Kathy Steele
Vice President/Creative Director

Desert Rose Design was selected as a 2009 honoree in The Business Ledger’s 10th Annual Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (EEA) program. As an honoree in the Growth category, The Business Ledger asked us to contribute to an article that can be found in the October 19th issue. The following is a list of questions we were posed as well as our answers. In replying to these questions, it really made us stop and consider our growth and the subject of growth as a whole. I thought we should share…

TBL: When times are good, growth is easier. But in a tough financial market, what are the keys to growing a small business?

KS: There are a few ways we continue or maintain growth even in a difficult economy. First, we take a look at our core competencies and determine what segment or segments have the most potential for growth. In our case, we focus on brand positioning, digital marketing and web application development. With the on-surge of social networking and the need for businesses to invest in technology efficiencies, our digital and application development expertise have the most potential for increased revenue. We focus our marketing and sales efforts to aggressively penetrate market share in those areas.

Second, our business has always been diverse. Our various service offerings as well as the multitude of industries we serve have allowed us to weather economic downturns. This “non-niche” business model has really served us well in the last year.

Third, we dive deeper with our existing clients. We look at the services we are currently providing and work with them to craft programs in marketing areas that will increase their exposure.

TBL: How do you translate your motivation to others in your company?
KS: Everything in our company hails from the top down. We share our successes and failures, and we strive for a culture of excellent work and life balance. As business owners, we understand that both monetary reward and simple recognition programs are key to positive employee morale and motivation, so we have developed a few specific programs this year to really spark our employees to continue their hard work. Moving into 2010, we have an exciting plan for additional monthly perks that include movie screenings and potluck lunches.

TBL: Is there such a thing as too much or too rapid growth?
KS: It all depends on the company. In our case, we had to consider who we want to be. While we have an aggressive growth plan in place, we know that our goal is not to be a big agency. We like being able to engage in non-profit or unconventional projects, and we enjoy knowing our clients and staff on a more intimate level. That being said, we have grown quickly. It is important to examine your growth and assess a strategy for how to manage it at each stage. We have recognized this and modified our business and marketing plan to align with where our business is heading.

TBL: What is the most important lesson you have learned along the way?
KS: We have learned so many lessons, but there are two things that really stand out.

Mentoring has been critical to our growth. Finding industry and business leaders that act in an advisory role can have significant impact on how you manage all aspects of business life. Having mentors and using their advice has been the single most important key to many of our successes.

We also feel strongly about social responsibility. In the early stages of our business, we adopted a policy of planned giving and volunteerism that now includes our eco-friendly initiative, “Go Green. Promote Green.” Our pay-it-forward philosophy has brought us numerous opportunities and great personal satisfaction.

Have you grown your business in this tough economy? We would love to hear how.