Sharon Dawkins

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is Sharon Dawkins, and I’m the owner of Pixel Studio Designs. I’m from New Jersey and have lived throughout South Jersey, including Cape May, Atlantic, and Camden counties. Today, I call Washington Township in Gloucester County home.

I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. Even as a little kid drawing, I knew I wanted to do something creative for a living. For a while, I thought that would be animation, but I ended up studying web design in 2002 and discovered how much I enjoyed the technical side, too.

I’ve never really thought of myself as right-brained or left-brained. I feel like I use both, and web design gives me a place to bring those sides together. That’s where my tagline, “style meets code,” comes from.

What I’ve discovered about myself is that I love creating, whether that’s art, a system, or something that makes someone’s life easier. I enjoy the process of figuring it out and bringing it to life even more than seeing the finished product.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

What I love most is the diversity, both in the people and in the places around us. If you want a beach day, you can be at the shore in about an hour. Philadelphia is about 20 minutes away, and New York is roughly two hours away. We also have farms all around us and beautiful little downtowns like Collingswood when you feel like walking along a quaint Main Street.

That variety extends to the businesses, too. You can work with someone building a business out of their garage and someone else in a Philadelphia high-rise. There are so many different people, ideas, and ways of life here. I love having access to all of that while still having a place that feels like home. Whatever you’re in the mood for, you can usually find it within reach.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

Before starting my business, I worked on websites for the Courier-Post and AAA South Jersey. In 2008, I decided I needed to be home to meet my family’s needs, and building a business gave me a way to continue doing work I loved while raising my children. The business went through a few different names in its early years, but it has been Pixel Studio Designs for about 15 years now.

This industry has changed enormously since I started. Platforms have come and gone, coding practices have evolved, and the way people use websites has changed right along with them. I’ve had to keep learning new tools, systems, and approaches to design throughout my career. I enjoy that part of the work. There’s always something to figure out, and that experience helps me make better decisions for my clients.

Today, Pixel Studio Designs creates websites for businesses with a wide range of needs and budgets. I recently introduced Pixel Studio Templates, which includes a builder where business owners can personalize a professionally designed website themselves, with technical setup and launch handled for them. It gives someone who is just getting a business off the ground an affordable way to establish a professional online presence. I also design and develop larger custom websites for companies with extensive content, more complex functionality, and specific business requirements.

A big part of my job is helping clients make sense of all the decisions involved. I help organize their content, make their services easy to find, and build websites that work across phones, tablets, and computers. I also handle technical details such as hosting, domain connections, and migrations, along with on-page SEO to help search engines understand their content.

Once a website launches, I offer ongoing maintenance, updates, and support. My goal is to give clients a website that reflects their business and makes things easier for both them and their customers, with someone they can turn to when they need help.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Don’t wait until everything is perfect before you start. One piece of advice that has always stuck with me is how easily waiting for perfection can keep you from ever beginning.

I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years, and I’m still changing systems, learning new things, and adjusting how I work. As your business grows, your needs change, technology changes, and you discover better ways to do things. There will always be something to improve.

Give yourself permission to start with what you know and build from there. You’re going to learn things along the way that you couldn’t have figured out by planning alone. You don’t need to have every detail worked out to take the first step. You just have to begin.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

I’ve been fortunate to receive wonderful feedback throughout my career, and some of my client relationships have grown into friendships. When you work together for years, you get to know about each other’s families, hear about vacations, and share what’s happening in your lives. The relationship becomes about more than the website.

One client I’ve worked with for over a decade has become a very good friend. Whatever she’s working on, she reaches out to me. What has stayed with me most is how much confidence she has in my ability to figure things out, sometimes more than I have in myself.

Technology moves so quickly that it’s easy to look around and feel like someone else knows more or has a bigger team and wonder whether you measure up. Through her feedback and her continued trust, she’s reminded me that I know more than I give myself credit for and that some of the limitations I feel are ones I’ve put on myself.

I can’t narrow it down to one particular compliment. It’s years of someone trusting my judgment, coming back with new ideas, and making me feel capable of taking them on. That has meant a lot to me.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I see Pixel Studio Designs growing through more of what I already love about it. I enjoy working closely with my clients, getting to know their businesses, and building relationships that last for years. I want to build more of those relationships and become more involved in the local business community.

A lot of that growth starts with me, putting myself out there, sharing my work, and doing things like this interview. I’ve spent so much of my career behind the scenes, and I’m ready to let more people get to know the person behind Pixel Studio Designs.

I’d also love to grow a small team over time. I already bring in people with specialized expertise when a project calls for it, and I’d like to develop more of those working relationships. Having a few trusted people working alongside me would let us take on more projects and offer clients a wider range of support while keeping the personal connection that I value so much.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

One misconception I’ve run into is that working with websites means you know how to do everything involving a computer. I’ve been asked about computer repairs and setting up office networks, which are their own specialties. I understand how those assumptions happen. From the outside, it can all look like the same kind of work.

Even within the website industry, the titles can be confusing. A designer focuses on how a website looks and how people experience it. A developer builds the functionality that makes it work. Some people specialize in one area, and others, like me, work across both.

My work brings together design, development, and the technical details involved in launching and maintaining a website. Knowing where my expertise fits also means knowing when to bring in someone with a different specialty. Understanding what a project needs and getting the right people involved is part of doing the job well.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

One of my biggest struggles has been putting myself out there. I’m an introvert by nature, and I’m most comfortable behind my computer, designing, coding, and bringing things to life. Marketing myself means stepping into a much more visible role, and that has been intimidating.

I can help a client communicate what makes their business special, but doing that for myself has been harder. Posting on social media, introducing myself at a networking event, or sharing my accomplishments can bring up that fear of being seen and judged. For a long time, I let that keep me behind the scenes.

I’m dealing with it by taking small steps, joining the local Chamber of Commerce, reaching out to people, sharing more of my work, and participating in interviews like this one. Having something specific to talk about, like a project I enjoyed or a problem I helped a client solve, makes it easier.

It’s still something I’m working on. I love what I do, and I want the business to grow, so I’m learning to give people the chance to get to know me and my work, even when putting myself out there feels uncomfortable.

Who was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

I didn’t have a favorite athlete growing up. As for music, in high school I leaned toward goth and grunge, with favorites like The Cure and Portishead. These days, my taste in music is eclectic. My Spotify playlists cover a little bit of everything.

Where can our readers learn more about you and your company?

You can learn more about Pixel Studio Designs, explore my portfolio, and get in touch at PixelStudioDesigns.com. For new businesses looking for an affordable website they can personalize themselves, visit PixelStudioTemplates.com.