Hello, and welcome! My name is Nicole Atkins, and I am the owner of Atkins Web Design. We are a boutique web design and marketing agency based in East Tennessee. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and dive a little deeper into why I decided to launch my business.
I grew up in East Tennessee, but I am originally from Michigan. My family moved to Tennessee when I was in middle school and although I have lived in other places, the Smoky Mountains feel like home. I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. I wanted to understand people on a deeper level, how and why culture played a role in everything we do, and most importantly I wanted to travel. My educational background took me into the social work field, but I had no work/life balance and chose to step away. That’s when I decided to reevaluate my career and figure out my next step.
Since then, I have been teaching myself web design and social media marketing while working full-time as a sales manager. I always need a creative outlet and this avenue allowed me to continue to work with people and create something beautiful to share with them. It has been a long journey, but I have enjoyed learning a new skill and overcoming the challenges that came with it. In the beginning, my designs were awful. I’d hate to show anyone those first examples of my work, yet, at the time, I had a sense of a pride and accomplishment. I had created something from scratch, and I had taught myself how to do it. While reading about web design, imposter syndrome was a common discussion topic. It took some time for me to have the courage to create designs for other people. I had a lot of self-doubt in my abilities because I was self-taught. Thankfully, I have supportive friends and family that have pushed me to succeed.
Now, I cannot wait to share my ideas and designs with others. I want to help smaller businesses and entrepreneurs develop their online presence so that they can grow their own businesses. The world wide web is always changing, and it can become overwhelming for people to manage their own business while also trying to navigate the online space. I look forward to the opportunity to helping you grow online.
Thanks for stopping by!
