A ROLLERCOASTER OF A YEAR FOR IT & WEBSITE SPECIALISTS AT BLACK NOVA DESIGNS

Black Nova Designs, the website and design specialists based in Wiltshire, is celebrating a year of success and giving back.

Run by husband and wife team Kyle and Danielle Holmes the company has consolidated their success, grown their team and they have raised over £1,300 for good causes. 

Danielle, who is a director of the company, said: “Hosting for us has always been one of our strongest services, and 2022 saw this continue to evolve as we invested more into our infrastructure. We are one of only a few companies locally to be providing our own hosting. This means we are involved and on-hand to support our clients at any time, with our human, friendly and in-house team, through every stage of their experience with us.” 

For founder and director Kyle, running a successful small business is not just about numbers on a spreadsheet he said:

“For us, the success and satisfaction of our clients is one half of running a brilliant business, the other is in choosing what to do with the success and subsequent lifestyle we have.

“We have a trusted team of staff both working in the office and remotely this enabled me to have holidays with my family and also for us to be able to give back through charity events this year such as my Three Peaks Challenge for the RNLI after losing my best friend to the sea.”

Kyle and his fellow climber Danny raised over £1,100 for the RNLI through the charity challenge, as well as raising more than £200 across the year for the mental health charity MIND. 

Another successful project has been the team’s popular Build A PC Days which were quickly fully booked. Attendees booked in return for a small donation to MIND. 

Other milestones for the business have included:

1. Taking a trade stand at the Badminton Horse Trials – “It was such a special experience,” Danielle said, “to be able to meet so many of our clients and friends in person at one of the most prestigious international horse trials in the world.”
2. Launching their new company website - Kyle said: “During the first few years of the business, I coded the company website myself. We had a few different versions over the years, however now as a team, our new website totally encompasses my love of ‘space’, which you will see is now becoming part of our brand as a whole AND inspired the name Black Nova Designs initially. As well as being fully responsive, the website is fully bespoke with lots of added special touches like the moving team astronauts.”
3. Launch of a ‘no fluff’ YouTube channel sharing insight into tech to make it more user friendly.  It can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/@BlackNovaDesigns
4. Being selected as an #sbs winner by former Dragon Theo Paphitis.
5. Kyle was named as one of the 42 under 42 young business owners to watch in the South West. 
6. Running a 24-hour gaming marathon for MIND. 
7. Sponsoring the Wootton Bassett School of Dance to attend a world championship competition and this support will continue as the school has just qualified for the England championships in 2023. 

To give back at the end of 2022 to businesses across the South West the team has also come up with their top tech tips for 2023:  

1. Keep tech up to date – ensure laptops, PCs, apps etc are operating on the latest versions and if devices resemble the old-school brick models, it may be time to consider an upgrade as it’s better for the environment because the machine will run faster and more efficiently and use less energy. 
2. Use quality content on websites – in 2023 Google will be cracking down on websites with poor quality content that isn’t optimised, so make sure metadata is up to scratch!  
3. Place routers somewhere high up at home or at work for a better WiFi signal.  
4. Check what you pay when it comes to website hosting. What service and hosting type are you paying for and when are the renewals? Knowing this enables you to manage your business cashflow and expenses which is important in the current climate. 

To celebrate the start of 2023, the team are offering free website migration to the Black Nova hosting service until the end of June. As a cPanel authorised partner the team have some of the best software for transfers, with prices starting at £10.79 per month or £100.80 a year (excluding VAT) for fast, and secure hosting. 

For more details visit https://blacknovadesigns.co.uk