The #1 Best Business Decision I Made For My Business

Emily and Elizabeth at Mailchimp

Before I tell you the best decision I ever made for my business, you must first know this story…

In the early 90s, my dad decided he would have a side hustle, creating a touch-screen computer program that would be sold to grocery stores where you could pair your wine purchase with food. This was the VERY early 90s…so we’re talking super high-tech for that time. Actually, WAY before its time. But amazing nonetheless.

He worked with a close friend who was a wine expert and I just recall 4-5 computers laying around our house with these wine pairing options. (If this was developed 10 years later, we could have been billionaires….thanks, dad). It didn’t quite take off, but I remember it being in one or two stores.

But what did happen is that my sister and I grew up around computers and my sister became the real techy of the family, going to a “math and science” high school for very smart people (that’s what I call it), later going on to study Information Technology (IT) and then worked in Seattle for many years for various .com’s doing IT. I just remember her being on the computer A LOT. I was probably in the other room singing showtunes way too loud.

Main story here — years later I get to work with my sister every day and having her join forces with me and grow this business, has been, hands down, the #1 best decision ever. For me, having someone that I can, not only bounce ideas off of in Slack every single day, but having that partner that I can ask what to do when I’m dealing with a tough client or a stressful situation…it’s truly priceless. Many people don’t get that and I feel extremely lucky.

I don’t talk about her enough and how vital she is to our business. Years ago when we were designing our website, she told me she didn’t want her photo on it. She said to me — “I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t need my name on anything. I am good in the background. Video off.” She was even adamant the business be under my name. But that felt weird. (BTW – Westfield Creative is named that because we grew up on Westfield Road in Charlotte, NC.)

Elizabeth has always just wanted to do the work, make a great income from home and call it a day. She’s truly one of the most humble people I know and whenever we have a win in our business, it’s pretty incredible to get to celebrate with her.

So I just wanted to give a major shout-out to Elizabeth (Liz, I get to call her — but please don’t call her that) and everything she does behind the scenes daily to make our clients happy. She is truly the brains behind most of the work we do and I always say – she can usually fix anything tech-related. Give her a broken website and login and you good.

I am a very lucky sis. Thank you, Liz, for being the best possible partner to work with every day.

Why the name “Westfield Creative”?

In 2016, I had just relocated from NYC to Lake Tahoe and was trying to find a way to work from home, so that I could be around my then 6-month-old little boy. I have never been an office person and never will be. I had to find a way. In early 2016, after a call with my friend, Val Geisler (now an email marketing guru/expert), I started my virtual assistant business, “Emily Ryan Works,” which was helping entrepreneurs and small business owners with really anything they needed. From WordPress website help, to Mailchimp email newsletters, to graphics, to social media and much more.  They thought of something, we did it. It was really my dream at the time…just to be working from home.

 

Elizabeth Bogh and Emily RyanThen, this little business grew very quickly. And maybe too quickly. I kept taking on more and more clients and in 2017, my sister, Elizabeth, came on to help me manage it all. We grew to a full-time digital marketing agency, specializing in Mailchimp, social media and WordPress. As our business grew, we desperately wanted a new name. I hated the name “Emily Ryan Works.” It was a name that I quickly chose because www.emilyryan.com was NOT available on that day in 2016 and this was the only domain name I could find. And over time, as my sister took on 50% of our workload, I hated standing behind just my name. She never minded and actually preferred it that way (she always says that I should be the “face” of the business, but it feel right). So we began the search for a new biz name.

 

And it took FOREVER to come up with something that made sense for our business, for both of us and where the domain was actually available (harder than you think!). I think we went through 100 names. It had to be special for us. It had to be cool.

 

And then one day, we landed on a name that made so much sense to us both — Westfield Creative. Westfield (Road) being the street that we grew up on together in Charlotte, NC.  Liz and I lived at 3000 Westfield Road for 18 years (14 of those together) and it was truly a magical home to grow up in.

 

We grew up in an old, big blue house, covered in ivy. We could both tell you every corner of that house. We had a pool and a trampoline and our yard was a giant playground of awesomeness. We also had computers in several rooms of our house (which in the 80’s was pretty techie). Elizabeth actually went to a magnet school for science and technology (she was the real techie in our family) and I went to a performing arts school (I was the crazy, artsy theatre kid).

 

Westfield was our home and now with our new business name, it can be forever.