10 years ago this month, the world seemed to be a very uncertain place.  The tech sector was watching the full-speed deflation of the Internet Bubble wreak havoc on the US Stock market.  Having burnt through their venture capital, small dot-com companies were folding without ever having made a net profit. The job market was glutted and venture capital monies had evaporated.  The 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers cast an icy pall of uncertainty and fear across the already struggling US economy.

It seemed a perfect time to me to start a business.

In September 2001, Cazbah was launched with a handful of people and a mission to make small business successful on the web.  Over these last 10 years we have increased in size seven fold, relocated our offices twice, cleared financial hurdles, migrated our technology platform,  celebrated 5 employee weddings and lots of births, and provided hundreds of small and mid-sized businesses with results-driven Internet marketing strategies and services.

A decade later and I find that we are still facing many of the same challenges and opportunities … the global economic instability, national debt, high unemployment and the nascent hint of a new Internet bubble.  And I am as convinced today as I was ten years ago that the answer to many of our problems lies in the hands of American small businesses.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are America’s biggest job creators, generating an estimated 44% of total U.S. private payroll and creating more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).   At Cazbah, our passion is helping these companies succeed in the face of what sometimes seems like insurmountable odds. There is a tremendous need to support these small businesses, which are doubly challenged when it comes to using the Internet to find more, new customers. The significant amounts of money they’ve spent on a host of advertising and marketing options haven’t delivered on their promises and they don’t have the resources to hire qualified in-house talent.

The business model that Cazbah began with is still the model that we operate from to this day. We work with our commercial, industrial and retail small business customers, providing them with everything that they need to succeed on the web from web site design to ecommerce services, from SEO to PPC, from email marketing to social media.  The results of our efforts can be seen and heard in the candid testimonials our customers give us telling us how Cazbah has worked for them.

Looking down the line at the decade behind us and the one before us, I’m encouraged by all the things that we have overcome and am excited by what still waits to be accomplished.   We are committed to continue to be a company of passionate people, achieving radical results by making ordinary small businesses extraordinary.

Thank you!

Charles B. Broersma
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Although CPR/AED Awareness Week is the first week of June, Cazbah in conjunction with its customer, Cardiac Life Products, is training and certifying its employees on CPR and AED.  Why have we decided to do this at Cazbah?  In October 2010 I participated in the Black Diamond Duathlon in Victor NY.  The Duathlon is a challenging race that requires participants to run 2 miles, bike 10 miles, and run 2 miles most of which is off road.  The events of this race led me on a path to seek training for CPR and to see how many others I could get to participate.  Here is my story:

On the day of this event I was standing at the starting line where the event coordinator announced that none of the participants were to have cell phones, ipods, or anything with headphones.  I quickly ripped off my headphones but decided to keep my iPhone with me.  I started the race strong with the two mile run but once I got on my bike things started to slow down for me.  I was not having a good ride.  It seemed like everyone was passing me.  Finally I got to the transition area for my final two mile run.  My legs felt like stone but I trudged on.  The last two miles took me down a narrow trail through some woods.  At this point there were runners passing me in the other direction on their way to the finish line.  About a ½ mile into my final two miles another runner and I came across a middle-aged man lying in the middle of the trail unconscious.

After failing to get a response from the fallen man I handed my iPhone to the other runner and told him to call 911.  While 911 was triangulating our position through my phone a wave of despair hit me.  I was pretty sure this man had gone into Cardiac Arrest but I could do nothing about it because I had not been trained in CPR.  I could feel him fading and it seemed like he was about to die in my arms.  Then after what seemed like an eternity a cardiac nurse, who was running in the race, came upon us and immediately started CPR.  While she was administering CPR an Ontario County Sherriff who was directing traffic for the event showed up at the scene with an AED  (Automated External Defibrillator) and attached it to the victim.  The AED shocked the man and the AED unit told the nurse and two other runners, who were trained in CPR and had shown up on the scene, to continue administering CPR.  Shortly after this we were able to get the victim off the trail to an ambulance that was waiting to take the victim to the hospital.

“Cazbah had definitely made an investment in understanding every aspect of my business and they have definitely helped us to grow our business.

What’s most notable about that growth is that we had what we thought was a very limited geography within which we could operate because of the types of products that we manufacture and distribute.

Inquiries through the Web have proven to me that there are opportunities that are many miles away that I never would have even considered calling on until the Web.”

Andy Severson, Vice President & General Manager, Armstrong Brands

“I always tell people that it’s very nice when you come in to work on January 15th when there’s snow on the ground and its cold outside and no customers are coming in, to have a bunch of orders to process. It’s like making money while you sleep.

