The name's Wayne Smallman and I'm a web designer, PHP developer, technology blogger and a commentator on the social web, among other things.
I'm the founder and the Managing Director of Octane Interactive, which affords me the pleasure — and the somewhat enviable role — of dealing with a broad and eclectic mix of clients (education, healthcare, distribution, fire safety, engineering and manufacturing sectors among others).
The vast majority of my time is spent developing commercial websites and web applications. Examples include corporate, multi-lingual websites like Ardagh Glass, informational websites such as Kapitex Healthcare and simpler company websites like J.H. Davenport. The larger projects consist of the long-term planning and development of web applications (most of which are private and not publicly accessible, I might add).
Because of my background, I can manage all kinds of projects (interactive CDs and DVDs, video shoots, animation et cetera). However, I like to work to my core competencies; which is web design and development.
Over the past 2 years, I've tapped into several adjacent skills to sharpen my focus further and offer a much more complete offering — Areas such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization), corporate blogging as well as social networking.
What does that mean for your business? I can identify more areas for improvement allowing me to provide a holistic range of recommendations and service suggestions.
Chances are, your business absolutely relies on a number of processes, most of which will be automated in some way, but not linked.
Just imagine how productive everyone would be if all your businesses processes worked together. I can develop specialized, focused and totally customized web applications that your whole team can access from anywhere at any time.
Imagine billing clients straight from a web page, via email, containing PDF invoices. Or what about job ticketing, time tracking and work scheduling and auditing. Maybe you'd like to allow your top customers to place repeat orders for products. I can do all of those things.
In time, your increased efficiency will begin to show itself as a reduction in time, effort and an increase in accuracy. As time passes, all of your increased productivity and extra capacity will begin to manifest itself as increased income with lower overheads and faster turn-around times.
If you're a little cynical, like I am, I imagine you're expecting some syrupy mess of eye-pleasing words to woo and seduce you. Sadly, that's not my style. The nearest I'll get to something like that is the Arabesque adage: my success is your success — which is entirely true, incidentally.
I want your business to succeed, it's that simple. And to accomplish that, or to at least aid in that goal, I'll be honest and at times blunt. You won't find me saying "Yes!" to everything. But equally, I won't find me saying "No!" to everything, either. Instead, I'll just be straight with you.
Success is often a team effort, which is certainly the case with the companies I've been fortunate enough to work with over the years.
More often than not, before putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard), I like to initiate a journey of self discovery, which is essentially a candid discussion about you, your business, your staff, the politics, culture and your own philosophy.
It's during these open and very interesting conversations that what I call "Organic Knowledge" is revealed — a rediscovery of all your business know-how and the things you've learned, then cast to the back of your mind, because we all do certain things as a matter of course, mostly without thought, mechanically, almost.
I am very fortunate in that the vast majority of my work comes from word-of-mouth recommendations, which (if you'll pardon the pun) speaks for itself.
So I've been in the new media industry since the mid nineties, with a background in video production, 3d design and animation, as well as sound editing and production, I was head-hunted at college, during my final degree year to help build the multimedia arm of a design agency in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the north of England.
Having spent 3 and a half years there, I decided to start my own web design and new media agency, Octane Interactive Limited in 1999. Since then, I've re-focused and now provide a more specialized web consultation service to SMEs / SMBs.
I have National Diploma in Industrial Design (1990-92), a Higher National Diploma in Product Design (1992-94) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree with honours in Product Design and Electronic Media (1994-96).
