Early Riser Studio

08/17/2022

I just signed my biggest client yet …

Shopify!

Dear friends and community, I have some exciting news to share with you.

I recently accepted a FT position working in-house at Shopify. Wahoo!!

This decision to shift my energy away from building my business was an extremely difficult one to make. I’ve poured my “blood”, sweat, and tears into this business - sacrificing many things to make it successful - and walking away from it took months of hard contemplation.

Some of the reasons why I decided to make the shift were:

- I could impact more businesses working at this scale

- I missed having a team (entrepreneurship can get lonely)

- I wanted to learn from the some of the best product managers in biz

- I wanted more stability for my stage in life and financial goals

What this means for Early Riser:

- I will no longer be able to accept Shopify-related work

- I will stop taking on projects while I transition

- I will pivot and reposition myself

I don’t have all the answers yet but I’ll share my journey as I try to find them!

In the meantime, if you have any questions about my decision or this new endeavour, please reach out!

As always, thank you for all your love and support. This community means the world to me. 🤍

08/15/2022

05/09/2022

Remincing on this beautiful Shopify site we build for
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How many times have you or your clients said: “I don’t want it to look like a template!”?
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This request made by founder is one we get often.
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With the abundance of website themes and templates available online, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate your site from the others. Your website ends up looking cookie cutter and doesn’t stand out the way your business deserves to.
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So how do we fix this?
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Well, what we did for NuBeauty was:
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1️⃣ - Researched the hell out of their theme - reading all of the documentation to ensure we took full advantage of its features.
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2️⃣ - Put together new layouts, leveraging these features in a way that made sense, helping the business achieve its goals
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3️⃣ - With their brand guidelines in hand, we customized the theme’s colours and typography - installing custom fonts and adapting some of the colours to accommodate accessibility and interaction states.
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4️⃣ - Strategized and prioritized important components to change with custom code, making adjustments to the shopping experience and the site’s overall look and feel.
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We gave this theme a total makeover and couldn't be happier with how it turned out! ✨

05/03/2022

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and give your past self some advice?
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What would you say?
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I bet you would tell yourself all of the things that you know you needed to hear.
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I bet you would be extremely optimistic, kind, encouraging, and supportive.
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I bet you would say things like:
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→ "Keep going! You've got this"
→ "You're smarter than you think"
→ "Your breakthrough is just around the corner"
→ "Stop doubting yourself"
→ "Things are going to work out. I know it"
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Am I right?
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Now reframe this to imagine what your future self would say to you today.
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What do you need to hear?
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Share a piece of wisdom in the comments that you think the entrepreneurs and creatives here might need to hear ✨

04/28/2022

Let’s not sugarcoat: Entrepreneurship is HARD.
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It can be challenging, emotionally taxing, unstable, and certainly not for the faint of heart.
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Sometimes, it can be difficult not to let the hard parts discourage us, or create feelings of inadequacy.
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However - accepting that the hard parts exist and pushing through them is all part of the journey.
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If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
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Drop a 💯 in the comments if you agree!

04/27/2022

Ready to invest smarter?
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We’ve talked about our framework for how we invest (to save our time, save our energy, or speed up results) - but what exactly did we invest in during our first year of Early Riser?
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Whether investing time, energy, or money, the goal is always to maximize the return on investment. When choosing how, where, and who to invest in, I always keep this top of mind.
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Here are the top areas we found the best return on investment in this year.
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Want more details? Read the full blog on smarts investments on our website, following the link in the bio.

04/14/2022

Not everyone will support your journey. And you know what, that’s ok!
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Sometimes, being underestimated is the powerful ammunition you need to catapult yourself into the success you KNOW you can achieve.
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To all the people who ever told you that you couldn’t: thank them!
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Because proving the naysayers wrong should only fuel your ambitious fire.
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Drop a 🔥 if you agree!

04/12/2022

🔊Calling all web designers!🔊
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Are you looking to grow your business and make more money - without working overtime? We built the white-label development service for designers who want to do more, without taking on all the work themselves.
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By partnering with a dedicated Shopify developer, you can say goodbye to work constraints and hello to new opportunities.
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Ready to get started? Reach out on our website!

04/07/2022

Holy ... how is it already April?
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With 2022 well underway and Q2 kicking off, I thought I'd take a moment to reintroduce myself to some of the new faces around here.
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Hi, I'm Kim! The founder and lead developer here at Early Riser. I started my journey into tech with a coding bootcamp that landed me a job working as a full-stack developer.
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Aside from being a career that was well suited to my highly analytical yet creative brain, web development offered something that most companies (at the time) didn't ... FLEXIBILITY!
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I wanted the ability to choose when, how, and more importantly WHERE I worked. Not only did I want to continue travelling the world (an expensive habit I picked up in my 20s) but I wanted the ability to extend my visiting time with family and friends.
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Relationships and experiences are two things I value most in life and I'm so grateful to have a career that supports them.
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How does your work support your life? Drop a comment below 👇🏻
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📍📸: Tamarindo, CR

04/06/2022

While launching Early Riser, I set ambitious goals to move fast, and grow as quickly as possible.
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To make these goals a reality, I knew I couldn’t do everything myself - as badly as I wanted to - and I would need to make smart investments to help scale my business.
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I quickly realized the key was to organize and automate tasks, meetings, and workflows.
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Getting the proper tools in place made a huge difference in how efficient I was able to be.
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Here are the top 5 tools I use to organize myself and save a ton of time.
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Want more tips to help streamline your business? Read more of our smart investments on our blog, following the link in the bio! 📖
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03/31/2022

We love seeing the growth and success of our clients' businesses - especially knowing we helped them get there.

Hailey Jane, a Canadian-based jewellery company, was actually the very first Shopify site we built! The website we created showcased the new brand and helped further expand the business to new customers.

We are so grateful to work with inspiring clients - and receiving positive feedback is definitely one of the best parts of what we do!

Check out the Hailey Jane case study on our website and on IG

03/30/2022

Some of my clients are shocked to find out I hadn’t set out to become a web developer. I graduated with a business management degree, on track to becoming an accountant (!!!)

Even though I had worked so hard towards this goal, I had so many doubts, and I just wasn’t excited for accounting to be my career.

While I had other interests and skills, I didn’t know how to channel my energy into one clear path.

When I came across web development a few years later, it was a total game changer! While it was like nothing I could have ever imagined for myself, web development blended so many of my interests and skills, and even gave me an outlet for my creativity.

A year into launching Early Riser, most days I have to pinch myself that I’m finally living a life filled with passion, that I designed completely for myself.

If you’ve ever doubted yourself or wondered if it’s possible to do what you truly love - take it from me, it is!

Curious to learn more about my journey? Check out my full story following the link in bio. 🔗