I get 30 to 40 customer phone per day and a dozen or so emails too. I would estimate that I convert most of them, about 80%, to sales. We have noticed that our average order size on our Website is significantly higher than our in-store purchases.

I absolutely would recommend Cazbah to other small businesses.”

Diane Cappel President, Owner Cappel’s, Inc

“Our business has changed dynamically since we got going on the Internet. In the past, we had 88 sales reps on the street. Those 88 reps never produced 1/10 of what our Website currently produces. The way we go to market has changed completely. We no longer use sales reps and now we do all of our marketing and selling online.”

Tom Rich, Director at CH Ellis, Inc.

I am in the process of preparing for potential new clients and presenting to them over the next few weeks. It can be a laborious act – reviewing what they want to do, comparing that to the existing market, coupling that with the current viability of what they are doing today, and vetting several other key factors for good measure.

It’s an exhausting process, but one I’ve come to realize is the most important part of my job.

All combined, I may decide they indeed are doing well given their particular market segment.. (and in those cases – Congrats to them!). They may also be doing poorly on several levels and really don’t expect to be doing any better. Further, they may be able to do so much better, but are not able to dedicate any resources to the effort.

Determining up front these factors and ultimately deciding if we are a good fit together is so important to the success of both companies – not just theirs and not just ours.

If the fit is not right we spend our internal resources trying like heck to make them successful, only to not succeed. At times they get frustrated (and disappointed) because their hopes are dashed as they fail to gain the return they expect from the relationship.

On many occasions, we have stepped away from a potential new client, because when it’s all totaled up, the likelihood of their success was remote, if not impossible. It hurts up front to not accept a new client, but it’s for the best all around.

On the converse of that, when the fit is right, we are in step with each other and we set both realistic goals and shared tasks to reach those objectives. Both companies are seeing the benefits and we are moving forward in the establishment of a true long term relationship.

Just about every fall for the past 10 years I’ve made a trip, with a close friend of mine, up to a very special place in the Great White North, otherwise known as Canada. That place is Algonquin Provincial Park. The Park is located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Central Ontario, at roughly the same latitude as Montreal.

It is the oldest and one of the largest provincial parks in Canada comprising almost 8,000 square kilometers of back country wilderness. For comparison purposes, it is about the size of the state of Delaware. There are over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometers of streams and rivers throughout the park.

The natural unspoiled beauty of this part of the world cannot be fully appreciated in pictures or videos. In my humble opinion, it is best experienced in person. And that is precisely what we do every year. We appreciate the great outdoors while we canoe, portage and camp throughout the park for about a week in late September.

It’s a pretty rugged trip which takes preparation and months of (physical) training. We travel between 175 – 200 kilometers during our week in the park. 80% of the time we are on the water and 20% of the time we are (single) carrying our gear and canoes between waterways. We use solo canoes and we each carry about 120 lbs of gear and supplies, including the weight of the canoe, when we portage. Both my friend and I are former military and this is our annual opportunity to see if we’ve still got it. For lack of a better description, this is Extreme Canoeing.

Last week, a client – a long term client at that, stopped in to  our office for a discussion with his Account Manager. They were to work on a few aspects for an upcoming marketing effort for the fall and wanted to cover the details together.

While he was waiting for his Account Manager to finish a call, he whimsically wrote on our project board “ Do my stuff every day” .

He laughed.. we laughed and they went on with their meeting..

I thought later about it and his comment is really on point. Our clients gain success because we do stuff on their behalf.. ‘every day’

Ok, so it would be a stretch to say we are directly doing “stuff” everyday on every account – but we do stuff collectively which benefits all our clients in numerous indirect ways.

Things like  -

Developing improved functionality on our hosting platform, to ensure the technology serves our clients well such as PCi compliant security enhancements. Conducting training events for the Accounts team, which we refer to as “Cazbah University”, which allows them to share best practices across the team.

Cross linking social media accounts, to gain maximum benefit from each and every update.

Providing time for our folks to gain certifications, such as Google’s’ “Advertising Professional” program

Updating internal procedures to remain in step with the dynamic changes occurring daily on the web (and yes – the changes are both dynamic and daily!).

Researching exactly how Google’s Bots actually function and leveraging that knowledge across the board for our clients benefit.

Most interesting, our perspective is unique, because we are able to view online performance across many industries and vertical markets, spread across the entire country (worldwide even). If the industry is up – we know it.. If it’s down, we know it also.

