about LBD

About Leila

Hello! My name is Leila and I own and operate Lightning Bug Designs out of my Virginia home office. At any given time, I may have my 5-year-old daughter, my husband, my mom (who lives downstairs) and/or our two Australian Shepherd mix dogs running in and out of my office. It can get a little crazy over here!

I kind of stumbled into the web design industry quite by accident! I taught myself web design so that I could create websites for my crafts-based businesses. After a bit, I found I was designing websites for more and more friends and acquaintences. I was officially in business in 2006 and have made more than 200 websites since! I love the technical and creative aspects of what I do, as well as helping other women and moms (mostly...there have been a few fellas along the way!) achieve their dream of business ownership as I have mine. Being your own boss is HARD WORK, but is so amazing. I hope to help everyone that wants a chance to try it on for size!

In addition to running Lightning Bug Designs, I own a small jewelry design business that is the main fundraiser for our Ethiopian adoption. We're hoping to bring home our 3-year-old son home before Christmas 2010. And when I'm not making websites or jewelry, you can probably find me behind my Nikon as I'm also an aspiring photographer! Of course, that's in addition to being a wife and mother, hanging out with our friends and being active in our church.

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about all of that. I better go take a nap so that I'll be nice and refreshed for your website project. =)

LBD Mission

I have owned my own crafts-based businesses as well as doing web design. What does this mean to YOU? It means that I have firsthand knowledge of the ins-and-outs of owning an indie business and know how to tailor Zen Cart for crafters. I know how strong and wonderful the indie business community is and I'm committed to enhancing it however I can. I've even written a personal mission statement to guide along our way.

I want to give back to the crafting community by providing access to professional website design to businesses without gigantic budgets.
I want to symbiotically support and empower WAHMs (work-at-home moms), SAHMs (stay-at-home moms) and other family orientded, creative, independent businesses as that's how I support my own family!
I hope to create websites that are very user-friendly and intuitive and to help provide graphic design that represents the personality and philosophy of the business owner.
I want to make the web design process fun and lighthearted. The way it should be!
I hope that we can incorporate into our work together the sense of childlike wonderment you feel watching glittering lightning bugs in the summer evenings because making beautiful crafts by hand is a magical process and your website should convey those feelings!

Giving Back

I'm a big believer in giving back to the community, whether it's my local community of the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area or the global community. I'm a strong supporter of Kiva.org, which enables you to lend as little as $25 to an entrepreuner in a developing country. When your loan is repaid, pay it forward by lending it to another entrepreneur! Through Kiva and Lightning Bug Designs, I've been blessed enough to be able to loan to make 70+ loans over the past couple years. A portion of each project goes to make another loan to help a woman across the world realize her dream of owning a business and taking care of her family. All thanks to you!

If you aren't already familiar with Kiva, please take a minute to go check it out!