A lot to be thankful for

Thanksgiving has quickly come & quickly gone, but I thought I’d take just a couple moments to reflect on the year we’re about to complete and the new year that’s rapidly approaching.

At Sozo Firm, we have a lot to be thankful for. We’ve been blessed with a profitable & quite busy 2007.  In fact, 2007 will go down in history as a year packed full of surprises for us. As a young, several-year-old company, we’re going through the growing pains that small businesses experience when they wrestle with their future: do we expand to meet demand or do we stay comfortably small while having to decline prospective new work.

When I first began Sozo Firm, originally called Sozo Creative, my intention was merely to have an identity for my own personal tech consulting. Little did I dream that one day Sozo would no longer be just a little pet project–it would become a company all of its own. Today, we’re faced with the challenges of hiring, taxes & more taxes, legal mumbo jumbo, and forming a limited liability corporation.

While many are arguing that SEO firms are on the decline as larger companies develop their own in house solutions, we’ve been able to flourish in a relatively swamped market.  My strategy has been to focus on what we do well–and to gradually broaden our services as we obtain new talent.  While providing SEO to websites still remains the core of what we do, our on site SEO training services, along with our SEM management & research services, may very well one day generate more revenue & projects for us than optimization alone. 

While the plethora of new “SEO firms” arising each day have definitely made it more challenging for us to procure new clients, I have insisted–from day one–that Sozo Firm be distinguished by its personal touch: we place a priority on prompt, friendly customer service (currently, I am the primary contact person & I readily provide my cell phone number) and strive to be readily available even 24/7 if necessary.  As the company rapidly grows, there will be changes in some things (for sanity sake!), but I believe that priority investment into customer satisfaction is key to repeat business as well as referrals.

To date, we’ve been blessed with a steady stream of work (5 RFPs, I believe, during Thanksgiving week alone), and, even with my inherent cautiousness, I’m excited to look forward to 2008. Many changes will be made as the year begins, but I believe they will be for the best.

I’d also like to thank those of you who have chosen to let us serve you–whether it be through providing ongoing SEO services, marketing research, SEM management or you name it–without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today.  Thank you for helping Sozo Firm succeed.  As I tell each of you time and again, never forget–we’re here for your success too.

Andrew Jensen
President & Founder, Sozo Firm