Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Baird.
Hi Lisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I guess I got started in 1998, in college when I took my first web design class using Netscape Navigator, something that hasn’t existed for decades! At the time, I was in my 4th year of college in programming. Back then, colleges tended to offer the “capstone” class once every other year. My husband decided we needed to move before I could take the class, then I had children so college was placed on hold. In 2006 my husband and I separated, and I returned to my Florida roots. My twin sister and I are 8th generation Floridians from the Punta Gorda, FL area. My sister and I bought a house in Port Charlotte, FL in 2007. I had 3 kids, the youngest 2 years old and she had an infant.
We survived the housing market burst even though she was laid off twice in 2007. I worked two part time jobs in web design, alternating days so I could pick up the kids from school for a few years, before I began working full time for my mom who was establishing her own business as a CPA. The pay and hours were great (thanks mom!)
At some point in time, I returned to college online and got my degree. I continued working with mom until 2014. In that year, my dad was very ill and my mom had sold her business, so I was no longer needed there and had the opportunity to finally user that degree I had paid a ton of money for.
I began working with Candee Gulick who owned CeJay Associates, LLC in Punta Gorda, FL somewhere around the end of 2014.
At CeJay Associates, we were immediately faced with a decision. The landscape of web design was changing from hand-coded HTML/CSS to CMS builders like WordPress and Joomla. Candee asked me, which platform I thought we should use and I said “Well, I used WordPress once, so let’s use that one.” Since then I built or helped build over 100 websites using WordPress. My programming and HTML/CSS experience makes me uniquely skilled at customizing WordPress builds.
In 2022, Candee wanted to retire and sell the business. After much deliberation, I decided to buy it. I bought the business early September 2022. Three weeks later, the eye of hurricane Ian went over our area. No-one cared about websites, and I offered free hurricane updates to all my customers. It was a great way to know how my customers were doing. I operated under my mom’s business (thanks again mom!) which enabled me to make payments until people recovered from Ian, which took nearly a year. It was very quiet for several months. My house was undamaged, other than the fence so I spent my spare time rebuilding the fence.
Recovery was gradual, but I was looking towards the future. I wanted to build this business up and had a plan to hire and train young employees. Empowering them to sell and build websites. So in 2023, the budget was still really tight, but I had grown the business’ rank on Google and had a steady flow of business. I still had the 100 clients I had known for years. To prepare for future growth, I hired two recent graduates from Charlotte Technical College’s Digital Design II Class. I welcomed Sarah and Gaby as interns in November 2023 and as part-time employees in January 2024.
In July 2025 I celebrated the last payment for my business loan and we have a steady stream of work. It’s still not a lot, but it keeps us all employed and pays the bills.
We are currently running a campaign for condominium associations to get their Florida Law compliant website by January 2026.
Presently, because of AI, we are working to change the direction of our business. While we use AI to help with ideas and code, we also anticipate its ability to do much of the work we do. In the future, we will be focusing on Website Growth Management services for established businesses who want more from their website.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, there have been plenty of obstacles.
1. Hurricane Ian. I bought the business just a few weeks before the hurricane.
2. The employees I hired haven’t learned as quickly as I had anticipated and growth is slow
3. AI is changing the landscape. To be successful, we have to consider its implications for our business and change our business plan
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about CeJay Websites?
CeJay Websites currently focuses on Website Design, but we are changing our strategy to focus on Website Growth Management. Our primary focus is on hyperlocal optimization. This uses local resources, such as the chambers and local magazines to enhance a business’s presence and image in the community. This aligns closely with our values in regards to our community and supporting local organizations and businesses.
We are known in our community for promptly responding to requests and providing updates quickly. Our goal is 2 business days. During tourist season, we sometimes get behind, and, as the only expert on the team, I become the bottleneck.
Our unique set of skills and our prompt response times really sets us apart from our competitors. Both Sarah and Gaby are Digital Design Experts. I am an expert in HTML/CSS and several programming languages. With this team, we are uniquely positioned to manage work from hand-crafted graphics to hand-coded website customizations.
Community is very important to me. I don’t outsource and hire local. I am on the board of CLEF (Charlotte Local Education Foundation,) Charlotte Soil and Water Conservation District, and ARAY (A safe and empowering space for LGBTQ+ youth and allies in Charlotte County, Florida)
Some services we provide:
We also include Google Business management and enhancement and AI Optimization. AI Optimization is an emerging technology, and businesses can gain a big edge by adopting it early. We’ve seen great results testing AI Optimization for a few of our clients.
AI Optimization is about adding and modifying content, so it shows up as an answer when AI answers your search query. This type of optimization also enhances your visibility in Voice Searches.
While we don’t consider Social Media marketing to be a big focus of our business we do manage several social media accounts. We’ve partnered with other local businesses to offer videography, photography and “AI Social Media Scheduled Prompts.” With the latter, our partner provides us with a social media plan targeted to the business. This plan includes regular post ideas, content and the AI prompt(s) to generate the imagery.
We have a suite of tools to manage websites, manage and post to several social media platforms, manage and create newsletters, SMS (text messaging) campaigns, forms and surveys, booking calendars, CRM & Pipeline, review management, sales funnels, AI chat widgets, reputation management and reporting so you can measure ROI.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Buying this business was a major risk for me. There is a lack of security as a business owner. If I need paid, I have to make sure I bring in enough money to pay the bills and pay myself. At the time I had one son in college and two sons in high school. Like most people my age, I had a mortgage and car payments. While the emphasis on COVID had past, it was still on people’s minds. I had looked for regular employment online prior to buying the business, but there seemed to be little demand for my skill set. I was too experienced for regular web design positions, but lacked the skills big businesses want. I really didn’t (and still don’t) want to run my own business, but it seemed the only way to maintain my current lifestyle.
Hiring the two students from the tech college was a risk. One that I hoped would bring prosperity to the company and enable me to do less of the work. My idea was to take on these young adults and train them to build websites and sell them. Then they could sell websites and I would share the profit with them. That really hasn’t worked out, but they are able to manage most of the mundane tasks that come in.
I think risk is built into any business. Every decision you make comes with a risk. Over the summer, we took a risk on Vibe.co advertising campaign. It sounded great, our video ads are placed on various streaming media. Ultimately, the cost was over $2,000 and we had zero results from it. That cost doesn’t include time spent crafting video or the cost of hiring local talent to help with videos.
You have to try or you’ll be left behind, especially in a field where technology is constantly changing.
We are currently working on a rebrand “Bold Sphere Digital” to reach a broader audience and new pricing scheme. The prices provided are still being refined and may not be the final pricing.
Pricing:
- Base package: Website Management & Optimization Service $350–$600/month (based on site size and traffic)
- Hyperlocal Optimization add-on $200-$400/month
- CRM & Lead Nurturing add-on $250 setup + $100/month ongoing
- Ongoing AI Optimization $200–$400/month
- Managed Social Media Add-On$500–$1,000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cejaywebsites.com/
- Other: http://boldspheredigital.com/
Image Credits
The last image is Jazzy the office dog. She comes to work with us every day 🙂 Otherwise, no-one gets credit for the images, they are all our stuff.
