Websites While U Wait opens in Guilderland

The Enterprise — Michael Koff

Two generations, one focus: Alexandra Fasulo, at left, and her mother, Lisa Fasulo, look over a website they are designing at their new store.

GUILDERLAND – Websites While U Wait — a mother-and-daughter shop that opened on May 1 in Guilderland’s Carpenter Plaza — is a unique business idea: a brick-and-mortar shop where customers can have their websites designed and launched for them on the spot, says owner Lisa Fasulo.

“I like sitting down with the client,” said Fasulo, because the client can say, ‘Oh, I like that’ or ‘I don’t like that.’”

Fasulo has been collaborating over the last two years with older daughter Alexandra Fasulo on the founding of their Brooklyn-based company, SocialMe Media, which provides social media management, branding, and content management.

Websites While U Wait, located at 2568 Western Ave., grew naturally out of SocialMe Media, Fasulo said, when it occurred to her that there were not many storefront businesses specializing in website design.

Websites of about three to five pages can be created while the customer waits, although content-heavier sites may require more time.

When they leave, customers will have “a fully functioning, live website,” Fasulo said.

A basic website costs roughly from $100 to $150 per page, Fasulo said. So, in some cases, a complete website can be built for as little as $300 to $500.

The service also includes a complimentary one-hour class on how to update, change, or add new content — useful, Fasulo said, for a business that wants to, for instance, announce events or new services.

One of the best features of her work, Fasulo said, is that she takes out the websites in the customer’s name, so there is no middleman and the customer retains complete control of the site. “The customer can go off and change the password, and I can never access it again,” Fasulo said. There are no hidden or ongoing fees, she said.

Located in Carpenter Plaza, at the intersection of Route 146 and Western Avenue, the business will also use the talents of Fasulo’s two daughters. Alexandra Fasulo, 24, who lives in Brooklyn, will come to town regularly to teach social-media classes at the shop including one on how to advertise on Facebook and another on why clients should blog and how to do it.

Younger daughter Allegra, 21, who will graduate this spring from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a major in entrepreneurial studies, will also have a hand in the shop, Fasulo said. Allegra Fasulo is is an “Instagram influencer,” her mother said, explaining that influencers have so many Instagram followers that companies pay them to mention or wear their products in their posts. Allegra, who has over 23,000 followers on her feed at @allegraparis, will teach a class on Instagram influencing and may help out with website design.

Lisa Fasulo had designed her own website for the tattoo school she established locally — initially, out of her Altamont home — and ran for many years. She credits her website with much of the success of her tattoo school. Most recently, the tattoo school was located within Austin’s School of Beauty on Central Avenue in Albany, but it closed down when Austin’s closed its doors about a year ago.

“I have been designing websites since the late 1990s, and managing my own website since that time, and I could always see how advantageous the right website is,” Fasulo said.

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