‘Small’ businesses aren’t so small to myself and my team. Growing up, it was the small businesses that sponsored our sports teams, that paid for the ads that made our yearbooks possible, that employed our parents and grandparents, and that truly gave back to our communities year after year.
If you’re a small business owner today, you know — all too well — that business has rapidly changed. In the past, small businesses didn’t have to work as hard to get out the message about their services and products. Signs worked well as did word-of-mouth, the phone book, and more foot traffic before online shopping. Today we live in the age of the Internet: customers don’t venture out to retail centers nearly as much, the phone book is quickly becoming a thing of the past, and customers are used to seeing content and ads 24-7. To get noticed, small businesses need to invest in marketing.
Unfortunately, most marketing agencies are trying to court large businesses and organizations. Why? It’s not because marketing companies believe more in the products and services offered by large organizations but because they have deeper pockets and bigger marketing budgets to spend.
For small business owners, it’s become a Catch-22 situation. Overspend on marketing…or don’t spend at all and suffer the consequences? Small businesses shouldn’t have to buy everything and the kitchen sink just to get the word out about their business.
Big business has an unfair advantage and I want to change that. As the founder and CEO of Wichita Designs, I’m proud to offer a solution that actually works for small businesses — not against them.
At Wichita Designs, we believe small business is vital to the health of our communities and we 100% disagree with the model of only pursuing large companies and pricing out the small guys. Initially, I founded this business because I want to stick it to the big guys and I’ve dedicated my life to it.
Our mission is to be an agency that makes our customers feel good about working with us: we never want our customers to feel like they’re dealing with a sleazy sales team that’s just out to take advantage of them. There’s no nickel and diming with us, no contracts, and no excuses.
We’ve renewed our commitment to serving and fostering small businesses. As a small business owner myself, I want to do my part to ensure small businesses continue to enrich Kansas and beyond. Wichita Designs is now focusing even more of our mission on making our business all about the ‘little’ guys.
Small businesses are a big part of what makes Kansas so great. It’s evident in our rich culture, and the values of our residents. It’s what drives our tourism, and what inspires our future. It’s what makes us who we are.
I’m proud to announce that Wichita Designs will now be using proceeds from our web design and marketing services to fund scholarships and mentoring programs for young entrepreneurs and small business owners in Wichita and south-central Kansas.
Wichita Designs is in business for the long haul: we’re here to serve the community of which we are apart. We’re not here to charge an arm and a leg, or grow our business as fast as we can and we’re definitely not here to get ‘rich’. Our goal has always been, and will always be, simple: to help others. In fact, it’s our passion to help our neighbors that has created some of our very best work.
We want to be the partners for local schools, local leaders, thinks, and doers, because we know the next generation of creative minds hold the key to the great things that are to come — and because it is the next generation that will continue to invest in our communities and enrich them.
