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Put a little WEBSITEMENT!!!®
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I'm a 46 year old happily married (21 yrs.) father of four great children. I've lived in the Midwest all of my life and really enjoy it here. Wilderness Backpacking, Hiking, Bicycling, a little Scuba Diving and season's tickets to the Cleveland Indians consume some of my limited leisure time. |
My father is a top engineer (retired) in the field of designing and testing aircraft landing gears. My mother was a first class mom and grandmother. Along with my younger brother and sisters I learned about hard work and family values.
My wife came back stateside when her father left the military to minister to a congregation in Ohio in 1974. Becky, along with her mom and brothers traveled as their dad was moved around the world in a military career that saw him attain the rank of full bird Colonel.
I feel very fortunate we have been blessed with excellent health, a good dose of common sense, college degrees, a reasonable amount success and prosperity, and most importantly, a truly wonderful family. I also have learned to be a good listener which comes in handy in determining winning solutions for both clients and family.
We were avid travelers during the seven years of marriage prior to the birth of our eldest child. At the time a retail management career allowed me to work a long string of days together to craft 5 or 6 day "weekends". We did a lot of traveling during the summer months when my wife didn't have to go to work (teacher).
Depending upon the season, we threw backpacks, cameras, downhill or water skis, climbing ropes, scuba equipment, bicycles, tents or suitcases into the back of the car and hit the road. Even as our family grows, we continue to travel and get a great deal of satisfaction from every trip.
Shortly after we were married, I made a career move and went to work with a national wholesale distributing firm that traded commodity lumber. During the 13 years I was with that firm, I became more interested and highly involved in determining ways in which technology could be used to increase the productivity and profitability of businesses.
Not too long ago we swore the telex machine was the most powerful invention since fire. One primitive Tandy personal computer from Radio Shack was believed to be more than enough firepower for a staff of 12 salesman. Upper management (as well as many others) felt new business devices like facsimile machines and personal computers were too expensive and faddish. Soon, it was discovered the ability to quickly transmit, process and share information was immeasurably more valuable than the cost of the machines. Fax machines replaced the telex machines overnight. Personal Computers networked to a mainframe computer rapidly became an integral part of every desk in the office.
It occurred to me the Internet was the next technological tool best positioned to launch companies into the future. But not for the reasons you might think.
I became interested in the power of the Internet in late 1994. As new personal computer operating systems and new internet browsing software have been developed, it's become easier and easier to find your way around. At one point, I received a free copy of some web site publishing software. At that time I really didn't want a homepage of my own so I started building an "entry level" Internet web site for the company. I worked on it at home in my spare time. I realized I was hooked.
As the project evolved, I became more excited about the benefits establishing an Internet presence would bring us.
We could quickly advertise messages, both simple and complex, for a fraction of the cost of traditional print media.
Our clients could reach us by and we can respond in seconds by Electronic Mail (e mail) at virtually zero cost. The email feature is what makes this so critically important to excellent Internet Advertising and I will explain more about this later.
At some point in the future we would trade semi-truckloads and rail-carloads of softwood lumber via the Internet.
You may be interested to know there are credit card processing centers capable of securely clearing six figure online transactions TODAY !
I determined others could benefit by properly integrating the Web with their business objectives, and also realized I was having a tremendous amount of fun doing something other than trading lumber. I am firmly convinced those companies who fail to embrace the marketing power of the Internet will be placed at a distinct competitive disadvantage to those companies who do within the span of the next 3 or 4 years.
After months of research, I forged alliances with the owner of an award winning graphics arts/advertising studio and with one of the most highly qualified database programmers in northeast Ohio:
My company, Websitement!!!® Communications Corporation was incorporated.
The term "WEBSITEMENT" was trademarked.
On January 17, 1997, I left the comfort of the 13 year career in the lumber industry to pursue Internet development full-time. As my client list grows, I realize this was perhaps the single best decision I have made in my life. I find the challenge of helping others grow their businesses using this new and dynamic tool to be most rewarding.