As a result, our clients gain knowledge through us and allows them to see their industry in a different light.

In keeping with their goal to meet their customers where they are, Cazbah will be participating in the PTXi and International Powder & Bulk Solids tradeshow and Conference. “Most of the smaller manufacturing companies exhibiting at the show have significant untapped potential, just waiting to be realized on the web,” said David Wilson, director of business development for Cazbah. We’re hopeful to meet these companies at the show and begin a discussion that will lead to their success.

Cazbah Total Internet Marketing Solution announced today its intention to attend and actively participate in the PTXi and International Powder & Bulk Solids tradeshow and Conference, to be held May 4 – 6, 2010 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, in Rosemont (Chicago), IL, adjacent to O’Hare International Airport.

The PTXi tradeshow and conference is the world’s leading event for engineers and managers who process, handle, package, transport, test and store dry particulates and bulk solids across many industries. Manufacturers and suppliers will be in attendance from industries including material handling, transportation and storage, automation, instrumentation and controls, mixers and blenders, packaging and bagging, weighing systems and scales and many more.

Cazbah has been providing its total Internet Marketing Solution to manufacturing companies for more than nine years. Their customer base, consisting of hundreds of specialty American commercial and industrial small businesses, has realized remarkable results from the Internet in the face of seemingly insurmountable economic odds. Cazbah has helped its small business customers generate tens of millions of dollars in new revenue, directly and indirectly from the web.

Ellen Kominars of Magnetic Products Inc., a PTXi tradeshow exhibitor and Cazbah customer said, “The hassle, heartache and mystery of website development and management are gone. Cazbah has great expertise! What a great team! ”

“We get 5 – 10 quote requests per day with a much higher close rate,” said Len Holtgreven, president of Holtgreven Scale. “Since Cazbah has taken over our Web site development and Internet marketing, our sales leads have been much more qualified,” he said. “Our Customers now have in-depth knowledge of our products due to the site contents and organization.”

“We work extraordinarily hard for our specialty small business customers because we depend on their continued patronage for our own success,” said Michael Seppala, president of Cazbah. “We literally take a stake in their game. If they’re not successful, we’re not successful.”

Cazbah’s goal is to meet their customers where they are. The company assigns a dedicated account manager to every customer that they have. “The investments that we make in the relationships that we forge are the key to our mutual success,” Seppala went on to say.

In keeping with their goal to meet their customers where they are, Cazbah will be participating in the PTXi and International Powder & Bulk Solids tradeshow and Conference. “Most of the smaller manufacturing companies exhibiting at the show have significant untapped potential, just waiting to be realized on the web,” said David Wilson, director of business development for Cazbah. We’re hopeful to meet these companies at the show and begin a discussion that will lead to their success.

Account Manager

Cazbah, an Internet marketing services firm, provides small to mid-sized businesses with everything they need to succeed on the Internet. Our highly effective solution includes a dynamic database driven Web site with simplified content management, search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, e-commerce shopping cart, and dedicated service and ongoing support. Cazbah customers gain a greater level of control and generate measurable results!

Responsibilities
Key responsibilities for the Account Manager position include identifying and defining our clients’ requirements and needs, managing all aspects of a clients’ online sales and marketing strategy, and understanding and applying the Cazbah capabilities to our clients’ situational needs. Responsibilities include:

• Training our clients on the Cazbah tool set
• Monthly contact with clients
• Development and implementation of Internet marketing plans
• Working with the Cazbah production team to implement Internet marketing plans
• Analyze Web site performance and make appropriate adjustments to Internet marketing plan.

Required Skills
Candidate must have Internet marketing experience and have knowledge of how Web sites are built and maintained. A BS/BA degree or equivalent work experience in customer support, marketing or technology industry is also required. Experience working with small businesses/start ups preferred. In support of this, the candidate will have the following:

• Excellent communication skills and feel comfortable dealing with their assigned clients on a daily basis
• Basic Web site editing skills
• Strong knowledge of MS Word and Excel, and basic photo editing knowledge

Preferred Sills
The ideal candidate will have a passion for small businesses along with a strong knowledge of Web development. Preferred candidates will be skilled in the following areas:

• Google AdWords knowledge / certification
• Google Analytics knowledge / certification
• E-mail marketing knowledge
• Social media marketing knowledge
• Sales and distribution knowledge for retail and manufacturing industries

Benefits
The Cazbah Account Manager position is a salaried position with a healthcare plan, and matching simple IRA.

Please send cover letter and resume via e-mail to careers@cazbah.net
No phone calls please. We are an EEO Employer.