This post was submitted by Katie Fenton as part of our community themed Divi Summer Sale week. Each day of the weeklong sale we will be publishing new stories submitted by community members about how Divi has helped them build their careers and businesses.
twofentons (the clue is in the name) is made up of me Katie (me) and my husband Gavin Fenton. We’ve been working together, side by side in our home office, for just over 10 years now. Based in the Highlands of Scotland it is more common than not that individuals work from home due to the rural nature of the country. As a result our client base started off with (and still contains) a lot of small one-man-bands; although with Gavin’s background in hotel management we’ve taken on larger hotel and restaurant projects too. As the years have gone on we’ve established a really good mix of corporate and smaller clients.
The Backstory
Historically, Gavin was the web builder along with coding support from a couple of trusted sub-contract coders. However, since moving to WordPress–and away from custom CMS systems–we are not so heavily reliant on “technical geniuses” anymore. Over the past 5 or so years I’ve been coming in towards the end of projects and completing his design work with content and images. My quick typing skills and logical approach to things has meant we’ve had very defined rolls in the business. However, just over a year ago our local community employed the services of another web development company and asked us to help with design and integration and boom, that was our introduction to Divi.
The Difference Divi Makes
Since then Gavin has watched a gazillion YouTube videos, become involved in the fabulous Facebook Divi groups and I’ve finally decided that I can do more than just contribute content. I’m now building pages and enjoying investigating layouts and themes myself…Gavin does have to reign me in somewhat as I tend to have a scattergun approach to things sometimes, but in my defence I think that is just a bit of a creative spirit!
We’ve really enjoyed working on a few recent developments using Divi and thanks to some excellent support from the online community have overcome difficulties and learned new things along the way. For example, thanks to Darren Woodley, Gavin has learned all about Flexbox and this is something that without Darren’s help we wouldn’t have been able to create our most recent launch; an image heavy hotel and restaurant website.
Also PK Son and his excellent tutorials have grown Gavin’s knowledge base extensively. I always know when Gavin is excited about something new he’s learned because he talks about it constantly, and I mean constantly. He’s just started an advanced CSS course and can’t shut up about it!
But to be fair, I must admit that the Facebook groups have been a revelation. It’s great chatting with people from all over the world, it’s great knowing that the question you are about to ask has probably been asked before and someone can help you pretty quickly, and it’s great that even with my basic Divi knowledge I have already managed to help a couple of even newer users than me!
What Divi (And the Divi Nation) Has Meant to Us
From my point of view Divi has meant that I can help more–both in my business and in the community. Instead of sitting on the sidelines listening to a lot of swearing and watching head in hands moments.
Divi is helping us to be more profitable and has considerably changed the way we work. We are more productive, we are not outsourcing so much work, we are both involved in the build process from the beginning. And contrary to what a lot of people think, working and living together actually has its benefits! We are far more aware of how the other one is going to approach something and can delegate to each other well as we know who has the skills for whichever part of a project we’re taking on.
It should be remembered though, I am the boss! ?
