Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate H..
Hi Nate, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In June of 2023 while I was still fully employed as an IT Support Analyst I felt the desire to create a side hustle to allow me to use my creativity and passion for small businesses. Little did I know that 6 months later I would be laid off from my job due to a reduction in force. That was the moment where my little side hustle got real. I had to face a lot of the challenges that I now help other small business owners navigate.
Fast forward to 2025.
I’ve got three sons under the age of nine and we’re running a business from my home office. Life is loud, unpredictable, and definitely not easy, but I still firmly believe that I am right where I should be. Being an entrepreneur is messy, lines get blurred between work hours and life hours easily (usually work is bleeding into what should have been home-life hours), but it’s also the American dream at its finest: balancing family life and being an integral part of the community around me.
When I first started out, the thought of trying to provide for my family through my side hustle was daunting. Starting out is like being at the bottom of the mountain and thinking, “how am I ever going to get to the top?” I had to wear all the hats to get things going, from marketing, tech support, customer service, and then actually creating my products (great websites) while still making time for baseball games, bedtime tuck-ins, and the dishes. But what I realized as a B2B owner is that all of my clients were facing the same struggles and my unique tech background enabled me to help them with more than just a great website, so I created my second company Strategic IT Services to better support my clients (https://strategicitsupport.com).
With the economy as tumultuous as it is now, I have seen a lot of people posting on social media to try and grow their side hustles because they are now being forced to turn them into their main income. Not because they wanted to, but because they had to; much like me in 2024.
Those are my people. The ones I support, cheer for, and build for. People like me — just trying to make it.
Through my businesses, I help small business owners with their websites and IT support. My goal is simple: help them get more business and bring back some balance by taking a few of those heavy tasks off their shoulders — so they can finally breathe again and enjoy the baseball games or bedtime snuggles.
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?
No business startup is a smooth road. I think the idea that you can create a great company without opposition is silly. The number one issue I had at the start was that I didn’t know how to get my product in front of my ideal clients’ eyes. I didn’t even know who my ideal client was. Learning to market was more than just SEO or posting to social media, it was figuring out who my people were and how to connect with them.
Another big obstacle was just myself. I brought my fears and struggles into my business and I had to work on growing myself in order to see my business also grow. I had to overcome my fear of direct marketing and possibly being rejected, I had to stop trying to undersell myself and recognize that I have a great business and that I actually do know what I’m doing. But all of these struggles have really enabled me to coach and support my clients in more than just tech advice. I know their struggles as a small business owners well, and in a way I like to think of myself as their co-worker who can commiserate with them or celebrate with them.
We’ve been impressed with Spring Hill Web Designs, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In short, I create incredible websites that work 24/7 to grow my clients’ businesses. They aren’t just attractive, they’re functional. They allow for bookings, chatbots, blogs, contact forms, and more. My websites are totally different from a lot of the WordPress based sites out there. They are “static” so they load faster, rank better with Google, and offer better security to my client’s data (since they don’t have clunky plug-ins that can be hacked).
I also never outsource any of the web design to freelancers who are in other countries. My websites are custom-coded American made for American businesses. My goal is always to get my clients to the point where they can’t handle their influx of clients and also have to hire me for my business automation services. I think what sets me apart from a lot of the other website companies is all of the personal touches that go into my work. I know my clients’ businesses well. I take time to learn their pain points, mission statements, and future goals so that I can create websites and automation and tech support services that really support their growth.
The biggest thing I want your readers to know is that if you find yourself in the same shoes as me in 2023, where I had to figure out how to be a business owner fast, there is support available and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. I have subscription-based website packages that are some of the most affordable quality websites you’ll find anywhere, not to mention the fact that they are 100% secure and American made. It’s hard enough starting a business, and most of the time new entrepreneurs don’t have $3,500 to spend on a website, this is why I offer my subscription packages at affordable rates (as low as $150/month). See link for more details: https://www.springhillwebdesigns.com/pricing
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We’re in the middle of one of the biggest shifts the web world has ever seen. We are moving from traditional “look-at-me” websites to automated, working websites that actually do something for the business owner.
AI is also changing everything. Not just how websites are built, but in how customers find businesses in the first place. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are starting to replace search engines for a lot of people. Instead of seeing a list of 100 Google results, users are now getting just a few recommendations from AI. So, if your business isn’t showing up in that one answer, you might be invisible.
That’s why I believe the future of web design is going to be less about flashy layouts and more about smart strategy — optimizing for AI search (AEO), automation, and authentic connection (https://www.springhillwebdesigns.com/aeo/).
In the next decade, I’m guessing that small business owners will expect their websites to do more of the heavy lifting — things like scheduling, quoting, lead nurturing, and follow-ups automatically. My goal is to stay on the front edge of that, helping businesses not only look professional online but also work smarter behind the scenes.
The bottom line? The web design industry is shifting from creating pretty websites to creating productive ones.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.springhillwebdesigns.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Spring-Hill-Web-Designs/61573719517230/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spring-hill-web-designs/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/spring-hill-web-designs-spring-hill
- Other: https://goo.gl/maps/hizPMVqdfDtW1x2Q7
