An Interview With Web Designer & Entrepreneur John O’Nolan

Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by Jordan in Interviews

If you’re a web designer who reads blogs and uses social media to connect to the community, no doubt you’ll have come across the thoughts of John O’Nolan. John is the owner of Lyrical Media, a rapidly growing web design and development company based in the South of England. We managed to get a little bit of time with John recently here’s what he had to say…

Q1. Firstly, thanks a lot for taking the time to speak to A Web Design Blog John! A lot of web designers and developers dream of going solo like yourself, what was the motivation of starting up Lyrical Media?

Well let me firstly just say thank you for having me – I’m always really humbled to be asked for interviews and this is no exception!

Lyrical Media itself started off as I think any web design company probably does: I was working full time for another web design agency, and I wanted to start freelancing on the side to make some extra money, and get some more experience. I did that for about a year before deciding to make the big decision, which was to leave full time employment and make Lyrical Media my primary source of income.

The motivation behind the big leap into self-employment was very simple – I hated who I was working for, and I’ve always had big ambitions of running my own company!

The man himself

Q2. You’ve been running Lyrical Media for around a year now, what’s been the highest and lowest point of running your own business?

Excellent question, I’ll start with the lowest point which was about 6 months in. I got landed with a client who wanted an ecommerce site overhaul – they were difficult from the very start, but I ignored the warning signs and took on the work anyway. It was 2 months of work, and to cut along story short the only money I ever got was the initial 25% deposit. That project totally consumed my 2 month “buffer” cash that I had saved up, and the business very nearly went under. The worst part was that I didn’t have the money to take them to court – so I definitely learned my lesson there, don’t ignore the red flags!

As for the highest point – I’m currently working with Virgin Atlantic on a fairly big piece of work for them, which has been an amazing experience! They’ve got a really great team of people working for their new travel division, and I’m sure they’re going to make some waves in the online travel community in 2010.

Johns company Lyrical Media is going from strength to strength.

Q3. Do you have a favourite project you’ve worked on at Lyrical Media?

Aside from that current one, I was also very fortunate to be commissioned for some design work by international video games publisher Ubisoft at the end of 2009 – which I had a huge amount of fun working on. It’s always an honour to be specifically sought out by any company, but when it’s a big company it’s definitely something special!

Q4. Not a lot of design companies, even freelancers, are as open when it comes to speaking about their business. Do you think this is one of the reasons why people connect with your blog so well?

Another great question, and I think the answer has to be a resounding ‘yes’. I don’t think I’ve ever actually mentioned this in writing before, but the reason I decided to blog so extensively about setting up my own business was almost entirely down to Adii over at WooThemes.

I’ve been following Adii for years now, before he was even “the woothemes guy” – and he used to write a blog a lot like mine back in the day! I remember on post in particular when he first moved into some new office space that both inspired me and made me really jealous at the same time. At the time of course those offices were for Radiiate, his design studio, but those same offices nowadays are known as “WooHQ”.

I’m a big fan of open and honest blogs that might actually help people, so I try to make mine like that as much as possible.

John uses his personal site to speak about his experiences, attracting thousands of readers

Q5. You’ve got quite a following on Twitter John. What role, if any, does it play in your business?

Twitter is probably my biggest asset as a business owner, I never imagined how much of a role it would play in my life when I first hit that “sign up” button a few years ago. I won’t harp on about it too much, but the network that I’ve built up through Twitter is second to none and I’ve “met” so many great people.

When I’m next at a point where I’m ready to take on more staff – I won’t be putting out job advertisements, I’ll be asking people who I know, like, and have already established a good relationship with over a period of time – which I think will ultimately be a lot better than the traditional way, where you basically hire a complete stranger with some crap written down on a piece of paper called a “CV” that doesn’t really mean anything.

John uses Twitter to connect with the community and has over 5,000 followers!

Q6. Do you have any main sources of inspiration for your work?

My answer to this used to be the standard “CSS galleries, blah blah blah” but in the last 6 months or so I’ve really moved away from that. I think the industry has gotten to a point now where the trends set by the top designers have become far too strong. All it takes is for someone like Elliot Jay Stocks or Tim Van Damme to use a new type of texture or alignment, and a month later 50 more sites pop up using the same thing.

For that reason these days I try to get a lot of inspiration from offline sources like print, packaging, photography, architecture, etc.

Q7. What’s a typical day in the life of John O’Nolan?

This really varies from month to month, but at the moment it consists of waking up at 8, getting my girlfriend to work, and then starting my working day back in my home-office. This usually begins with catching up on emails and accounts, then getting into some client work. When the afternoon rolls around I keep going on client work if it’s big project, otherwise this is when I make time to do blogging and any side-projects that I’m working on.

My evening usually consists of catching up on industry publications and business books, as well as continuing to work on my many side-projects!

Q8. What’s been on your DVD and MP3 players lately?

