Oh Canada, let me ask you this. Over the past few years whilst we’ve been living in this economic turmoil, have you ever wondered just how essential small and medium-sized businesses are in securing Canada’s ongoing economic recovery? If you own a small or medium-sized business then I’m sure you already know this. However, for those of you who don’t watch the news, then you might want to take note: This is the Year of the Entrepreneur. Even the Harper Government (whether you love them or loathe them) recognizes this.

One Saskatchewan non-profit organization that is proud to support this declaration is Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (W.E.). Working with women who are considering starting a business, purchasing a business, or who are operating an existing business, W.E. works towards a business culture in which the barriers to success, recognition and advancement of women entrepreneurs in Saskatchewan are eliminated.

The Website

To increase the awareness of their mission statement, W.E. needed a new website that was clean, organized and modern with an improvement in the functionality for its members. With great and valuable information already on the website, for current and future entrepreneurs, W.E. wants to shout their message out to the rest of Canada! Welcoming these lovely ladies into our arms, we helped them to achieve that.

Originally designed in 2009 the previous website had become outdated. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not being rude or insulting the original design, but websites date just like your flared jeans. That’s fashion.

Our aim was to create a more visual website without losing any of the recognizable character that had made the website known amongst its members. Therefore we unleashed our designers and developers and let them loose on Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan’s new website!

Highlighted are some of the key redesign features:

• We kept the original logo and color scheme, we just emphasized gold.
• The membership database was enhanced from the previous website.
• Social Media is an important part of spreading the W.E. message so we have integrated links to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• A custom Blog has been integrated with the new website too with a feed incorporated on to the homepage.

A brand new element we incorporated into the new design, to help with their request of providing more functionality to members, was an e-Commerce solution. This will allow for new members to sign-up and pay for their memberships online via a secure and encrypted payment system. Once a member you can log-in to the members area and create and edit your own information including: contact details, photos and links to your own personal website(s) or Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

For further information regarding Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan visit their website at www.womenentrepreneurs.sk.ca. You can also view a more in-depth case study regarding this project on our Portfolio page.