In this video blog, President and Co-founder of Onsharp, Joe Sandin, reflects on how Onsharp got started 10 years ago by 2 college interns with a passion for web-based solutions.  Joe also comments on how Onsharp has come to be the company it is today, as well as his vision for the next 10 years of growth and success for the company.  Check it out to see where Onsharp has been, where Onsharp is now, and where Onsharp is going.

Onsharp, a professional web consulting firm in Fargo, is celebrating its 10^th year of business this month.  Located at 474 45^th Street South in Fargo, Onsharp was founded in July of 2000.

The company was started by two college interns, Joe Sandin and Matt Hardy, who shared a passion for the web and yearned to share that passion with businesses in order to help them reach their full potential and remain competitive in a dynamic business setting.  Through the several local and nationwide projects Sandin and Hardy received, they realized the full potential and power the web held as a communication tool, channel for sales, and more.  Sandin moved the company to Fargo, ND in 2003, and since then Onsharp has expanded its service offerings, skilled team of professionals, and its client base.

Onsharp continues to grow with an energetic and passionate determination to help businesses create web-based solutions.  The core values of innovation, an unparalleled customer experience, and measurable results are behind every project and interaction with Onsharp, and the company has both an experienced staff as well as a proven process model to ensure growth and success for their clients. Onsharp now offers six core services: web strategy, web design, web development, web marketing, web optimization, and web hosting.  Onsharp also offers a hosted service, SmartPay, which provides web-based billing and payment integration for businesses to help them save time, money, and the environment.

“The key to our success at Onsharp has always been and will continue to be our talented and energetic team,” comments Sandin.  “Without their collective expertise and passion for what we do, the results that we have brought to our clients would not be possible. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the Onsharp team members that have worked so hard in pursuit of our vision of driving success. I would also like to thank all of our clients, past and present, who we have been fortunate to serve.  We are extremely grateful for your business and we look forward to long-lasting partnerships with all of you for many years to come.”

At Onsharp, the overarching vision is simple: Drive Success. Whether it be for clients, employees, their families, or the community, Onsharp strives to create success in the lives of all people, businesses, and communities it serves.  Offering a full array of services, Onsharp is here to ensure your business is making the most of the web to leverage measurable results.  For more information about Onsharp or SmartPay, please visit www.onsharp.com, www.gosmartpay.com, or call toll-free at 1.866.ONSHARP.

What about the 3D process?

Now that you have an idea of what we do, and how we do it for you with our services, what about that process? We use the 3D process consisting of three phases: Discover, Develop, and Deliver. Get it? Three “D’s” make up the 3D process. 

We always begin each project with a Discovery session. You tell us what you require: a way to place orders online, decrease costs, a more reliable email system… and we will begin the Discovery process of what technologies we can use to meet your requirements. We’ll even be able to tell you exactly what your project will cost based on your requirements before we begin Development. 

Development is where the technologies found in Discovery are implemented. Our developers will code away while our project manager keeps you informed of the progress. Based on your requirements outlined in Discovery, we create a system that functions they way you need it to. Our project manager sends you progress reports (weekly, monthly, or whenever you wish) to keep your project on course. Once initial Development is complete, we put your solution through rigorous testing. Okay, the testing isn’t that rigorous on the testers, but we do make sure everything is functioning and is up to your standards before we launch or “Deliver” your project. 

When we launch your finished project, it may end the project itself but it does not end the 3D Process. We continue to deliver measurable results for your business. The Deliver phase begins with the deployment of your project to the appropriate environment and continues with ongoing user training, technical and user support, and measurement of the solutions’ continued success. 

In one sentence, Onsharp helps businesses utilize innovative web based technologies to reach business objectives by measuring results; all with an unparalleled customer experience. But not everything can be described in one sentence, let alone, one blog. We admit, this wasn’t as fun as some of our other blogs, but we know you probably had questions the site just wasn’t answering. And if you have more, leave us a comment or send an email to info@onsharp.com . 