At the moment I’m loving the Paramore album as well as the new You Me At Six album – thought I’ve been told that both of those lower my “street-cred”. I’m not a big one for movies, but I do love american TV series, so at the moment I’m watching a lot of Nip/Tuck, Caprica, Entourage, and Lost!

John's been listening to a little bit of Paramore lately

Q9. Finally, is there any advice you can give to aspiring freelancers that are thinking of going it alone?

My biggest piece of advice to anyone going-it-alone is to choose your clients, don’t let them choose you. Do whatever it takes to get the enquiries coming in, and then pick out the ones who you want to work with. Pitching for business and having the client choose you out of a number of different studios is the worst way to go about it, and almost always leads to problems further down the line because the client is determined to micromanage the project.

Build up a reputation for yourself and your company – the clients who seek you out specifically to work with you because they love your stuff are always the best ones to work with.

You can see what John’s up to over at john.onolan.org and www.lyricalmedia.com.

Tags: Interview, John O'Nolan, Lyrical Media

28 Responses to “An Interview With Web Designer & Entrepreneur John O’Nolan”

Michael Savage

15. Mar, 2010

Good interview John! Must say I actually enjoyed reading this
Alex Aguilar

16. Mar, 2010

It is nice to see people who make money doing what they love most
Website Design Surrey

12. Apr, 2010

Cool interview, he has good taste in music, and real nice designs of course!
Ross Lund - Mankato PC Solutions

13. Apr, 2010

I agree…. nice designs..
LocoMind

30. Apr, 2010

I like his website a lot!
Rob T

06. May, 2010

I agree, his website is sharp. I like the style. Nice to learn about John.
Money Man

13. May, 2010

Andrea, it is a great post thanks for posting it!
Web Design Las Vegas

14. May, 2010

That’s an creative and interactive interview.

You truly look as an artist in yourself.
dwayne

16. May, 2010

Congrats on starting your business and making it through the tough times.
Scranton Web Design

25. May, 2010

Way to go John! My biggest nightmare was from an Ecommerce Client as well.
Web Design Blackpool

04. Jul, 2010

Hating who you work for – definitely a reason for going solo . Not really found twitter as a source of clients from my experience…
Web Design Norwich

18. Jul, 2010

Great guy and very influential interview, thanks for the interview and blog!
Victoria Blount

23. Jul, 2010

This is a truly insightful interview, like others i found it a very enjoyable read and i can relate to John. I think by acknowledging that his business nearly went under before it had a chance, because of a poor choice of client, is very honest and bearing that in mind will help potential freelancers more than any other interview i have read before.
Venkatesh

24. Jul, 2010

Best of luck for your own company ambition John.. Nice reading your experiences and the way of your explanation… Most of web designers and web developers having the same ambitions like you to step into their own business.. Sure who are having experience and good knowledge they will achieve their ambitions.. Sure will return to your blog for another update..

Venkatesh – Gulfwebstudio.com
Deeho Web Design

16. Aug, 2010

This is an awesome interview, somewhat inspiring and a pleasure to read.

P.S. Gotta love Paramore, who cares if they’re not cred-worthy, they’re awesome!
Adrian Grossett

08. Sep, 2010

Thanks for John – your a true inspiration! Good interview – you answer all them questions fully and in detail.
Robbin Thorat

06. Oct, 2010

Hey, great post – I am a web designer and developer, on a day-to-day basis I work in a variety of projects for a broad range of different clients all wanting different styles. Recently I designed a minimalist website for one of my clients which looked great…
Gennie Robinso

18. Oct, 2010

been visiting your blog for 3 days. absolutely love your posts. by the way i’m doing a study relating to this subject. do you know any other good sites or maybe online forums where I might get more info? thanks a ton.
Spokane web design

21. Oct, 2010

Very informative interview, I think it is actually a good thing that he ran into a problematic ecommerce design in the beginning It is a good experience to go through (most freelancers or just starting out web design companies will) to have a client flake out on payment or be difficult. Having these types of clients early can help you sniff out future problems before they happen. Glad to see he got past it and is moving on successfully.
khaqan

08. Nov, 2010

what is this radio thingy on your ear? are you an irobot?
Web Design Worlingham

21. Dec, 2010

Good luck with everything, good luck to all web design, hopefully with some implementation of HTML5 we will see some more rigidity in web development which will standardise a lot of our code which allows us more time to focus on stunning designs!

Great interview, and no offence at all, but you do look like a web design! Designed yourself.
Theo

13. Jan, 2011

Nice interview,i really enjoy it!
Graphic Zen

27. Apr, 2011

Great Guy! Thanks for sharing your ideas..The speed and innovation of Internet technology creates a variety of marketing opportunities for your business. Designing an interactive business website helps establish your brand and reputation. It may sound simple but getting the design right is a critical element to those who are new to online business.
Sweb

05. May, 2011

All praise for the beautiful design and clarity. Also the content is nicely arranged and in place.
Billie Moret

02. Jun, 2011

I keep listening towards the news converse about obtaining totally free on line grant applications so I’ve been trying about for the very best internet site to obtain one. Thank you for the help!