As the owner of a ceramics studio in Remerton, Barbara Hill found herself in need of a way to reinvent her business strategy when the country was in the midst of a recession. For 25 years she stayed with the studio because of the people that she had become connected with, but now something had to change. She got inspiration to harness her creativity and channel it into a new medium—web design. She enrolled at Valdosta Technical College (now Wiregrass Georgia Technical College) to obtain a web design degree at the ripe young age of 50 and to here surprise, she loved it! During her course work, she was inducted into National Vocational – Technical honor society and went on to win first place in the state web design competition.

After graduating, Barbara brought Valdosta Web Designs to life and it has been thriving since. When asked if she was ever scared about running her own business she replied “I’ve never worked for anyone in my life- and I don’t plan to. I’m going to make this work” And she has done just that, for ten years to date.

Her business meets a variety of web-based needs including: Web Design and development, hosting, e-commerce, Joomla (a content management system), search engine optimization, and maintenance. All this may seem like a lot for one person to do but as a self professed “workaholic,” Barbara enjoys it. Barbara stated that “Business has been exceptional” and she’s very optimistic about future business, noting that she receives a call for a new web site nearly everyday. Originally from Oxford, MS, she expressed that being based in Valdosta, where she’s called home since 1964, allows for a small town atmosphere but one that is also progressive.

While most of Barbara’s clients come from the South Georgia and North Florida area, Barbara also does work for clients from New York to South Florida. In fact, the very connection that kept her with her studio for so long has helped connect her with her much of the current business she has today.

To learn more about Barbara and Valdosta Web Designs, visit http://www.valdostawebdesigns.com/.