Finally!  Re-launched the website!  A few 'techie' thoughts on the re-launch:

1. The Site  
I didn't realize I was going to have to start from scratch. We
were using a content management tool called Drupal and I highly
recommend AGAINST it unless you have a full time development resource.
Drupal crashed and it wasn't worth the work to bring it back.  We are now using Weebly and so far so good.  I haven't had a developer look at the code for SEO 'friendliness'.  If the code is clean I may recommend it to a few of the small businesses that I advise.

2. The Pictures
The good news is that I had all the product pictures backed up.
Remember that!!!!  Oh please, please, remember to always back up your pictures.  All of them.  We use an external drive, we back up the external drive AND I post my pictures to www.smugmug.com.  It's worth the annual fee.  Check them out.  

3. Receiving Payments via PayPal  
Hooking back up to PayPal was easy AND I was able to downgrade to the 'free' version because I no longer needed the API to power miserable Drupal.  More how to set up PayPay 'free' for your small business later.  There were a few annoying points I learned when we set it up for www.sweetdanib.com that I want everyone to know.

 

WOW!  Done (kinda) and done!  The new handbag site has been ported and all we need to finish doing now is uploading our existing product line.  Can't wait for Promising Growth start doing some good again.... it's my passion and I hope to pass the 'giving' gene on to my children! 

We will be pulling in our previous fair trade directory as well.  Should finish exporting it on Saturday.  In the meantime, if anyone sees any site issues, please let me know. 

By the way, we used an amazing tool to recreate the site called Weebly.  I can't say enough about it!

Today I'm spending a hot and humid afternoon inside trying to get the Promising Growth project re-started.  I'm so glad we'll be able to get our supporters involved again, and look forward to getting handbags sold so that we can start sending funds back to the artisans for new products.  We don't buy new inventory until we are nearly sold out, so without the site and sales, we can't get back to the business of "promising growth"! 

I took a necessary personal break from this over the past year because I was blessed with our first baby.  He has brought nothing but happiness, but needless to day, took away all of my spare time and energy!  I was also  extremely busy (and continue to be!) running a start-up during the worst economic downturn in my lifetime.  The business is no different than the baby really - I think about it day and night!  Zaps my energy, etc! etc! 

Regardless, my commitment to the ideas and people behind this project remain, and I am glad to be getting engaged again.  More soon.