Today we’d like to introduce you to Alen Kevorkian.
Alen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was working at Parsons Engineering at the time, during my 10 years at the company I had been laid off 2x, I knew there was something better out there for me with more security and something I would love to do, I also knew that I could not work for a company that I was simply a number to them, I knew one day I would be married, mortgage and kids, and could not afford to be laid off.
During the same time frame, our department had decided that we should get a website put together, now this was going to be an intranet, access to our department only, and at that time it was around 1996 / 1997 – I took this challenge of doing the job with no experience before hand, I tough myself how to put a website together and launch it, allot of trial and error before I had everything working, but I also noticed how much fun I was having.
In 1998, I left the company and started LiveWebMedia with the concept of custom designing websites, at that time so early in the game, I had to get clients, so I went to my closest friends who had just graduated from the bar exam, and simply said you need a website, and I’m the one that going to do it for you…. from there the clients grew and grew from word of mouth. Around 7 years into the company I recall reading an article of how many businesses fail within the first 2/3 years of launch and recall having a discussion with my father, saying “I guess I made it”.
Sometime around 14 years of the business, I figured it was time to begin working on marketing, this was still a very early stage of Google, and Social media, as well as Yelp. I would say I have been lucky in life to feel like I am one step ahead of what is coming next, my father would disagree and say luck has nothing to do with it, you have worked for this.
We started collect lots of amazing reviews on Yelp, Facebook, and Google+ we started adding additional services like PPC, SEO, and Social Media Marketing, as well as Review Management, and we still growing. I would consider this company still a boutique firm, I don’t want to grow to be so large that we forget where we came from, and not have the time to provide a great service to our clients.
There have been many trial and error, certainly nothing they teach you in school about running your own business, however I did learn a few tricks from working at Parsons and that is keep your overhead down. When I started the company I funded it myself, so I would not be stressed out about repaying a loan back to the bank.
I have always had a very relaxed stand and try not to get stressed out about anything. I recall when I was turning 30 I was staring the company, and I said to myself, I am retiring at 30, since I get to do what I want now.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part, yes it has been amazing, but as any business goes, nothing is ever smooth unless you have unlimited funds, there are many trial and errors, and trying to figure out pricing, in that sweet spot. In 2008 it was pretty devastating, when I found myself losing quite a few clients to the crash of 08, luckily, I had enough clients to sustain it before starting to pick back up again.
LiveWebMedia – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The business is called LiveWebMedia, and we started out as a custom web development, something I truly enjoy doing with a passion, this helps when you’re doing this all day every day, we started added marketing to this around 5/6 years ago, with PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing, and with the latest technology were working on adding Drone coverage, or live feed to the list of things we do.
What separates us, well I think being a smaller business it’s important to reach your customers with respect, and not nickel and dime them like many other larger companies do, we go so far above and beyond what is expected of a web development company that I think so many refer to us and we have amazing reviews from clients.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Achieving what I wanted. I can truly say that whatever I have wanted I have gotten, I never dreamed of how many connections and doors this company would open for me, I think it has a lot to do with my personality, but still amazed at how far you can reach by simply being a kind person.
Pricing:
- Custom Web Design (hosting, email, monthly changes, SEO ready) $145.00 per month
- Mega 350, it includes all of the above with SEO keywords optimized to be found on Google $350.00
Contact Info:
- Address: 6303 Owensmouth Ave 10th FL, Woodland Hills, CA. 91367
200 Spectrum Center Drive 3rd FL Irvine, CA. 92618 - Website: www.livewebmedia.com
- Phone: 855.LIVE.WEB
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livewebmedia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livewebmedia
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/livewebmedia
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/live-web-media-woodland-hills-2
- Other: https://www.wix.com/arena/wix-expert/alen-kevorkian/portfolio
Image Credit:
Chelda
Martika
Juliet
Tina
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
