About A Fearless Venture

If you wish your website did what you wanted – without sucking away hours of your time – you should get to know A Fearless Venture.

Did you start a website to help you achieve something important in your life, but now realize that, too often, dealing with the site itself diverts you from your actual goal?

We get it.

Hi there. I’m Teresa, and I help people leave behind website related frustration, undone tasks and time crunches, among other things. But I imagine that since you came to an About page you want to know something about me.

What I do. Who I do it for.

The most important thing to know about A Fearless Venture (a.k.a. AFV) is that WordPress websites are our focus. Period. Not a side hustle. Although that’s a fine way to start many kinds of businesses, the technical skills and experience that best serve people we care about weren’t acquired last month. Or last year, even.

Probably the next thing to tell you is that the people we click with best are the ones who are using their websites to do something different with their lives, businesses or both.

That’s because ten years ago our websites helped us turn our backs on working for “The Man,” wasting hours of our lives commuting, and being judged by HR people because our expertise didn’t quite fit their checkboxes.

We never get tired of working for ourselves, and we love working with others who are independent, or working on it.

I take your business seriously

I take you seriously, no matter how small a business you’re running. If you’ve met me, you’ll get where I’m coming from.

If we haven’t yet met, you might be wondering why a stranger on the internet might give a damn about what you’re trying to do. That calls for a little backstory.

Decent money. Little joy.

From 2009 until 2017, I (Teresa) helped a variety of clients with new websites, broken websites, slow websites, ugly websites, website training – you name it, and there’s a good chance I’ve done it. Before that, I spent a decade in a firm where most of the clients were Fortune 500 types.

Where I can help the most – and I find the most joy – is in working with people who care very much about what they’re doing, and see their website as a crucial element of their vision.

I’ll be brutally honest: I’m able to help a person the most when they start off with me, before they waste a bunch of time or money. Next best thing to that is working with me on a fresh start.

In 2023, I launched AFV One – an option to make small, affordable, but professionally designed websites available to people with tiny budgets. The aim of AFV One is to help people start with high-quality websites. I hope it’ll make a big dent in the number of small and tiny businesses who feel like they have no choice but to accept a crap website.

Been there, done that

Brian handles AFV’s financial and accounting, in addition to his day job for a managed IT services company. His experience is, shall we say…diverse.

After growing up milking dairy cows and then serving nearly 10 years in the US Army, Brian worked as an IT recruiter. Eventually, he became a Project Manager, and managed the build and launch of multi-million dollar web sites for several Fortune 100 companies. He also successfully started and operated a consumer-facing brick and mortar business, dealing with the myriad problems that all small business owners face.

Brian’s broad and varied business experience – from tiny shop to corporate boardroom – gives him a unique view of businesses of all sizes. If he hasn’t felt your exact pain, he can definitely empathize with it. Although he’s no longer active in a client-facing role (I think 1.25 jobs is enough, ya?), he’s still an important part of AFV.

Why ‘Fearless’?

Yeesh this page is long. But since you asked… 😃

In 2018 we sold our suburban McMansion and most everything in it, and took off in our motorhome to live, work and travel (YES! All those things at once!!!). For nearly four years, we explored the US and as many amazing places as we could squeeze in.

We made friends with people we still consider our best friends. Some of our favorite memories are of the times we spent with them, hanging out under the stars or the desert sun or at a brewery. It all sounds so romantic, right?

It was, a lot of the time. And I would like to go back out and live that life again, right now. But as you know if you have a small business, it’s a helluva lot tougher than collecting a regular paycheck. I had a hard time balancing life and work. Too much of the time, we were parked in an amazing place but sitting inside at a keyboard. Unlike W2 folks, we have more tax liability, no benefits, no 401k match…

We took a hard look at everything and realized we had to find better balance, personally and financially. We needed a landing spot. So in 2021, we chose Chattanooga and settled in. We may no longer be “living in a van,” but we’re definitely down by the river.

Who are you?

You might be someone who, like us, offers services. You may blog. Perhaps you sell stuff online, like handmade goods, virtual classes, or in-person courses.

But the biggest thing you are is a risk taker.

While you might not always feel fearless about business, you act in a way that often leads others to believe you are. You may worry over things you still struggle with, but we’re willing to bet that this is true about you:

People wish they could figure out how to make half the bold moves you do.

They probably could if they’d try, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject and one they have to figure out for themselves instead of waiting for “The Answer” to be handed to them.

You are not

You don’t kid yourself about how much work it is to build a site that serves your business well. Or that if someone else designs it for you, you won’t ever have to think about it again..

Websites are a work in progress, always.

You might’ve built your site yourself (we think this is the way to go when you’re starting out with a tiny budget), but you recognize that spending much time outside your genius zone is counterproductive, even when the alternative costs a few bucks.

Even though you may need to be careful about expenses, you value a job done right. You believe that cheaper help costs more in the long run.

Sometimes you feel tech challenged, but you are not one to let that hold you back.

Even if you don’t blog as much as you should, you’re not someone who refuses to do it. You understand that blogging is powerful for business.

It’s not that you never worry about this journey you’re on, but you aren’t someone who’s easily stopped by fear.

AFV will go to the virtual ends of the earth to help people like you.

We’ll help keep you in your genius zone

Whatever path you’re forging on the web, we can deliver the expertise and assistance to help you better navigate it:

  • We design intentionally planned websites. They aren’t just pretty. We put your visitors first (because ultimately they pay the bills), and your ease of use a very close second.
  • Our Site Care service keeps sites secure, backed up and updated, so you can just blog and run your business without worrying about anything else.
  • We offer Help Time by the hour, to guide you through sticky spots and knock out fixes, tweaks and troubleshooting. Or, for things that worry you but are no biggie for us, try our Quick Tasks.

Anything else you’d like to know? Just get in touch.