Every year at this time, we all stop and reflect on the busy activities of the past year.

As my business passed it’s tenth year, there was new growth and vigor and development in my company like I have never seen in any one single year previously! It’s been a great deal of fun and very satisfying as well!

Running my mind over each month of the past year, six highlights stand out as the reasons my business has grown so much in 2011. The first five of those highlights are people, and the sixth is a technology.

First Highlight: Gary From iMarket.ca

Gary is a great guy to work with and an outstanding designer who specializes in creating stunning websites for Fishing and Hunting Lodges throughout Canada, that are red hot in the search engines. After years of comradery and sharing tips and experiences, recently we have formalized a working partnership that has encouraged new development and growth for both of our companies.

 

Second Highlight: Eric from TheTechnologicalEdge.com

Eric is an awesome web designer for the outdoor travel industry with a calm, open personality and a solid understanding of business and marketing. I met Eric at a Sport Show in Indianapolis in February of 2011 – and he introduced me to elements of his Web Design Business Plan that were so simple, yet profound, that I’ve worked the rest of 2011 to incorporate them into the fundamentals of my own business. As a result, I provide better service to my clients – and improved my bottom line as well.

Third Highlight: Tina from PalominoClub.ca

Tina is the Marketing Director of The World Famous Palomino Club – and working with her is always a highlight of my week! Tina is a spitfire who has embraced all aspects of blogging and social media! Her enthusiasm, attention to detail and consistent day-by-day efforts have given her the skill to use the Palomino Club website and social media to target and gain top rankings for almost any local keyword phrase. Tina’s belief in the value of social media and her regular work at building the online connections have created fantastic results for several Social Media Development Projects that Tina has managed recently. Tina has moved from being a client/student to being a respected colleague and friend.

Fourth Highlight: Tim from Travelbusinesssuccess.com

Tim is a Tourism Marketing Professional that I have followed and admired for a number of years, and this fall when Tim offered to teach his strategies for marketing Tour and Adventure Businesses, I started to know, like and respect Tim a great deal more! When I took the recent course on Tourism Marketing Success by Tim Warren – I thought he knocked it out of the park! Tim did a great job with the layout of the information and did a great job with the technology of the website, but more than that, the content of the course was a game-changer for the way I create websites for my tourism clients. In fact, the changes are so far-reaching, that I’m sure I’ll be blogging or making videos about Case Studies every month or so for the next year. I’m looking forward to working with Tim on a number of projects that I cannot announce yet!

Fifth Highlight: Jill from Webgrrl-enterprises.com

Jill is my sister! She is smart. And has technical knowledge in all areas of social media, blogging and areas of the internet that surpass my own. In 2011 we began working together in a slightly different way than before, that has turned into a synergistic, cooperative effort to each build our own individual businesses offering roughly similar services to our own set of clients. Among other things, over this past year, Jill and I have been taking all the strategies, case studies and business plans we have been implementing for clients, and writing a book on Tourism Internet Marketing, due to be released in the fall of 2012.

Sixth Reason My Business Grew So Much – is Skype

Skype has revolutionized the way I work with my clients. It has improved our communications and increased the ease of sharing information and teaching strategies about blogging and social media. The most powerful feature is that we can share screens, so it’s really easy to *show* my clients details as we work on the same web page together in real time. Thank you Skype!

2011 – Mature Company Hits Growth Curve

I can trace almost all of my increased success this year… new clients, better services, more effective solutions and reaching a wider audience, and, having a great deal of fun at the same time… directly to these key people that influenced me in 2011. And I’d like to thank each of you – just for being awesome – you are the six reasons my business grew so much in 2011!

I’d also like to express my gratitude to the support and effect these groups and people have had on my success in 2011:  Social Media Manitoba Meetup Group, The WordPress Winnipeg Meetup Group, my training partner Max and the awesome clients that I had the good fortune to assist, or that I get to work with on an monthly or weekly basis; Brian, Gord, Cary, Linda, Paul, Mike, Bary, Faron, Len, Cheryl, Carolyn, Darlyss,  Carol, Fern, Quent, Jeremy, Cindy, Mark, Rob, Urs, Michael, Don, Josh, Joerg, Carl, Cathy, Dan, John, Tom, Judy, Drake, Chad, Ross and Daryl. (hope I didn’t miss anyone)

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