Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Taylor Powers.
Lisa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began my journey as a freelancer straight out of college! I took contract work at startups in San Francisco and learned how fun and scary it was to be on your own. I would do that for a few years and end up in various corporate jobs. I was in event planning, then moved onto corporate marketing departments with global reach. While working 9 to 5 in a big corporation in 2012 (which I loved the brand, but not the company), I decided to take on gigs to satisfy my creative and entrepreneurial style.
Friends hired me to boost their businesses online and I found success in doing this. Then, someone I had worked with years ago called me up because he saw that my LinkedIn profile noted that I took freelance work. He asked if I had some time for a branding project and of course, I said, “YES!”
That client is still working with me and I have taken on many more. In 2015, I decided to make my freelancing business my full-time job with TheLT.co- my initial as my business name. I built my website and began networking in person like crazy. After about 1 years of full-on networking, running the business and gaining new clients, I had achieved lots of great goals. I was grossing over $100K, so this thing felt real. Then, I took on a client selling Million$ condos in SF. We ended up redesigning their website and I felt out of alignment with my own. I was advocating for a polished online presence, but here I was with a Squarespace template website in a digital services industry.
I hired a web designer and updated my brand name to The Hive Marketing. Shortly after that, my husband received work in LA and my business is expanding in Southern California as well. Next steps are working toward becoming a B-Corporation where we proudly display our commitment to sustainability and impact. Part of this will include giving back to charitable organizations through donated hours of service.
Has it been a smooth road?
No! The road has been paved with many roadblocks, mudslides, and cracks! 🙂 Those have been business struggles – working with other contractors who completely bail on you last minute, clients who take their issues out on you, don’t pay on time and other challenges.
In addition, my life outside of my work has been incredibly challenging. In the time that I began my business, I’ve moved 4 times, married my husband and have been parenting my 6-year-old niece.
Since I like to stay focused on the positive, I think about how creating my own schedule and life has allowed me to live a fuller, richer life- if a client is mean to me, I take the afternoon off. If I need to be at a school function, I will work more that night before. Having freedom is priceless!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Hive Marketing story. Tell us more about the business.
The Hive Marketing helps creative entrepreneurs who are frustrated they have invested a lot of time and resources on their website but are disappointed it is not producing the qualified leads and customers they had hoped for.
Typically they have done piecemeal efforts like SEO, a Facebook boosted post or Google Ads, alone. They become frustrated because they haven’t seen results, or it hasn’t translated into more leads and sales.
Our niche is our working style. We only take year-long clients as we take a long-term view of your business and its growth. Since we partner through the process, we recommend solutions that are realistic and effective as the business changes. Using tools like SEO, blogging, email marketing, social media and ads to effectively reach their targets.
Recently, we succeeded in creating B2C engagement with a company that was formerly B2B. We’ve achieved 522% more blog subscribers, 64.15% more visits to the website from social media and 48.7% increase in followers on Facebook.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
More automation with regards to customer service, content creation, and interaction. We’re seeing a lot of messaging right now. Bots that will reply back to you when you have an inquiry. Business owners can take advantage of this technology by setting up a customer service system that generates responses to the most commonly asked questions about their business.
The other big change is that your website will no longer be the only place someone researches you. Now, we have so many social platforms, not to mention specific industry platforms that users can leave reviews. So, it’s very important to be consistent and have the ability to update each platform.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2287 India Street
- Website: www.thehivemktg.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Thehivemarketingco/
- Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/TheHiveMarketingCo/
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