For National Small Business Week, we’re spotlighting Andrea Carter, a Canadian graphic designer who has built a resilient freelance career on creativity, grit, and the power of long-term relationships. There’s a certain kind of small business owner who doesn’t fit neatly into a box, and Andrea Carter is one of them.
She grew up in a small town in the interior of British Columbia, the kind of place, she says, where nobody talked about graphic design or marketing. Yet somehow, she always knew that’s where she was headed.
“I knew I wanted to do some design or marketing, but I didn’t even know what that was,” she recalls. “In the town where I grew up, people didn’t even talk about that.”
That quiet certainty eventually carried her to Edmonton, then to Chile, then to Spain, then back to Canada, and then to Chile again, where she still lives today, running her graphic design business, Andrea Carter Design, as a one-person operation, serving clients she’s held on to for decades.
Meet Andrea: The Generalist Who Does It All
Andrea describes herself as a “generalist,” and she means it. Her portfolio spans book covers, infographics, annual reports, illustrations, identity design, and long-form documents. She works primarily with the Adobe suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) and adapts to whatever her clients need, whether that’s Figma, Canva, or Adobe Express.
“I’d like to say I can do a little bit of everything for you,” she says. “That may be the only thing that sets me apart.”
In an industry where many designers are encouraged to specialize narrowly, Andrea’s breadth is her signature. She’s particularly drawn to environmental and social-impact work, the kind of projects that align with her values, not just her skill set.
Alongside her design work, Andrea is also a fiction writer, publishing literary novels set in South America under a pen name. She’s currently working on two new manuscripts. It’s a creative life lived fully and largely on her own terms.
A Business Built on Word of Mouth & 20-Year Relationships
Andrea has never relied heavily on advertising or social media to find clients. Her small business website functions primarily as a portfolio and credibility marker, a place she can point people to when they want to check her out.
“I have great clients that have been with me for a long time,” she says. “I have guys I’ve worked with for 20 years, and they’re still here with me, which is really nice.”
That depth of loyalty is rare in freelance work. It speaks to the quality of what Andrea delivers and to the trust she builds with the people she works with. Her current challenge isn’t client satisfaction; it’s visibility. Like many solo business owners, she finds it hard to consistently show up on social media.
“I don’t really promote myself,” she admits openly. “My website is there mostly for credibility, for when I have direct contact with people.”
It’s an honest reflection of a common tension for small business owners: the work is strong, but the marketing is an energy drain that competes with actually doing the work.
The Challenge: Running a Reliable Online Presence Across Time Zones
Operating a small business website from South America, while serving clients in Canada and beyond, means reliability isn’t optional. When something breaks, Andrea needs help fast, from someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
She’s tried other hosting providers over the years. During a stint in Spain, she switched away from HostPapa to try a cheaper option. It didn’t last long.
“The customer service just isn’t the same,” she says. “You guys (HostPapa) provide the best customer service. I need help from your technical people because I can build it, I can make it look nice, but I can’t always solve the glitches. And they’ve been excellent. They don’t just send me to a link and say, ‘go read this page.’ They actually dig in and do it for me.”
For Andrea, the human touch makes all the difference, prompting her to move back to HostPapa.
The Solution: A Hosting Partner That Grows With Her
For Andrea, having everything under one roof, domain registration, security, WordPress Hosting, and support means she doesn’t have to think about the technical side unless something goes wrong.
It’s the kind of stack that lets a solo creative professional focus on the actual work, design, writing, and client relationships, without worrying about whether the site is up, the email is working, or the data is safe.
She also recently launched a second project: Canuck Modern, a Canadian-inspired design venture featuring a stylized maple leaf she originally created years ago. Inspired by the broader wave of Canadian pride that’s been building in recent years, she decided to bring the design back to life. It’s early days for the project, but it’s another example of Andrea following her instincts as a creative entrepreneur.
The Results: Decades of Doing What She Loves
It would be tempting to measure Andrea’s success in follower counts or website traffic. But her version of success looks different and, arguably, more sustainable.
She has clients who have stayed with her for two decades. She works from Santiago, Chile, serving a largely international roster. Her secure online presence, backed by HostPapa, means that when a new client wants to vet her, the website is there, professional and reliable, doing its job quietly in the background.
“My website is there as a portfolio site,” she says. “To say: this is what I do, take a look.” For a business built on trust and long-term relationships, that’s exactly what it needs to be.
Andrea’s Advice for Other Small Business Owners
Andrea is the first to admit she doesn’t have all the answers, especially when it comes to social media. But she has one piece of hard-won wisdom that resonates for any small business owner building a reliable web presence:
Don’t compromise on support. When she switched to a cheaper hosting provider, she learned the lesson the hard way. The savings weren’t worth the headache of not being able to get real help when something went wrong.
“With HostPapa, I don’t think I’ve run into a bot,” she says. “I’ve always just talked to a person. And that is the big deal.”
Her other piece of advice: focus on doing excellent work and let your portfolio speak for itself. “Showing your work is what will get you seen,” she reflects. Whether that’s a polished website, a LinkedIn post, or years of quietly delivering for the same clients, the quality is what sticks.
HostPapa is proud to support small business owners like Andrea Carter with the tools, hosting, and human support they need to keep their online presence running. Discover other small business success stories like Andrea’s, with our National Small Business Week Spotlight series.
