Summer is over. While many were going on vacations and traveling, business was still being completed for many entrepreneurs and business owners. The time flew by and as school starts, the weather changes and the temperature drops, we decided to connect with entrepreneurs and business owners to see how their summers went and what were some of their accomplishments. We decided to ask them what their best business accomplishments as we head into the fall:
#1 – Busy Season
It was a busy summer for MAGENTA! Beauty brands rely on social media strategy as much as traditional PR! We attended the Cosmoprof beauty trade show in Las Vegas to catch up with colleagues we don't see very often and to scout new beauty brands and trends. We look forward to Cosmoprof every year! Also, I had the opportunity to present my “Organic Reach is Dead: Learn to Pay to Play Like a Pro” Masterclass to a standing room only crowd on the main stage at the Social Media Week Los Angeles conference. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response this Masterclass received, we launched a new workshop series, Sunset Social Series, and we're teaching one social media workshop per month at our office in Venice, CA. And the highlight of the summer was signing Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney Kardashian's new hair care line as a client, Kardashian Beauty. Everyone on my team is obsessed with the products, so it's been fun managing the social media channels. We experienced “Christmas in August” while in NYC prepping for the holiday season; lots of exciting things are in the works for this brand!
Thanks to Trina Albus, MAGENTA!
#2 – Technical Projects
At JotForm we've accomplished a lot this summer. We focused on more technical projects, including our Form Analytics tool and Encrypted Forms. The former gives users insight into how their forms are performing. This allows them to optimize them for better response rates. The later gives them ultimate security and control over their data. Only they hold the key to unlock it.
Thanks to Steve Gibson, JotForm!
#3 – Boost in Social Media & Engagement
This summer was a huge boost in social media and engagement. Posting regularly with quality content has fostered more loyal followers who come back to engage. This resulted from working hard to make sure each post was geared toward our audience and letting them know we care about them. For example, a big accomplishment this summer was joining Instagram, being a visual company Instagram had been missing out of our marketing strategy. We joined in May and now have 1500 followers and growing each day. But the more exciting part of that is the engagement, people are liking and commenting on each photo. This is huge because it can be hard for a brand to find a loyal following, but working hard to only come up with relevant and high quality content has made this a very social summer!
Thanks to Jesse Finkle, Men in Kilts!
#4 – New Office
This past summer was an exciting time for our firm. We successfully completed the grand opening for our new office located in Houston, Texas. In Houston, we will continue our work in the criminal defense industry, defending clients and protecting their rights. While this is an impressive milestone for our team, this new chapter has proved to be an exhilarating challenge as we’ve also maintained the success of our Phoenix firm throughout the summer. We are looking forward to a great year.
Thanks to Christopher Corso, Corso Law Group!
#5 – New Business
My story is the story about women’s independence in Vietnam and the greeting cards that will promote it: I am very happy to announce that we just launched Popwish. I have been working on Popwish over the summer and created the brand, partly coded the website, took the pictures and i have done all graphic design. Popwish, a business selling unique greeting cards, was founded about 2 months ago. Popwishcards are handcrafted, pop-up greeting cards that are so rich in detail, you can’t help, but be astonished.
Thanks to Mark Oldenburg, Popwish!
#6 – Wonderful & Productive Summer
This summer, I landed endorsements by Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup, master marketer Seth Godin, the founders of BNI and GreenBiz.com, and several others for my 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, forthcoming in March from Morgan James (and already available for preorder). I also snagged essays from the authors of Unstoppable/Unstoppable Women and Diet for a Small Planet. And snagged a $40K assignment from a client. And hiked or biked every day, and enjoyed two weeks in Spain. It's been a pretty terrific summer, in short.
Thanks to Shel Horowitz, Green and Profitable!
#7 – Busiest & Hottest Season
The summer time is our most busiest and hottest season. So for this year we try increase our revenue and launch a social campaign to get our customers to be more involved. We wanted our customers contribute their story and showcase their little kids wearing our clothing. We were able to successful achieve this social media campaign through discounts, free gifts and social media showcases. It was by far the most successful marketing campaign we have ever completed. We plan on doing something similar next summer, but bigger and better.
Thanks to Lisa Chu, Black N Bianco!
#8 – New Jobs
As an executive and team coach, I help my clients make tomorrow better than today. In May I welcomed four new executive clients who had been displaced from their jobs. I'm happy to say that all four landed jobs (better I may add) as they start September, but, more importantly, their energy, attitude and joy has improved as well. This has had a positive ripple throughout their lives.
Thanks to Michael OBrien, Peloton Coaching and Consulting!