Missed the other blogs? Here are links to the other two! 

http://www.onsharp.com/blog/post/What-exactly-does-Onsharp-do-Part-I.aspx

http://www.onsharp.com/blog/post/What-exactly-does-Onsharp-do-Part-II.aspx

Is it possible to do all the marketing for your business from your website?

Maybe. Why? Are you doing an experiment? Unless that's the plan, it's hard to see any reason to limit yourself in that way. Your website is an essential part of your marketing mix, certainly. But it will combine well with other marketing ingredents:

• E mail marketing Build your house list  with your website, trade show booths, a sign-up sheet on the counter at your physical place of business, or your Facebook page. Then use e-mail to bring customers in --to your website or to your brick and mortar shop.
• Direct mail marketing Send out a postcard, and make sure that your website's address is on it. Studies show that consumers now usually check three different channels of information in the course of their decision to buy: that might mean your postcard, your website, and your shop. Studies also show that an e-mail follow up to a direct mailing can be expected to increase responses by 50%.
  
• Shows and speaking engagements Hold a seminar or workshop, set up a booth at a tradeshow, or take a place on a panel at a conference. Hand out business cards with your website's URL when you do, and you'll be bringing interested people in where you can tell them more.
  
• Your brick and mortar shop If you have a store, an office, or another physical place of business, be sure to put your web address on the sacks, brochures, and signs. Train staff to ask, "Have you visited our website?" when they check customers out.  And be sure to show your address, map and/or pictures of your place of business on your website. The two venues will support each other, and both will get more traffic. 
• Public relations When you do press releases, include a link to your website. Put your press releases on your website, too, or link to them. Again, there's a synergy there, and each supports the other. 
• Social media Have a blog, a Twitter account, and a Facebook page for your business. Link to your website from those social media pages, and link from your website to those pages, too. Encourage staff to link to the company website from their pages at LinkedIn or Xing, Jigsaw or Spoke or Ning. The links help your website, and they make your staff's pages more interesting, too. Friend your colleagues at Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
  
• Physical world networking Share your business card, and make sure your website's on it. When someone at the Chamber meeting gives you her email address, ask whether she'd like to be on your company's email list. People you know in the physical world will be more receptive to your email contacts, and they're likely to visit your website, too, if you tell them about it.
  

 Each time you connect your various marketing methods, you increase the value of each one, till the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Rep. Pomeroy recently spoke here on the importance of small businesses in job growth. Small businesses have created over 22 million new jobs in the past 15 years, so it's no surprise that experts on both sides of the aisle agree that small business is the growth engine for jobs.

There's also widespread agreement that the web is the growth engine for small business.

How can the internet help you grow your small business?

First, you can open your doors  online for much less than what it costs in the physical world. Even if you plan to grow someday to the point where you need a big building downtown, a business can get started with a good website. As you grow, your website allows you to communicate with customers, get the most for your marketing dollar, and maintain a 24/7 presence where your customers are.

 Second, you can save time and money with web applications. Onsharp offers electronic billing with SmartPay, customer relationship management with SugarCRM, and a myriad of services with the Onsharp Core,including email, calendar management, geocoding, content management, e-commerce integration, and much more. Beyond these basics, Onsharp's crack development team can create solutions just for your company. 

This robust functionality lets a small company look and feel like a bigger company to clients and prospective clients. With the savings in time and money that result from having so many of the basic business functions take place on the web, your company can concentrate on growth.

Call Onsharp today to begin the conversation about what our business can do for your business. 

For 2010, don't mess around with resolutions to get organized or laugh more often. 

Jump right into the serious stuff. The second decade of the 21st century is beginning, and it's time for all of us to get our businesses online and flying.

Onsharp has ten resolutions that will make a real difference for your business, and we'd love to help you achieve them. 

Choose one or all, and call us today to get ready for your profitable new year. 

