Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Long.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nicholas. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve had a number of transformations in my life, but although they were very different, the different careers that I’ve had have each contributed something to the next step. I originally went to art school in Houston, TX but found a love of math and computers while I was there. After school when I came back to Atlanta, I became a professional chef, working in restaurants and hotels around the city. My art and math background gave me an advantage in both logical and creative thinking. I learned that I was able to work both as a pastry chef and as an overall chef at the same time. Both of these are very different disciplines requiring very different skill sets and mental attitudes. Being able to split from one to the other made a real difference.
11 Fingers Design is a web and graphic design company started by my mother Nancy-Jeanette Long, more than 20 years ago. I’ve been working with her as a designer and web developer for more than 10 years. Around that time, I injured my back and was unable to work for a period of time. Since I was lying still, she suggested that I start learning HTML and CSS to help her with her business. I’d done some programming years ago in college, so I started in. I really loved it and have made the career transition to working with the web full time. Although it is unusual in this industry, I enjoy both the front-end design and the back end programming aspects. As I learned while I was a chef to split between pastry and hot food, I can split between programming and design, though I do have to segment each to its own day. I’ll spend most of one day working with our design team on the site layouts, and save the heavy lifting on the development side for the next day. This lets me work directly with all of our team members on each project that we take on.
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?
Overall things have been great. 11 Fingers is a family business and it has been great working with my mother on it. I took over the business from her this year and it has been a bit exciting working to expand it to be able to hire more people. We are growing well and are currently expanding the services that we can offer our clients. Nancy-Jeanette and I have been working together for more than 10 years now, but at first it was a bit of a challenge. Learning how to communicate with each other without hurt feelings or being “too nice” was a project of ours, but now we are doing pretty well. We often meet with our clients together and it seems that we complement each other in our styles of presentation.
We are a small business and there are always struggles with finding time. If I had four extra days in the week I would still be able to find things that needed to be done but we do get a chance to relax occasionally. We’ll do design collaborations as a team and head out for a hamburger afterwards for a reward. I get up very early and stay working into the evening, but I love what I do and am glad that I am doing it.
11 Fingers Design – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We have GREAT customer service.
We are a web design and graphic design firm specializing in small businesses and municipalities in the greater Atlanta area. We provide affordable custom design and support services for our clients. Many of our clients have been with us for years and not only get great website updating and support services, but have come back to us for their website re-designs when it’s time for a fresh look. Our clients call us or email us their requests and in most cases the changes are done that day. We’re a family run business and we treat our small business clients like members of the family. We’ve been in business for a long time and we know that being able to respond quickly and consistently to any concerns is what keeps us in business.
We do a lot of work with small businesses in the greater metro area and one of the things I enjoy most is getting to know these clients, working with them and creating the websites that help their businesses grow. We often meet clients in their office or place of business which really is an advantage. Part of our job is helping businesses define themselves to the outside world and getting to see the owners in their own space helps us to find out how they see themselves. One of the taglines that we have used in marketing our corporate branding and logo design services is “Who do you think you are”. It’s very important for us to understand how the client sees themselves before we can create a graphic vision of their organization.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Every day I am proud of my team and the work that we do. My favorite project is always the one we’re working on now and my favorite site is the one we just finished. Custom content management is one of my specialties and I love the challenge of figuring out the ways of setting up an interface to give my clients exactly what they have asked for as well as the thing that they wanted but didn’t know to ask about. It is always a great feeling when I get to show someone the system that we have set up for them, show them how to use it and hear them say – “Oh, that’s great. I can do that! That’s not hard at all.”
Contact Info:
- Website: 11fingers.com
- Phone: 770.856.4373
- Email: contact@11fingers.com
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