Startup Production, now in its 16th year in business, has had another stellar year in 2014. Sometimes it’s good to look back over your fiscal year, or even each quarter, to take stock of what you’ve done right and what needs improvement.
This year, has been another busy year, with dozens of new clients, many referrals from existing clients and also new contacts through our vigorous networking schedule. We’ve added a few new services, improved some existing ones and always trying to find new, more affordable options for our clients. Our mission is to provide the best service and user-friendly products we can to fit the budget of small business owners, like ourselves.
We also spent many hours with our clients this year, more than ever before, in training them on the management of their site, blogging strategies, social media marketing techniques, and internet marketing so their page ranking on the search engines continually improves. As we’ve told our clients over and again this year, SEO is not technically difficult but it takes consistency, hard work, and patience to improving their business’ internet footprint.
Workshops & Event Sponsorships
- On June 2, 2014, Nicole Mueller, as the chair of marketing committee chair at the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, helped organize the third Richmond Chamber’s Business Connect. Startup Production was one of the Event Sponsors as well as gift contributors for the giveaways.
- On June 11, 2014, Startup Production was the event sponsor for the Women Leading Kentucky’s Networking After Hours event at the Barrel House in Lexington, KY. Nicole was given five minutes to present her business and services offered to the group of professional women in attendance.
- Also in June, Nicole became a BOAB facilitator for the Commerce Lexington. BOAB (Business Owners Advisory Board) are organized groups that allow member business owners to share similar challenges, strategies, and best practices in a confidential, non-competitive environment. Participating as a BOAB member for over three years, she was excited to step up as facilitator when needed.
- On September 4th, Startup Production was excited to be an event sponsor, an exhibitor as well as a gift contributor for Women Leading Kentucky’s first Roundtable Luncheon in Richmond in over ten years. The event was sold out!
- In September – October, Startup Production was honored to be asked to participate as one of the business coaches for MACED’s FastTrac 10 week training class for start-up businesses in Berea KY. The coaches role is to provide advice in their area of experise, meet and encourage the participants. Nicole was also the guest speaker on the October 13th meeting and presented Internet Marketing Basics, which covered what makes a successful website, blogging, social media and content marketing.
- On October 21, as part of the Youth Engagement Leadership program for Leslie County, CEDIK hosted an Entrepreneur Day with guest speakers including Dr. Peter Hackbert of Berea College, Sean Moore of Bluegrass SBDC, and a local business panel, where Nicole Mueller of Startup Production and Danny Isaacs of MACED answered the Leslie County juniors and seniors asked questions about starting and running a business.
- On November 17-18th, Nicole was on the panel of judges for the first Richmond 5 pitch campaign. Sponsored by CEDET at EKU, The Richmond 5 is a competition designed to identify five entrepreneurs who will enter the EKU Business Accelerator (Incubator) for one year and then locate their business in Richmond. Nicole will also provide logo design, business coaching, and discounted web design to any of the participants who need it.
- On December 4-5th, Nicole participated in two local Career Fairs. First, Richmond Chamber’s MCBEP Committee invited Startup Production to participate in the Career Day to conduct a Q&A session about the IT Technology field to high school seniors in Madison County. And then Nicole spoke to fourth and fifth graders at Model Lab Elementary School about web design and helped them build their first website.
New Memberships & Sponsorships
- In February 2014, Startup Production became an official sponsor of Downtown Richmond Association and its events Family Fun & Fitness, as well as the Downtown Richmond Farmers Market. As an active member of the DRA Board, Nicole hopes to support their goal of protecting, promoting, and preserving the downtown area of Richmond KY.
- In May 2014, Startup Production joined the Berea Chamber of Commerce. The City of Berea has much to offer the business world as well as family life. The goal of their Chamber is to promote and support all of our businesses and their employees.
- Also in December, Startup Production sponsored development of a new website for Madison County Community Calendar, supported and maintained by the Richmond Tourism Visitor’s Center.
New Services:
- Client Training Sessions: After the completion of their website, each client receives a one to two hour training session on how to use their site, add new content, how to blog, SEO strategies in driving traffic to their webiste and answer any questions they have on reaching their target audience.
- Internet Marketing Packages: which includes (1) Initial Meeting to decipher need & current goals. (2) Analysis of current internet marketing strategies (website, social media, blog, other advertising efforts). (3) Research on industry specific marketing, target audience, local economic stats (if applicable). (4) Create marketing proposal & plan of action based on above information and research. (5) First Training session where we go over initial proposal, recommendations and marketing plan of action. (6) Second Training session 12 weeks later for analysis and adjustments.
- Marketing Management: We have provided discounted packages for several clients who need regular marketing management of their print ads, social media, email marketing, website updates, blogging and press releases for their events and promotions. We provide affordable and custom packages to meet the clients’ needs and budget.
Giving Back to the Community:
Startup Production has continually given of its time and energy in the following ways:
- Richmond KY Chamber of Commerce Member
- Marketing Committee Co-Chair, Chamber Blog Contributor & EDC Committee member
- Downtown Richmond Association
- Marketing Committee Member & Board of Directors Member
- Women’s Networking Group in Madison County KY
- Communications Chair, Sponsorship Chair & Board Member
- MACED Technical Consultant & FastTrac Coach/Presenter
- Women Leading Kentucky – Gold Sponsor
- Commerce Lexington – BOAB Facilitator & Steering Committee member
Growing Portfolio of Work
From new logos, new and redesigned websites, website maintenance, print ad design, internet marketing consulting, social media management, blog management and e-commerce site development, we’ve added dozens of new projects and valued clients to our list of greatest accomplishments for 2014.
We want to thank all the new clients who put their confidence in us to develop a professional web presence and also to the long list of loyal clients who continued to use our services, as well as refer us to others. Most of our new clients come from referrals and that says a lot – not only about the quality of our work but the trust you show in our continued growth, so we thank you!
To see our latest works: https://startupproduction.com/project/
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