• If you don't have a website, get one. No excuses.
• Make sure your design is a modern one that enhances your company's image.
• Get your website's code updated to current standards, for accessibility and predictability.
• Get your content updated -- no more outdated information, typos, or text copied from your company brochure.
• Make usability the #1 priority at your website -- your customers will love you for it.
  
• Install analytics so you really know how people are using your website.
• Include your website, blog, email, and social media in your marketing plan.
• Use your online presence to support your brick and mortar shop, and vice versa.
  
• Encourage staff to get engaged with customers online.
• Use online applications like SmartPay and SugarCRM to make your business more productive.

Recent studies claim that email marketing is one of only two marketing methods businesses intend to increase spending on this year (social media is the other).

One of the inferences we can draw from this is that email marketing works. For several years now, email marketing has had the highest ROI of any marketing method commonly being measured (social media doesn't fit that description). This means that email outperforms direct mail, TV ads, and print ads dollar for dollar. It also significantly increases the bang for your buck when used in combination with other methods. For example, when you run a direct mail campaign and follow up with email, you can expect a 50% higher rate of conversion than you can get with direct mail alone.

The other thing we can conclude from this, though, is that there's going to be a lot more marketing email in your customers' mail boxes.

Yours needs to stand out.

How can you accomplish this?

• Make sure your email marketing piece reflects your brand. You need for your customers to be able to recognize that the email they receive is from you, someone they know and trust, not from just anyone. Onsharp can assist you with custom templates to give you that visual consistency. When you write the email, make it consistent, too. You don't want to say the same thing every time, but you will want to take a similar approach, keeping your heading, your tone, and the way you address your customers the same from month to month.
• Offer value. If it's all about you, your customers will be less receptive than if it's all about them. Certainly, share the news about your new products and services. But you can also tell your hardware store customers how to get their cars ready for the Fargo winter, or share the best upcoming arts events with your music students -- anything related to your products and services is probably something your customers would appreciate knowing about.  
• Segment and target. If your list includes different groups -- people who read your newsletter and click through, for example, vs. people who read and don't click through, or people who shop with you every week and people who stock up twice a year -- then you can improve your results by creating a different mailing piece for each group.If this sounds overwhelming, consider using SugarCRM to keep track of these things.
• Test and track results. Measuring your results allows you to determine the return on your investment and improve the results of your marketing efforts. Again, SugarCRM makes this easy, but even a spreadsheet is useful. Set your email marketing piece up with a special landing page, phone number, or coupon so you'll know when you get a response.
  

Done well, email marketing can be something your customer's look forward to, not something they quickly delete.

Email marketing, as we said in the last post, is highly effective as a rule. A recent global study found that 25% of all recipients open email marketing pieces.

But this is statistical information. Some email marketing does much better than others. How can you be sure that your emails will be the ones that get opened, read, and acted on?

• Don't skimp. Some companies think they can make a PDF of a print ad and send it out in an email for an effective email marketing campaign. This is a mistake. Remember that your customers look at your emails online, and people respond differently to things online than they do to print ads. Email is always less costly than print, so there's no reason to cut corners on preparing your e-marketing. It's essential to  have a qualified web designer design them. Onsharp is an established Fargo web design firm, and can assist you with the design for your email marketing pieces, as well as the landing pages you build for them.
• Use an email marketing service. Many businesses think they can just type up a newsletter as an email and send it off to their customer list from their usual email address. This is a mistake. Sending out an email to lots of addresses at once, especially if it contains sales copy, can get your address flagged as an address sending out spam. More of the newsletters will land in your customers' spam folders, and you can even be blocked from using your address. For the best results, you need to use an email marketing service. Onsharp can help you find the right service and set up your marketing plan so that it'll meet your goals.
  
• Test and track your campaigns. Some businesses decide to give email marketing a try, send out an email, and wait and see it if it works. This is another mistake. Working with a web design and development firm means that your e-marketing pieces will look and work the way you want them to -- not always a certainty if you do it yourself. Onsharp can also help you track your results so you know exactly how well each piece performed. This gives you the information you need to keep doing what works and work on what doesn't.