About Us

futureProof Sites is the brainchild of Bex Esler and Nick Dawson, based in Gisborne, N.Z. We are a small team of two working online to make functional,  easy to browse, personalised websites for tradies and small businesses, across New Zealand and Australia.  Bex aka ‘The Brain’ is our Graphic and Website designer, while Nick is responsible for customer care, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Online and Offline Marketing  and Social Media Management.
meet nick

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER

Before learning the craft of SEO and Online Marketing I worked as a painter and ran my own painting company for years, until my neck and shoulder wore out from rolling too many ceilings ( this was before everyone had an airless sprayer ). I was one of the first guys in my area to have a website, which really gave me an edge over my competition.

 

Since I was the only painter in town with a website I would get calls from out-of-town home owners from Australia, the UK and the other ends of the county needing their holiday homes or rental properties re-painted. I would also get calls from people who were moving to town and building their dream home cos they’d just sold up in the city and made a fortune. These new leads combined with my local word of mouth referrals meant I always had work, so much so that I got better at choosing jobs and turning some away or passing them on.

 

The benefit of having jobs booked in for out-of town owners is that generally there’s no specific time frame to get them done and there is nobody living there. These types of jobs are awesome to have in your back pocket for when you encounter delays on other jobs. We all know what its like to turn away work because you think your starting a big job on Monday, and then on Friday the builder rings up and tells you the jib stoppers are two weeks behind schedule, or the scaffolding is gonna be a week late and so on and so on.

meet bex

WEBSITE/GRAPHIC DESIGNER

I graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications) in 2005 in Christchurch, NZ. After working for 6 years within online marketing companies with large scale teams and projects in New Zealand and Australia, I eventually found myself living in the beautiful town of Gisborne, NZ.

 

I’ve always had a fairly strategic, mathematical and creative mind, (I’m an ideas person) and love connecting with new people. Moving from corporate work to freelancing allowed me to find my happy niche – website design for small business – a perfect mix of numbers, code, creativity and communicating. I really enjoy connecting with passionate business owners, grasping their vision and helping turn their ideas and dreams into reality.

 

A lot has changed over the 13 years that I have been working in the online world; coding websites from scratch has adapted to using platforms such a WordPress, which means I can offer complete websites solutions without needing to rely on expensive programmers. And the result is a robust and functional website which can adapt and grow with you and your business.

happy clients