Author Archive
Growth Spark’s First Workshop on Web-Based Lead Generation
Generating conversion is a fundamental principle to Growth Spark's web design, development and marketing philosophy. A well-built website serves a purpose greater than 'a place for people to find your business online'. Its purpose is to meet the goals you have with regards to your visitors: conversion into leads, subscribers, customers, etc. We are proud to announce our first workshop on web-based lead generation aptly titled "Using the Web to Generate Leads, Increase Sales and Grow Your Business".
We've designed this workshop specifically with small businesses in mind who have or want a website that will actually produce sales for their company. You'll learn how to:
- Reach new customers and generate leads with Social Media Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook
- Analyze your customers' web-viewing behavior to better understand their decision-making
- Manage your website easier with a content management system
- Rank higher in Google search results with well-chosen keywords
- Increase sales and conversion rates through better website design
Join us for this valuable and informative session where you'll learn the above strategies and enjoy a complimentary lunch at the beautiful Roomscapes Luxury Design Center. You'll leave with steps you can take to increase your business' online visibility, build a stronger relationship with your customers and generate new leads and sales online.
Freshbooks: The Best in Small Business Invoicing Software
Why We Have to Give Up the Spreadsheet and Start Using Freshbooks: A satisfied customer and evangelist's Freshbooks review.
It's around this time of the year, during tax season, that many entrepreneurs and small businesses ask themselves the following question: "Why the hell am I still using Excel to track my finances?" When we first start our companies or take on our first client, it's far too easy to fall into the trap of using a 'master spreadsheet' to manage all of our accounting. An income statement looks pretty simple when you have one revenue source and minimal expenses (usually just coffee from Starbucks). However - and hopefully - things will start growing for your company and you need something a bit more sophisticated to measure the bottom line. May we present to you: Freshbooks.
Freshbooks is an online time tracking and invoicing software that virtually replaces a bookkeeper (sorry to all my friends in accounting). It lets you track your expenses, invite contractors and staff to track their time, accept online payments with most major payment gateways and create branded invoices that are pretty impressive. Of course, all of these features come standard with any online small business accounting software, of which there are plenty out there. What really differentiates Freshbooks is their customer service.
When it came time for us to make our final decision as to which small business invoicing software to use, we decided to test the claims of each software product and contact their respective companies. What amazed us was that Freshbooks publicly and proudly display their customer service phone number - What's that Google? Provide your customers a way to call you directly and talk to a human being? No!! - and so we decided to call them and ask a few questions. I was blown away that not only did someone pick up the phone but they answered each of my twenty detailed and annoying questions (extensive due diligence we call it) without trying to upsell me or point me back to their website. At first, I thought it was a fluke, but decided to sign up anyway and give their invoicing software the real usability test.
A quick glimpse at the Freshbooks interface.
To date, Freshbooks has continued to amaze me. It's a great product with great support - something a lot of web applications are missing. I can go on and on about them, but would recommend you try them out yourself. I'm sure they would be happy to field your annoying phone calls just like mine!
Growth Spark is not affiliated with Freshbooks, just a whole-hearted enthusiast. We would appreciate discounts on our monthly subscription, however, and if you feel like our review helped you make the decision to go with Freshbooks, we'd appreciate it if you signed up with our Freshbooks referral link.
Growth Spark Sponsors WordCamp Boston 2010
WordPress has become a dominant player (often cited as the leading) in content management systems over the past few years. With almost all of our projects built on the WordPress platform, we at Growth Spark are big believers in its power, flexibility and scale. We were truly excited to have the opportunity to show our passion for WordPress through our sponsorship of WordCamp Boston. WordCamp is day-long event for WordPress designers, developers and enthusiasts to come together and share their knowledge, experience and passion for this platform.
Not surprisingly, tickets sold out in what seemed like overnight. Hosted at the Microsoft NERD Center, the event should be a fantastic meetup and undoubtedly teach us some new tricks to incorporate in some of our future projects.
GrowthSpark.com Launches Company Website
Over the past year, we've heard the same question asked numerous times. "You're a web design company, where is your website?" Every time we hear it, we can't help but laugh. Initially we decided to focus on helping our clients get their own websites up first. Last year, we successfully launched over a dozen projects, many of which are featured in our portfolio. Inspired their success, a new year and upcoming sponsorship of WordCamp Boston, we decided it was about time to go live. We are proud to reveal the new GrowthSpark.com.
