We had the good fortune of connecting with Ronen Hirsch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ronen, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Many people are unaware of the time and amount of work that goes into a website. It’s not just choosing any design, pasting in some content and launching the website. 

A lot of time and effort goes into realizing the potential for a specific business, designing the website so that it best represents the business, their services and products that they’re selling. On top of that, the user experience (UX) of the website needs to be spot on in order to ensure that the visitors stay on the site, get the information that they’re looking for and find value in the business and their products or services. That’s what makes the website a success and a positive return on their investment. 

On the technical side, we as developers need to make sure that the site works on all browsers and devices, function properly with various integrations that they may require and also make sure that search engines will properly index the site. Especially when building custom solutions, there is a lot of work to ensure accuracy in all aspects of the project.

It’s also using our expertise to recommend and implement a variety of functionalities that can elevate the site and help grow your business – whether it’s a service based business or an e-commerce store.

There are many things that need to be considered that can be listed here, but one should know that even though they can get a website built for even a few hundred dollars, it most probably won’t fulfill their needs without a thought-out and detailed process.

What should our readers know about your business?
I started Studio Umbrella Inc. in 2005 after I completed my design education at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and moved back to Israel. I actually was trained as a product (conceptual and industrial) designer, but with my previous knowledge, skills and interest in computer-based design and programming, I built a website for myself, then for my girlfriend, then another friend and so on and realized that I’m good at this and very much enjoy it AND I get paid to do it! So I just continued on that path.

We design and develop websites in a variety of industries which includes business/corporate websites and e-commerce stores, but also create custom solutions for businesses to help them automate tasks that take up a lot of manual time (i.e. customer management or managing product returns). Our expertise includes Shopify, WordPress and custom development.

Our passion is to create websites with a custom design and code and not to simply install a pre-built theme which we can do, but find a bit boring.  

When I moved out to LA about 6 years ago, I started focusing more on the business aspects of how to grow and get better clients and more interesting projects. It was something that I didn’t really pay attention to while in Israel. There, I would get work, perform the work and move on, but without a business sense or strategy and lacked adding value to my clients. 

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, now during the days of COVID, it’s very limiting and more difficult to really take advantage of this city and enjoy what she has to offer. 

But if we ignore this temporary setback, I would take my friends and family  to numerous restaurants (especially to get some good Sushi but also to old-school diners and good Mexican food), go on short hikes especially up in Griffith Park to take in the amazing views, go to the Echo Park Lake (close to where we lived during our first year here). I also have a little “tourist route” in DTLA that I put together which I’ve taken friends and family to see the history and beauty of the district – I love that area. But most importantly, I love the music concerts here. There’s such a variety and love to take advantage of that, so if the timing is right, and there’s a good show in town, that will be on the list!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout goes to my wife, Galia, who has supported me through the tougher times when business was slow, but also during better times. She’s the one with whom I shared my thoughts, dreams and doubts about my business, and also about how to handle certain clients or situations. Since I run the business alone, I don’t have another partner to discuss various matters with, so it’s always great to have her by my side and to help me make sense of things.

I also learned a lot from enrolling in a program called WP Elevation which helps website solopreneurs grow their business, and also the wealth of articles, videos and other forms of training out there in the internet helped me a lot.

Website: https://www.studioumbrella.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio.umbrella/ and my personal is https://www.instagram.com/ronenhirsch/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronenhirsch/ and the business is https://www.linkedin.com/company/studioumbrella
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/web.umbrella

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