning that didn’t require us to be 100% hands-on all the time.
Naomi: We still work 1-2-1 with clients that don’t want to create their websites themselves, but creating digital resources has been such a fun and rewarding experience.
Louise: We’re so glad the studio took us in this direction, the impact we’ve already been able to make with our templates has been massive in just a few months. It’s actually inspired us to start working on courses for women in business on topics that are often overly complicated or misunderstood, like SEO.
Naomi: We’ve had so much feedback from amazing women who want to learn these things, but just haven’t found the right resources. We want to create learning materials that women running small businesses will actually find helpful and empowering that can help them create real change in their lives.
So can you describe your ideal client for us? Who is she?
Naomi: Our ideal client is definitely personality and vibe based! We don’t limit ourselves to a certain industry, all bright and vibrant businesswomen are welcome at Lucky Night! Our design style is quite strong though, our clients definitely have to be the colour and fun-loving kind who appreciate the importance of leading with personality and values.
Louise: We do our best to make working with us feel nothing like work. We’re professionals obviously, you’ll always get your deliverables and deadlines always are met, but we keep meetings fun and personal rather than like a stuffy interview.
Naomi: It definitely helps us create effective websites. We need to get to know you properly, not just via an online form, in order to design something that feels like ‘you’.
What has been your biggest achievement so far in your business journey?
Louise: I would say that we’ve been operating for 18 months and have never had a negative client experience. We were so clear about our audience and our market from the get-go, and it’s paid off massively. Everyone that we’ve worked with, we genuinely consider friends, and it feels like such an achievement.
Naomi: We’ve definitely had our share of nightmare projects in previous freelancing days, but happy to report that those days are long gone!
Naomi (left) and Louise (right) of Lucky Night Studio.
Photo credit: Fran Minifi Photography
What is your ultimate aim for your business? Your big dream scenario?
Naomi: Ooh this is a great question! Something Louise and I talk about a lot is becoming a really fun and accessible digital hub for women in business – something that is so much more than just websites.
Louise: Definitely. We want to become the go-to space for female leaders to find website and social media assets, SEO advice and learning materials, and all things tech that there just isn’t much of a young, female space for yet.
Naomi: I don’t think either of us was expecting to love creating DIY resources as much as we do, so we’ll definitely be expanding that range to help more women feel confident and capable with their tech and digitals.
What is the biggest challenge you find in running your own business?
Louise: For me, it’s wanting to do all the things all the time. Web design is our job, but it’s also our hobby, so it can be really difficult to find that balance and make sure we’re resting and chilling out and thinking about other things sometimes. Sometimes it’s ok to say ‘no’ or ‘not now’ to the next big thing if you need to, however hard it feels!
Naomi: Yeah I agree with that. I’m definitely still learning to manage my time around the jobs that actually make a difference. I’m a ‘productive procrastinator’ and could spend all day faffing in Canva and making no real progress but still feel mega busy, so I’m very aware of the tasks I’m filling my time with and thinking about the impact they’ll actually have on our studio.
What is the best bit of advice you have received with regard to business?
Naomi: A woman we really admire taught us how to validate ideas before spending hundreds of hours putting them together. We can definitely be perfectionists and we’ve wasted so much time on ‘perfecting’ projects that have amounted to nothing, so learning ways of getting the feedback first before doing all the work has been invaluable – especially for our course creation!
Louise: Yeah that’s been a massive lesson! Also, I’d say that learning the way that we talk about our work and our ideas (even when it’s just the two of us) really makes a difference. We got called out on a recent call for being negative about an idea we had, kind of shutting it down and saying no one would like it. As soon as she said it we instantly saw that the reason we didn’t ‘like’ the idea was because of the way we’d spoken about it. Eye-opening!
Can you name an inspiring female entrepreneur/woman in business and tell us why/how she inspires you?
Louise: Oh my god there’s so many. We’ve been really inspired by everyone that has used one of our templates. Watching people take control of their businesses and create something so amazing and so full of their own personalities, even when they’ve never made a website or anything digital before, is unreal. Getting those submissions in once they’ve completed their sites is always the best bit of our week.
Naomi: I think I’m most inspired by the community builders we have around us. Definitely you Stacey, love how clear you are in your vision and why you’re creating the space that you are, and it’s definitely been so beneficial to us. We’re so lucky to be part of some amazing local spaces that are run by women for women. We actually talked in a recent episode of our podcast that Devon’s women-in-business scene has come a long way in the last five years, and we’ve got women like you to thank for that.
Can you tell us about your favourite business book and what your key takeaway was?
Louise: I just finished Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon (affiliate). It’s a short book and a practical and inspiring guide for anyone looking to share their creativity with the world and connect with others who share their interests. It discusses sharing on social media, networking, and words of encouragement for those who struggle with imposter syndrome. It really helped us understand the value of ‘showing the process’ and not stressing about everything being perfect. It’s the best non-fiction book I have read so far this year.
What have you found most useful about being part of a coworking community?
Naomi: The learning opportunities! We have such a brilliant and diverse network now, we’ll probably never have to Google anything again. We feel so supported and celebrated in our business journey, and it’s such a joy to rock up to events all over the area and see familiar faces. We’ve made really great friends through these spaces, and always have someone that we can collaborate with or recommend to clients.
Louise: Yeah the community aspect makes such a difference. I feel like so many people just have to tolerate their colleagues, whereas we get to create proper, lasting friendships. It’s amazing!
Thank you so much to Lucky Night Studio for letting us take a sneak peek inside your business.
Click here for the Lucky Night Studio Website to find out more about their services and how they can help you.
You can also follow @Lucky Night Studio on Instagram.
If you would like to become part of our online membership, come along to any of our small and intimate networking events and workshops or simply want to book a desk and try coworking for female entrepreneurs, self-employed women, remote and hybrid working women, sign up to our mailing list below and email Stacey@thetribecoworking.co.uk for details.
Stacey Sheppard is the founder of The Tribe, a small community-driven coworking space in Totnes that caters to creative, growth-oriented female entrepreneurs by providing an inspiring working environment designed to foster collaboration, connection and community.
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