#9 – New Product
Over the summer, I accomplished writing a 130K-word product in 4 months. I think the reason I was able to do this was I had all the knowledge and research done going in; I just needed to put everything into words. I started the project by getting clear on what I wanted to accomplish, in terms of the content structure, the results it would produce for my students, and the role it would have in the business. Then I simply filled in the outline into further and further detail, and before I knew it, it was written.
Thank you Sarah Jones, Introverted Alpha!
#10 – Ups and Downs
I was able to have a mobile application for iOS and Android developed and ready for launch with advertisers lined up. It wasn't easy. I was working with only my savings for a budget and still working full-time as a global director. I also had to deal with explaining my vision to developers in India and trying to find quality support on a budget. I lost a lot of time working with people who were enthusiastic, but promised more than they could deliver. In the end, I learned valuable lessons and still experienced success and progress.
Thanks to Elisa Klein, RepzforCharity.org!
#11 – Exciting Time
This summer was an exciting time for the company as I started to implement growth strategies which included pitching to a Canadian distributor to bring our line of high quality all natural fair trade beauty product to a new market. I was immediately told I needed to redo my packaging, which presented its own set of challenges including finding a French translator, hiring a graphic designer, and managing a tight deadline. During the management of updating packaging to meet Canadian regulations, I also embarked on developing a new formula for our body creams to not only remove the ingredient Phenoxythanol, but to also create new scents for our customers. As a small company with limited staff, it was a challenge, but well-worth the effort. We now have new products that will launch just in time for the holidays and pretty soon our products will be on the shelves of Canadian retailers.
Thanks to Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen!
#12 – Ground Breaking Summer
We here at SERVIZ have had a record breaking summer, including opening our first office out of state and achieving record revenue levels each month. Since 2014, when co-founders Zorik Gordon and Michael Kline launched SERVIZ, we have expanded from serving Los Angeles County to four markets now, including Orange County, San Diego County, and our newest addition in Phoenix, which just launched this summer in July. Besides growth geographically, the number of jobs we did for our customers strongly increased each month, and our roster of professional technicians hit new highs. Our list services has also grown to now include Appliance Repair, Carpet Cleaning, Electrical, Garage Door Repair, Handyman, HVAC and Plumbing. We moved faster than ever this summer, and SERVIZ continued to extend its leadership in the on-demand home services space and the online booking of home repairs, as well as realize its vision to reinvent a historically broken consumer experience.
Thanks to Zorik Gordon, SERVIZ!
#13 – Hustle & Bustle
This summer was a fantastic and wildly successful one for our startup. We managed to sign up over 50 professional mover partners, grew from five to 10 people, and expanded our business beyond Boston. Furthermore, in our first month of launch this summer, we completed over 100 moves and chalked up $50,000 in revenue, with no money spent on ads. Beyond the hustle and bustle of starting and growing a business, this summer validated our business model: that consumers and business would like to see disruption in the traditional moving business, and our proprietary algorithms, helped find the perfect moving company for our customers, saving saved them, on the average, 25% in money and time. It was an intense and busy summer, but it was absolutely worth it.
Thanks to Desmond Lim, QuikForce!
#14 – Partnerships
This summer we've been focusing on partnerships. We even had one partner come and start working inside our office. It's helped grow a better understanding of how our businesses can help each other, and because of the relationship we've been hitting new sales goals.
Thanks to Deborah Sweeney, MyCorporation!
#15 – New Client Relationships
The summer is a fantastic time to cultivate and launch new client relationships, as the buyers' schedules loosen up and opportunities to take a step back and make strategic plans arise. We spent the summer launching several dozen new relationships with Fortune 1000 companies, and are primed to drive meaningful commercial impact for their staffing needs this fall as resource demands spike.
Thanks to Rob Biederman, HourlyNerd!
#16 – New Program
We thought we were long overdue saying “thank you” to the loyal travelers and brand ambassadors who have repeatedly traveled with us. So we created our smarTraveler VIP program, which rewards our repeat customers. These perks include room upgrades, first access to great deals, ability to skip ahead of the line when there's a waiting list, complimentary passes to the New York Times Travel Show, and more! It’s early, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive–a nice way to say thanks to those who have made us so successful over the years.
Thanks to Greg Geronemus, smarTours!
#17 – Crowdfunding
It’s been down to the wire this summer on a new gardening product launch for New Leaf Technologies. Little Crop Circles®, the innovative new garden accessory that helps gardeners grow more in less space using less water is set to launch on Tuesday, September 8 on Indiegogo. Our team accomplished so much over the summer from setting up Indiegogo, making sure all the patents and trademarks were in place, final tweaks on the prototype, creating lots of informative videos and taking great images of vegetables growing in Little Crop Circles.
Thanks to John Kendall, Little Crop Circles!