I’m happy to announce the recent site launch for another new business - Little Fishes Swim School. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Little Fishes Swim School is the brainchild of Ruth Zarren, a very talented and creative businesswoman. The swim school is geared towards children aged 6 months and up, and focuses on eliminating fear of the water and developing swimming skills.

What’s so cool about Little Fishes is that it’s the ONLY indoor salt-water pool in St. Louis. This means children can take classes year-round and, what I think is especially awesome, have POOL PARTIES in the winter months! As a November baby, this is something I would have absolutely loved to do as a child.

I’ve visited the space a few times now and I love how it is specifically geared towards the comfort and accessibility of children - quite different than the intimidating scary shallow end of a gigantic YMCA pool I remember learning to swim in. So if you are in the St. Louis area and have small children or know anybody who does, you should check it out. The web site will have latest info on Free Evaluation days.

The Web Site was a lot of fun to work on. Before starting on the site I worked with Ruth on the logo for the business. She had commissioned local artist Craig Downs to create the initial concept and needed my help with cleaning it up, integrating the business name, and making it ready for use in print and web. I also created the stationery - business card, letterhead, envelope, as well as Pool Party Invitations and Rack Cards.

I absolutely love working with a business to this extent; it gives me the opportunity to plan for consistency in the look of the materials, which I believe gives a professional impression. Here are some photos:

Hot off the press! A new site I’ve been working on, Wedding Distinctions, has officially launched. It’s a wedding store specializing in unique wedding favors, reception trinkets, gifts for the wedding party, etc. They’ve got quite an impressive and still-growing selection. I was responsible for developing the site and implementing within the e-commerce software. I worked closely with rockstar designer Brian Clever to bring it all to fruition.

The company was started by Malinda Hall and Kelli Gould, two very enthusiastic and hardworking women! They are super organized and fully immersed themselves in jumping into e-commerce. Like almost all clients opening an e-commerce store, they realized very quickly that it is a TON of work!

One of the biggest hurdles in this project was settling on an e-commerce provider. There are lots of options out there - some free, some cost.. to make a decision depends what your skill level and desire for technical involvement are. In my experience, most business owners running an online store want to worry about managing orders and inventory, not setting up an ASP back-end and server configurations. In those cases, managed e-commerce solutions are usually the best option.

The difference between an independent e-commerce solution and a managed e-commerce solution: the independent e-commerce solutions come prepackaged with a bundle of files. You upload those files to your own web server, and configure them. There is generally no formal tech support for these beyond maybe a forum or some online guides. You are on your own. The pros of these are that you have full control. If you have the knowledge and time, you can make it work just how you want it to. Of course, you have full control to screw it up too! In my opinion, the best independent e-commerce solutions are OSCommerce and Zen Cart.

Managed solutions are generally a LOT more hands off in regards to technical-knowhow. They’re ready to go out of the door. You can add your product and be selling the same day! Of course, you’re best advised to take some time and consider getting an e-commerce designer to help you plan a user-friendly and visually appealing online store, not to mention getting a product, setting up payment, writing copy, and all those other “ton of work” things I mentioned a moment ago.

Managed solutions cost money. They either charge a monthly fee, or a percentage of your sales, or both. In my opinion, the best managed e-commerce solutions are Volusion, Yahoo! Small Business, and NetworkSolutions E-commerce Web Sites (formerly MonsterCommerce). All of these companies provide hosting for your store, e-mail accounts, and 24/7 phone and e-mail support. Each provides an overall good product, albeit they all contain their own minor setbacks.

I personally have only dealt with the Volusion and Network Solutions / MonsterCommerce products. I’ve yet to design & develop for a Yahoo! Store, but I’d love to so I can get a feel for the full spectrum. However based on what I have dealt with, my vote is for Volusion. What gives it the winning stride? Full FTP access and superior integrated CSS control. They also have video tutorials and well-written up-to-date guides so there’s less fumbling in the dark in the beginning. Volusion is what Malinda and Kelli settled on for Wedding Distinctions, and so far it’s been a success!

When choosing an e-commerce solution, my best advice is to do your research. Note what functionality your competitors have and make sure your e-commerce provider can give you that. And if you’re in the market for Wedding stuff, check out Wedding Distinctions!