Plaid Buffalo Creative is a small creative studio located in Canada. The two partners, Fraser Mackenzie and Lindsay Creedon specialize in website and design solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Fraser and Lindsay have over 40 years of combined experience in website, graphic, and UI/UX design.
In this Q&A with Lindsay Creedon, we explore how Cloudways has made business operations more productive and streamlined.
Let’s begin!
Cloudways: Hi Lindsay, tell us a little bit about your and Fraser’s role in Plaid Buffalo Creative. How and when did you start?
Lindsay: Hello! Fraser and I actually have a similar background but with different strengths. We both started out with a strong focus on graphic design, branding, and print work but have grown our web design and development skills over the years.
We both work or consult on all projects. We often alternate on taking the lead, depending on who has the first vision or inspiration for the project. The great thing about having a partner in this business is the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and talk through our approach to arrive at well-thought-out solutions.
I would say my strengths tend to be building out new projects quickly and planning out the data structure, whereas Fraser is really thoughtful and patient in the details and design. Those complementary skills are what has made our partnership deliver really great functioning, well-designed projects for our clients. We both work on the day-to-day business side of things like client acquisition, bookkeeping, and supporting our existing clients’ needs.
Cloudways: Can you talk about your experience with WordPress and WooCommerce, and why you chose it specifically for developing client sites? What are some of the projects that you are proud of?
Lindsay: I became obsessed with learning everything WordPress around ten years ago because of its approachability and low barrier to entry for me, a non-technical person at the time. It sparked something in me to keep learning more to realize my design and interface goals. It was a gateway for me to learn about CSS, PHP, UI design, not to mention how to host all of my projects.
Since I first started in website design, I still haven’t found a reason to leave WordPress. With our clients, every situation we encounter has been easily handled by this versatile CMS. We have progressed through implementing basic themes to adding the range of functionality that WooCommerce, custom post types, and custom fields can bring. We always try to start each project with an open mind and use the right tools that will help our clients accomplish their goals.
Going into 2020, we couldn’t have imagined how important eCommerce would become. We were happy we had the ability to be able to add the online purchase experience for existing clients who needed it. Having an existing understanding of setting up payment gateways and shipping/pick-up options was key and allowed us to move quickly to help folks who were really struggling to find their feet when their business’ doors were suddenly closed.
Some projects we worked on this year that we can share include:
Visage Cosmetic Clinic: www.visagecosmeticclinic.com
The primary goals of this site were to clean up the design to be truer to their brand, organize their large range of services, and create strong calls-to-action to generate leads for the clinic. We are currently working on migrating their online skincare store from Shopify to WooCommerce within their new website.
Figaro’s Garden: www.figarosgarden.ca
Figaro’s Garden took the opportunity this year while their business was paused to revamp their website. Beyond the refreshed design, we were also happy to be able to add a simple online gift card purchase option that has generated an increase in gift card sales of more than 60%.
Community Shirt: communityshirt.ca
I included this site, not because it is a design marvel, but as a testament to what you can accomplish quickly with WordPress + WooCommerce + Cloudways. When our city first went into lockdown in April 2020 and folks were being laid off at an unprecedented rate, our food bank was overwhelmed. Within 24 hours, we were able to provide a functioning WooCommerce-based online store that allowed the group behind this fundraising effort to raise over $12,000 in under two weeks to help feed our community.
To me, that’s the magic of WordPress and WooCommerce at work.
Cloudways: What was the biggest challenge you were facing prior to moving to Cloudways and what limitations made you switch to us? Where did you first find out about Cloudways?
Lindsay: For me, I had worked my way up from budget hosting, to a more reputable company but eventually outgrew this type of shared hosting. For Plaid Buffalo Creative, we wanted to move to a more scalable platform but we didn’t want, or have the expertise, to manage our own server.
I belong to several online WordPress groups and heard about others’ experiences with Cloudways. We grabbed a free trial to test it out and were blown away by the difference. It was the perfect mix between features, functionality, ease of use, and great support. We hadn’t even finished our free trial before we started migrating over 30+ sites!
Cloudways: How long you have been with Cloudways and what’s your experience so far?
Lindsay: We’ve been with Cloudways since early 2019 and we’ve never looked back. Honestly, I think if you’re a small studio the best hosting is one you rarely think about. I went from carrying a lot of stress worrying about if my hosting would let my clients down to feeling completely secure. Whenever I have a question, Cloudways Support is always there with a quick and friendly answer. I have not had a single downtime issue and that’s a great feeling when you’re focused on building your business.
Cloudways: What are the most appealing features that make Cloudways stand out from the rest? What is your favorite feature that you find very useful?
Lindsay: This is so tough, there are so many features that I absolutely love! I like the fact that I can provision different servers as well as assign different teams and projects within my dashboard. Different sites have different needs, so being able to add different spec servers from world-class providers all under one roof makes it easy to choose Cloudways knowing that we can grow infinitely here.
Cloudways offers us all the features we were expecting: solid uptime, backups, SSL certificate installation, etc. I also appreciate the added benefit of using Breeze to manage our caching in a smart and simple way. I often make use of the one-click staging with push/pull to live as well as the website migration tool when we’re moving new clients over. Honestly, I don’t know how people survive without these features!
The user interface is designed in a way that allows us access to high and low-level features for each application and server in a way that isn’t overwhelming or confusing. I appreciate the effort that’s been made in the design of the dashboard experience.
We keep a “base” version of our standard WordPress setup on the server with all the utility plugins we need and I’m able to just use the “clone” feature when we start a new project. It’s a real time saver.
After all that gushing this is going to sound simple, but my absolute favorite feature is the ability to quickly spin up a new application and then simply assign the live domain when it’s ready to go. Going live with a new site can be super stressful and Cloudways just makes it simple and seamless.
Cloudways: What are five things that you think we do better than any other hosting provider?
Lindsay: If I had to pick five things I think Cloudways does better than anyone else I would say:
1. Creating a simple interface for complex services.
2. Providing a pro-level, incredibly fast hosting solution at an affordable price.
3. Top-tier support that is informed and helpful. (Although, honestly, I’ve rarely had to contact support.)
4. Access to every possible setting and service that a WordPress-focused studio could need.
5. Providing complete confidence and peace-of-mind through their rock-solid reliability.
Cloudways: Would you recommend Cloudways to others and what would you tell others who might be considering Cloudways?
Lindsay: Oh, 100%. I wish I would have switched sooner and saved myself some sleepless nights. If you’re thinking about Cloudways I would just try it. That’s what I did. From the second I logged in, I knew this was where I wanted to be.
It was a breath of fresh air from the hosts that we had been using and it made us feel more professional right away. If you’re servicing clients, you need the right tools that allow you to focus on what makes you money. Cloudways is one of those tools for us.
Cloudways: It would be great if you can share some pictures of your workplace/office.
Lindsay:
Since we’re all working from home right now, this is my little work corner at home. It’s not fancy but I have really enjoyed working here this year. I usually start work around 4:30 am every day, so as you can see it’s a quiet, cozy spot where I can really focus. Luckily, in our line of work, all you really need is your computer and an internet connection and anywhere can be your office!
Farhan Ayub
Farhan is a community manager at Cloudways. He loves to work with WordPress and has a passion for web development. Mostly, he spends his time interacting with the people in the WordPress community. Apart from his work life, Farhan spends his time gaming and playing sports. Feel free to contact him at [email protected]
