We had the good fortune of connecting with Ish Laos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ish, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
First of all it’s an honor and a privilege to be featured here on ShoutOut Atlanta, so thank you!  As my website design business started picking up over the years, I found that I slowly let my work take over my life. I was answering late night text messages, returning emails and answering phone calls well past 5pm and even on weekends. The work eventually caught up to me and I found myself having lots of anxiety and stress, but at the time, I didn’t put the two together. For some reason I was always convinced that if I didn’t answer that one email, or return that one missed call within the first 30 seconds (a bit of an exaggeration), that it would irritate the client to no end, and make me appear irresponsible somehow. It was my wife Bonnie that made me aware that work was taking over my life and that I needed to put the phone down and shut down the laptop at 5pm, essentially, unplug. She would tell me not to worry- that the sky would not fall if I reached out to the client the next business day. At first it was a bit difficult to let go of my habits, but after a while I started to see the benefits. I started to become a better father and husband to my family and actually started to enjoy my time off away from work. And to my surprise, my clients wouldn’t even bat an eye when I communicated with them the next business day. It was all in my head. Knowing when to stop is also good for your overall health and productivity. You actually work better and more creatively when your head is clear.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I run a web design company primarily. I also started a virtual tour company. The website design company is called Webstuffguy.com. If you were to ask me what sets us apart, I would say that it would be my commitment as the owner, to be a part of any project personally, from the beginning to the end. Our company is also the highest reviewed 5-starred website design company on Google for the city of Atlanta, GA. The reason for our success was that I was able to get our website to appear on Google searches on the first page, and towards the very top. So, the phone calls started coming in and haven’t stopped since. Clients were soon asking us to help them get to the top of Google searches for their own company, and I became pretty good at it. Some of the takeaway lessons I learned through the years is that any bad situation can be easily turned around simply by having strong communication between you and the client. There is nothing like picking up the phone and talking through a problem. Email communication can oftentimes be misinterpreted and sometimes you incorrectly capture the emotion of the person on the other side, and can lead to trouble.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There is without a doubt, one place we always go whenever visitors come to town- and that is Truist Park (also known as The Battery), home of the Atlanta Braves in Cobb County, GA. We were excited when the Braves moved to Cobb County, as it’s just an 8 minute ride from our house and there is a lot to do there. We also enjoy taking our out of town friends and family to Ponce City Market. They have a massive food court filled with every cuisine you can imagine and the building provides scenic views of Atlanta from the rooftop. You can even play some miniature golf and enjoy some drinks while you’re up there. Finally there is the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere with over 10 million gallons of water. We always tell our company to put on a good pair of tennis shoes and get ready for a whole lot of walking!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife Bonnie definitely deserves all of the credit to my success, and I thank her for it. She is the voice of reason whenever I have a dilemma to work through, or if I am ever overloaded with work. She is even very tech-savvy. She used to be a Windows Engineer before she became a full-time mom. So, there are times where I am really stuck with an application or a program, and rely on her skills to help me break through. She actually loves the challenge, whereas I am a huge stress ball over it!

And then finally there are our clients. Our clients could easily choose to go with any other website design and SEO company here in Atlanta, but they chose to use us instead. We have clients that range from law firms to daycare centers, and everything in between! The ultimate goal is to get their online presence up and running, and we won’t stop until they get there!

Website: webstuffguy.com
Twitter: @webstuffguy.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WebStuffGuy
Other: My two other websites: www.360-virtual.com and www.atlantadronepros.com

Image Credits
Daemon Baizan

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