Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Schneider.
Hi Benjamin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey begins in theater. I went to college and completed my master’s in arts administration, thinking that I would be Broadway Bound. I made it to New York but found myself uninspired to pound the pavement and felt that working at a theater would be better than performing. I started out in a ticket services department and then made my way to box office work. After a few years, I was again uninspired and wanted to be able to continue moving up in life. I became an executive assistant, and after a few years, I happened to volunteer to help our Web Developer on some projects and found myself in awe of coding and figuring out problems with the code to make everything work on the site.
A year or so, I managed to create a brand-new position and started a totally new professional path. I began to create pages for clients who were in need of a promotional site to be able to find jobs in their fields, mostly in Voice Casting. It was nice to be able to help them produce a quality product that they would be able to continue to update as time went on. I was pushed by my friend and classmate from college, Kelly Moscinski, who owns The Voicecaster, a prestigious voice-casting studio in Burbank. She wanted to know if I would be interested in updating their site, and after a few years, she invited me to work on her social media feeds and manage the website. During this process, students from her workshops started to reach out to me wanted to create a promotional site for their demos.
The niche I created for myself provides a service that many in my field may not want to take part in as they are relatively smaller projects than large-scale website creations. But it is necessary to provide a reasonable product to those who may be at a disadvantage to pay top dollar for larger companies.
As I keep looking forward and building my client list, I am excited to see the path forward and hope to be able to continue my work and bring exciting products to the world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been a few struggles along the way, one being the length of time between clients and trying to figure out ways to get my name out there. Recently I was laid off from my full-time job and found myself at another crossroads since my web development service was not my full-time gig. This added more stress and uncertainty about the future but provides me an opportunity to bring forward my Develop It Ben business.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in providing reasonable website development for clients in the voice-acting world and beyond. I am most proud of the work I did in creating a new brand and site for The Voicecaster. It was a challenge as it was a large-scale project. I am also proud that I am able to help voice-over artist improve their careers with a demo site that they can share with casting directors. Finding a niche to help provide this service helps artists to be able to get a product they can use that is not expensive and easy to operate so they can focus on other activities.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Every time I’ve had a product with a new client, I am consistently told how patient I am, listening to the client and what their dream site would be. I listen to their needs and wants and am able to find ways to create a beautiful work of art that they can enjoy and be excited about. I know how frustrating it can be to create a website on your own with no knowledge of where to begin, and I try to make it a smooth trip for the client.
Pricing:
- $300-$400 – small personal demo sites
- $500+ – larger scale web pages
Contact Info:
- Website: www.developitben.com
Image Credits
Benjamin Schneider
