We’ve renewed our office website!

Believe it or not, I did the renewal myself — with a little help from AI.

The original website was created about five years ago, and since then… it had been almost completely left untouched.

I’d been thinking, “I really should update it soon; the content is getting outdated,” but I kept using my busy schedule as an excuse.

Before I knew it, five years had passed.When I finally had a bit of free time, I told myself, “Okay, this is it!” and decided to take the plunge. Making up our mind is always the key to starting something.

But when I contacted the company that had built the site five years ago, I found out they had gone out of business.

So I searched for web design companies in Chiba Prefecture and consulted a few that seemed promising. However, it turned out to be quite difficult to find one whose approach matched what I was looking for.

〈Our Requests〉

• We wanted to make a partial renewal based on the existing website.
• After the renewal, we wanted to handle small updates ourselves (such as changing wording or expressions).

〈Their Policy〉

• They only build websites using their own templates.
• They require all maintenance to be done through them (apparently thinking, “Who knows what amateurs might mess up if they touch it?”).

So I thought, “Then maybe I should just try doing it myself. Even if I break something, I can always ask a professional to rebuild it from scratch.”
And that’s how I decided to take on the challenge.

Learning WordPress with AI

When I finally gathered my courage and logged into WordPress, I couldn’t make sense of anything at first.

Still, since the software has been continuously improved to be more user-friendly, even someone like me — a complete amateur — gradually started to grasp the overall structure.

I used Gemini as my AI assistant, and whenever I asked questions like, “What is this menu for?” or “What does this plugin do?”, it kindly explained everything in detail.

And when something was too technical for me to understand, I could just ask, “What does that mean?” — and it explained things again in simpler words.

It was just like having my own personal WordPress tutor.

Amazing!

Editing and Customizing

Even while I was editing the fixed pages, whenever I asked things like, “I want to add a little more space between these paragraphs,” or “I’d like to put a box around this text,” Gemini showed me some kind of programming code and tell me exactly where to paste it.

I had no idea what the code actually meant, but when I followed the instructions, the page changed exactly the way I had imagined.

Amazing!

As I kept asking questions, Gemini gradually started to understand what I was trying to do and what kind of design I had in mind. Its answers became more and more refined.

And before I knew it, with Gemini’s help, I had managed to renew my entire website all by myself.

Believe it or not, I even managed to set up the English version of the site on my own!

Reflections on AI and Writing

These days, I hear that programmers are being laid off at an incredible pace overseas — and I can understand why. The speed and efficiency of programming with AI have advanced dramatically.

After all, even a complete amateur like me managed to renew a website while adding custom touches here and there.

Of course, from a professional’s point of view, there are probably plenty of imperfections. But for an accounting office website, there’s really no need for complicated features — and for me, this is more than enough.

Thanks to that, not only did I save a significant amount of outsourcing costs, but now we can also handle maintenance on our own.

Still, more than the cost savings, what makes me happiest is that we can now freely update the site whenever we like.

Freedom is a wonderful thing — in any field.

Working with AI on Writing

By the way, I also created some of the text — not all, but several parts — with Gemini’s help.

Sometimes I asked it to proofread what I had written, and other times I just gave it the key points and let it draft sentences for me.

I found its phrasing and expressions, which I wouldn’t normally use myself, quite insightful. But if I relied too much on Gemini’s writing, my own voice would fade away — and the website would lose its sense of “me.”

Writing reflects one’s personality, so I realized it’s not something that can be completely left to AI.

There are still a few parts that don’t quite sound like my own words, so I plan to gradually revise them into my natural style from now on.

Organizing Our Services

I also tried something interesting — I pasted a long list of our office’s work records into Gemini and asked it to categorize and organize our services.

It classified everything instantly, and I was amazed.

By having AI organize our daily tasks, I was able to see, from an objective point of view, “Oh, so these are the kinds of services our firm actually provides.” That was incredibly insightful.

Based on that analysis, I created 16 service line categories.

The idea came from something I once read: “UNIQLO’s clothes are designed as functional parts that can be freely combined to create one’s own style.”

I thought — shouldn’t an accounting firm be able to do the same? To combine and offer services freely according to each client’s needs?

I don’t know yet whether this approach will work or truly resonate with clients, but if it doesn’t, I can simply try again.

Trial and Error — and Hope

Business is always a cycle of trial and error, and scrap and build.
Companies that can keep doing this will grow — those that can’t will decline.

That’s what I’ve come to realize as I observe my clients’ businesses.

Sadly, companies that cling to past successes or insist on doing things their own way eventually find themselves unable even to maintain their current position. It’s a harsh reality.

As for myself, I’ve also found that, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less open to new ideas and challenges. But through this experience of working with AI, I’ve begun to feel a renewed sense of hope.

AI, I believe, is a tool that helps bring out our hidden human potential.
That’s truly how I feel.

A Small Step, But a Meaningful One

What I did this time may not be anything remarkable, but I believe that having the mindset to create new ideas is what truly matters.

Since accounting and tax work can easily become routine, I’ve come to appreciate even more the importance of keeping that spirit alive.