Hey, I'm Ryan.

I run B-Side Projects. Before this I fixed elevators and cranes for a living.

Fifteen years on the tools.

I started as an elevator mechanic before swapping to heavy duty tech, building crane trucks from the frame up. I drew the schematics myself, and tested each finished truck before it left the shop. When a crane came back broken in February, I was the guy outside fixing it where it sat.

I also serviced crane and rigging equipment for outfits like Altalink, N-Force and T-Clay, so I've sat on the other side of the counter from the owners I work with now. Along the way there was hydraulics, metal fabrication, forklifts, and electrical from low voltage to high. I know what a shop day costs, and how much of the phone ringing comes down to one person's name.

The side hustle that took over.

I built my first website at eleven, in the late 1900s.

I kept building them on the side through the trades years, and in 2020 I took it full time. Since then I've run an agency helping mid-sized businesses.

The owners I understand best are the ones with equipment and a shop floor, and most of them have been sold a website at some point by someone who had never held a wrench.

How I find what's wrong.

When something breaks, I look at what changed.

A website that stopped bringing in work is the same problem as a hydraulic circuit that stopped holding pressure. Something moved, and once you find it and fix the cause, you stop replacing parts.

The other shop habit is that whatever gets built, the next guy has to be able to maintain it. Most of the sites I see in the trades were built once and never touched again, because nobody was ever asked to look after them.

Get to know me.

Learn more about me and how I think on my personal site.

ryanstogran.com →