Guess what we got for our 1st Birthday?

Today is Look After Me’s First Birthday and I’m like a kid in a lolly shop...

You’ll never guess what we got for our birthday?                                                          

A brand-spanking new, all-the-bells-and-whistles website!

I’m a firm believer in making something a bit special of your birthday, so for me, being in business one whole year was indeed a celebration and I had been looking forward to acknowledging the day. Like any kid on her birthday I leaped out of bed in excitement (really!), dashed to my laptop, and urged the wireless into life.

I nervously tapped in the URL to our development website. And suddenly – there it was…our beautiful new website. Please allow this small moment of self-indulgence to say that sitting there in my pyjamas, with fresh new webpages fluttering so cheerfully - I had a ground-swell of pride. This was immediately followed by awe for what our amazing developer (Andrew from Pureweb) and Tim from Tim Christie Design and my newly assembled team of Work Placement Recruits had achieved in such a short time.

Before I started the website refresh, I really had no idea of just how much work was involved. When I estimated it would take a minimum of 220 hours, I took a deep breath and knew I needed help, or it would never get done. I also knew that given current cashflow, and my personal financial situation, that I would have to do as much as I possibly could do for free, or do it myself.  

Assembling a team of recruits, essentially from the pool of unemployment in Rotorua, I challenged my new ‘staff’ to help create a website and launch it, in less than a month. And in return for their time, I would give offer them a chance to work in a real-life work experience, gathering skills and reference.

[Click here to find out what our newly recruited publicist Layla thinks of her placement so far, or how Helen is enjoying her Personal Assistant role or how return-to-work Mum Carmen faced the challenge of upskilling]

We’d had a great headstart, because Andrew from PureWeb had done all of the development work (the skeleton), so all we needed to do was flesh it out with all the property information and dress it up to give it it’s new look. But even so, we had to pull our resources and work really hard.

Here is what we have come up with. Huge thank yous to everyone involved – congratulations and well done!

So did we celebrate? Of course we did! Here are a selection of our Birthday Party Photos