Life and Work with Amanda Bourgeois

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Bourgeois.

Amanda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Today, My Web Dev Girl (MWDG) helps companies gain online exposure and increase sales. These companies deliver messages to their customers in person every day. MWDG takes these messages and translates them to an online conversation, giving new and old companies more exposure than what they can reach with a traditional marketing approach. My background gives me the courage to take a bigger risk than most agencies and work for commissions, guaranteeing results and ROI.

Bringing my passion for helping people into my career began while attending the Metro State University of Denver for Psychology. During my years in undergrad, I knew I wanted to have an impact on others but decided it wasn’t going to be as a clinical counselor. I graduated and traveled to France for three months, feeding baby goats, drinking fine wine, and picking olives for olive oil.

Upon my return from France, I was clueless about what to do professionally but personally wanted to keep picking olives in the mountains of France. When I was offered a 100% commission sales job, I took it. I spent the next five months selling CenturyLink internet packages door-to-door and almost lost my car, so I left.

In 2015, I was working a cubicle job at a mortgage company and was researching alternative jobs that I can do while traveling. Web design came up in a list on a blog and both my parents are computer programmers so I felt confident this was something I could do. I went to Best Buy, bought a laptop for $300 and immediately learned how to make an HTML document in notepad on windows and then learned how to style it with CSS. I made my entire resume into a website using just the notepad. It was so much fun creating something with code!!! I was convinced that this is what I wanted to do. I moved out of Denver and back to Longmont to live with my mom as I developed my skills and grew my company.

I started going to startup meetups just for fun and to meet like-minded people. I kept coding and designing. I joined a coworking space, which, to this day, has been an invaluable resource. The friends I have met there, and the knowledge I have gained from this community has been so profound that my gratitude to them will never outweigh the impact they have had on my profession.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If you are a woman, be courageous and go for it. Everything will work out, and if it doesn’t, it’s a blessing. You’ll face challenges, you’ll cry, and you’ll feel like a queen on the same day. There are so many people out there who are kind and generous and willing to help you along the way. Any obstacle you reach is an opportunity for you to get creative and to practice how courageous you can be.

When I was first starting, I applied for the master’s program at Denver University to learn Web and Mobile Application Development. They rejected me and said, “you haven’t demonstrated enough technical skills, please go take one of these online courses, and we will reconsider.” I chose a course at Coursera, paid $500 to learn website development, and finished with plenty of technical skills but decided I didn’t want to pay $50,000 to learn something I can teach myself. So, I went and got a temporary job at Celestial Seasonings and had a blast, learning on the side, getting a steady paycheck and mingling with all my coworkers.

I decided to leave Celestial Seasonings, perhaps a little prematurely for my finances but my heart was so driven to work on coding full time that I had to quit. All I wanted to do was code all day, every day. It all ended up working out in the end. I found a few friends to build websites for. I applied for a job at an agency in Boulder, and the interview required me to do too much work in 2 hours, so I failed. They said, “you were unable to complete the required task in the provided time, so we are looking at other applicants” queue the profound, serious lawyer old man voice. Well, they came back to me about three weeks later practically begging me to go back in and give it another go because that’s how amazing I am! They loved my personality, my design aesthetic, and skills. I courageously turned the offer down knowing that in my heart, I truly wanted to work for myself and grow my own company.

Taking the leap to start your own company is hard but so much easier when you are living at home with the comfort of your mom, rent-free, with only a car payment. Moving out of my mother’s house into a luxury apartment was not a good idea and the hardest thing I’ve done thus far.

While I was deciding to move out, it was easy and fun, I had the financial support of my boyfriend, and I was very confident it was all going to work out. After two months, I left him and was paying about $600 of rent over my budget. On top of not really being able to afford rent, another agency I contracted for decided not to pay me $10,000 for work that I did, thus putting me into a small amount of debt as I pay for furniture and other things required for independent living. Breaking my lease was not an option either because it is a brand-new development and at the time, I moved in they were at 20% capacity. No one was getting out of their lease.

These couple of months, moving out of my mother’s house was the hardest time of my career. Everything happened at once, and thankfully, everything is working out. I have managed to make rent every month; I have not increased my debt any more than what I incurred in that first month moving in. When my lease is up, I will find something more affordable and get out of my small debt very quickly.

It was all worth it, while I recommend no one move into a luxury apartment, I do recommend everyone go for starting your own business! Be courageous and strong and take the risk because it’s the best thing you can do. During this time of my life, I’ve learned so much about myself, more than I ever would have working for someone else because my survival depends on it. I’ve had to get very honest with myself about who I am, who I want to be, who I want a part of my life, and how I’m going to accomplish my goals. The pressure of paying high rent flexed my financial creativity and inspired me to change a lot of the way I do business. It taught me how to believe in myself and how to set my self-worth very high.

Please tell us about My Web Dev Girl.
My Web Dev Girl is a boutique digital marketing agency that is known for web design/development and our commission work. We build beautiful, functional websites that sell a company’s product or service.

With a hunger, bright eyes, and a bushy tail, we come up with fresh ideas and are brave enough to try something new, something unusual, when it’s appropriate. Doing something unordinary helps companies show how special they are in a crowd of websites and competition. With a woman’s pragmatic approach, MWDG stays within budget and is smart enough to understand what risk your business can safely take.

MWDG is most proud of the bravado it takes to work for commissions. Very few if any agencies do this because not all can deliver, are greedy and want something for nothing.

MWDG wants to give thousands more than what we get. This program is selectively chosen for very special clients and has had rewarding results. We prefer this model because your ROI is guaranteed. No more spending thousands of dollars on a website and getting nothing back, instead spend thousands on a site and get multiple thousands back.

What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally? 
There aren’t enough women in existing professional networking events. There are a handful of wonderful “women only” networks around Northern Colorado, and I look forward to seeing this grow. I do wish; however, there was some way to get men more involved in these groups, or more women involved in the older existing groups that are dominated by men. Men make more money than women; that’s a fact. Why exclude them from our circles by creating women’s only meetings? Let’s instead create an environment that supports both strong men and women. Predominantly male networks are abundant, and I look forward to the day, the scales tip the other direction.

A lot of women feel they need to sell an MLM scheme to be in business for themselves. Today women have so many marketable skills, the day we realize that we are worth it, that we are valuable, is when we will start having the courage to sell ourselves and not hide behind someone else or their brand and marketing pitches. We will decide to be our own brand, make our own pitches and create our own company. Keep asking yourself, how much are you worth?

Pricing:

• Small Business Website $2,000-$8,000
• Medium-Sized Business Website $10,000-$25,000
• Ecommerce Website $5,000-$40,000
• Large Business Website $25,000-$40,000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mywebdevgirl.com
• Phone: 7202103076
• Email: amanda@mywebdevgirl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mywebdevgirl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mywebdevgirl/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-bourgeois-11392a20/

Image Credit:
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