This year marks a huge milestone for RWL Design. We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary. Our success is a testament to our amazing clients and incredible team. We want to express a special thank you to all those who have supported us and believed in us over the years.
We also wanted to take a moment to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, the projects in which we’ve taken particular pride, and the goals we’ve set for the future. We hope no matter where you are in your career, some of these will inspire you to work smarter, kinder, and with a greater sense of purpose.
We’d also like to invite you to share some of your own pearls of wisdom. Take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned, on the projects you’ve enjoyed, and the goals you’ve set. Then, share them with us in a Facebook comment.
Lessons Learned
Stay Humble
That is a controversial idea, but it’s true for a lot of reasons. One of the most obvious is your industry is always changing. You have to recognize the need to constantly learn. Web frameworks come and go. Search best practices change. International email law matures. And, social media turns everyone around. Learning is essential.
The less obvious reason is the more you learn, the more realize how much more there is to know.
Being humble in business is not being weak - it’s being compassionate. It’s being willing to listen first, seeking to understand, and valuing the contributions of others. Be firm. Be strong. But do so while understanding there is a bigger world around you.
Recognize Profit Sometimes Needs to Come Second
As silly as it sounds, sometimes doing the right thing in business requires taking a hit. Maybe it’s letting a colleague take a project who needed it more. It could be eating a little time to go the extra mile for a client. Or, it might be giving back a bit more than you budgeted to charity.
The purpose of business is not simply to pad shareholders’ pockets or win accolades. It should be to change the trajectories of people’s lives for the better.
Work with a Great Team
You don’t have to do everything yourself. Bring in like-minded people to do more than you could have done alone. Challenge them. Build trust. Celebrate their success. Try to improve what didn’t work the first time. Your goal with everyone you bring in should be to help them grow. Also, don’t be afraid to bring people who may be smarter or more experienced in other areas.
Make Plans for Your Business
It’s easy to stay on cruise-control. Sometimes that’s what you need, but don’t stay there too long. Remember to analyze what you’ve done, what’s working, what can be better, and where you are headed. Do you need to make course corrections? You won’t know if you don’t stop for a moment and think.
Have Fun
You can’t work all the time. Breaks are important. This is not a short game. If you are running a business, you are running a marathon. Pace yourself and your team. Sure there are times you need to grit your teeth and just get things done. But if that is your normal day, it’s a warning sign you need help. At the end of the day, if you do not enjoy what you do, why fight uphill doing it? Make sure you have time to socialize, exercise, and do hobbies that recharge your spirit. It is actually really hard to carve out time for fun, but it is worth it.
Projects Highlights
Redlands Symphony Google Grants Development & Implementation
For the last nine years, we’ve been honored to work with Redlands Symphony. Seeing this unique organization grow and mature as a musical and cultural destination in the Inland Empire provides constant encouragement. Each season with the symphony is an opportunity to showcase their expertise and community support. Among our favorite projects with the symphony was helping it set up and optimize Google Grants - a unique marketing platform that boosted their marketing budget with free ad spend and resulted in an increase in ticket sales.
All Martha Green Digital Presence Re-Branding
Home based in Redlands, California, All Martha Green has long been a favorite destination for locals. However, their online presence wasn’t quite keeping up with their incredible service. This project is a great example how our team works together to collaborate and make our process better. The result was a digital presence that converts.
Utilizing our expertise in design, strategy, copywriting, marketing, and technology to help local business thrive. From the moment we launched, All Martha Green reported a jump in online orders. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to help their business thrive.
Future of Flight Website – Amazing Collaboration with Chatter Creative
Chatter Creative’s owner has been a good friend for several years. It was incredible to collaborate with them on the development and launch of Future of Flight’s new site. The project required a lot of research and planning, but it was a seamless launch that saw their previous organic search presence integrated and expanded. Ultimately, we were able to help Future of Flight unify their museum and foundation in one online home.
SMS Security Branding
SMS Security was one of our first customers. Working with them has been a blessing. They took a chance on us and over the years we have not only helped their business grow, we have come to consider the owners family. Having them in our lives is a privilege. Recently, we were able to help them streamline their guard hiring process and give them tools to reach new, potential guards to hire for their sites.
Incredible Customers
We have a lot of customers who keep choosing to work with us. Kudos 365 has been an enjoyable project. Working with their team, we’ve been able to test new techniques and utilize innovative techniques. AboutRedlands.com has always pushed us to think outside the box. Girl Scouts offered fun and engaging design projects, from gala invitations to camp registration books.
From small to large, RWL has worked with a variety of businesses and organizations. Collaborating with each of our clients to help them achieve their goals continues to be an honor.
RWL Design Goals
At RWL Design, we’re always looking for new ways to better serve our customers and deliver more value.
Keep Pushing the Envelope
Over the last few years we’ve integrated a full-scale approach to marketing that’s helped customers streamline their efforts across multiple platforms. From strengthening branding and strategically launching products to effectively advertising online and crafting customer-focused messages, we aim to constantly keep pushing the envelope.
Continue Delivering Advice for Long-Term Success
Our goal is to see the forest through the trees. We aim help our customers know what to do, what not to do, and what to improve. We want to keep doing that.
Provide Top Level Service
We are growing our team and focusing on what industries we can serve best. We’ve polished our core values and our mission to ensure each member is on the same page.
Use Content Marketing to Help You Maximize Results
We want to grow our Content Marketing services. We’ve seen how they help companies to increase their digital footprint, engage customers, and increase leads. And, we believe other customers can also achieve these amazing results.
Make Learning a Priority
We are committed to building savvy, responsive tools to make our customers shine. Tech has changed a lot over the years; we continue to monitor what new tools make sense for our customers. This takes commitment, but it is worth it.
Additionally, we will keep educating our team on conversion rate optimization so we can help our customers better meet the needs of their users.
Building a New RWL Design Website
This one is long overdue. (What’s the saying about the cobbler’s son?) But, it’s coming.
It’s been a good 10 years. Thank you for celebrating with us. We look forward to the next.
