There are a lot of companies that offer tons of digital services for businesses — everything from web design to online marketing. But TinyFrog Technologies has chosen just to focus on one area. Read about the company’s journey to niche down and provide a better experience for customers in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Offers a variety of web services for businesses.
Services include web design, web development and WordPress secured hosting and maintenance.
Business Niche
Bringing experience to every client.
TinyFrog Technologies Founder and CEO Mikel Bruce told Small Business Trends, “We’ve been in business for over 15 years and have 24 team members. In comparison, most web agencies are very small with just a few employees. Because there’s a lot of competition in our industry, it’s rare to find agencies that have been in business as long as we have.”
How the Business Got Started
By noticing a need in the market.
Bruce says, “In the early 2000s, I saw a growing need for website services for small businesses. I had over 10 years of experience in corporate marketing, so in 2003, I started the business in San Diego with just one web designer and one web developer.”
Biggest Win
Successfully shifting the business model.
Bruce explains, “Our biggest win was deciding to shift from digital marketing services and specialize solely in web design, development and maintenance. We made the decision in 2010 and we slowly shifted all of our resources. Once we made the shift, the quality of our work skyrocketed. We expanded our team and recruited extremely talented web designers, developers and UX strategists. We’ve also seen tremendous growth in our WordPress maintenance service. We started by hosting 50 sites or so, and we now host & maintain over 600 sites.”
Biggest Risk
Focusing on a specific niche instead of casting a wide net.
Bruce adds, “Shifting away from digital marketing to web design services was a big risk. At the time of the decision, 30% of our revenue was coming from those marketing services. However, the decision paid off in a big way. We took another big risk in 2011 and decided to only build sites on the content management system WordPress. WordPress has a lot of benefits in terms of custom design, development and SEO. It was a risk though because it limited the types of projects we could take on. It was a great decision for our team. WordPress is now the most popular content management system in the world, and a lot of clients come to us because we have such deep knowledge of everything related to WordPress.”
Lesson Learned
Focus only on your specific target customers.
Bruce says, “If we could do it all over again, we would niche down faster by offering certain services and by focusing on our ideal client profile (industry, company size, etc.).”
How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000
Taking the team on an excursion.
Bruce explains, “We treat our employees really well, and we have a company outing once every quarter, but if we had an extra $100K, we’d love to do a really amazing employee retreat. Our team was recently discussing how awesome it would be to go to Costa Rica and see real red-eyed tree frogs – our company brand & mascot. With $100K, we could arrange a nice trip to Costa Rica and get to see our “tiny frogs” as a team.”
Favorite Communication Method
Frog puns.
Bruce says, “Our team has really embraced it. Our website is filled with frog puns (toad-ally awesome, un-frog-gettable, etc.). Our office has tons of frog photos and artwork that we’ve received as gifts over the years. It’s a really fun aspect of our work culture, and our clients love it too.”
Favorite Frog Joke
“What does a frog say when it sees something great? Toad-ally awesome”
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Images: TinyFrog Technologies; Top Image: hosting manager Chris Andujar with clients