First and last name
Mark Anthony Rudder
Company name
Mark Anthony Media
Website address
www.markanthonymedia.com
Please describe exactly what your business does and your target market
My company does graphic design and branding, website design, website hosting, multimedia, printing, advertising and marketing. We have a contracted a pool of talent we use regular basis We also develop internet based tools for our clients like CMS (Content Management System) websites, contact databases or e-mail marketing tools. Our ideal customers are small businesses who need a big business impact. We help small companies with marketing efforts that help companies get noticed and drive sales.
What makes your business different? What is that you do that makes your business unique?
There are a lot design and advertising companies out there — but I think we are unique because of our creative skill and talent in these disciplines, level of customer service, our focus and understanding of various disciplines and marketing tools and how they can be best utilized and most importantly we don’t just set out to do “creative” work. We want our work to make our clients money in the long term. Above all, if we don’t do that, we have failed.
Why did you decide to start your own business? How did you get into your particular business?
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur since college. I love the freedom and challenges it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, you are constantly thinking and constantly challenged. I also like the fact that you are responsible for the success or failure of your business. A lot of people look at it as risk, but I mostly see the rewards. I also wanted to be wealthy, and having the opportunity to create exciting projects and businesses from the ground up. Being an entrepreneur allows me to do two things I’m passionate about — art and business.
What’s the best part of being an entrepreneur?
The best part of being an entrepreneur is that you get to do what you love doing. You aren’t stuck in an office all day grumbling about your boss. It is also great that you are directly responsible for the success of your business. You really have a chance to build a lot of wealth and opportunities for yourself and the people close to you.
What’s the worst part of being and entrepreneur?
The worst part of being an entrepreneur sometimes, is that you only have yourself to blame when business is going slow. Also, for some entrepreneurs, not having a steady paycheck, can be an issue. But I think, that is good problem to have. It forces you to figure out, how can you have more money coming to you business on a regular basis. You get to ask yourself “What are you doing wrong and how can I change that?” A lot of the times, the solutions can be very profitable.
How long have you been in business?
I’ve been officially in business since 2004. But before that I was doing a lot of projects for other clients when I was in school and also on the side while working for other employers.
How did you raise the start-up cash?
It was mostly cash saved up from working from my former employer and freelance jobs that I done. I’ve slowly built my business brick by brick.
Identify and discuss a few lessons you’ve learned as an entrepreneur?
The most important lesson, I’ve learned is to NEVER give up. It sounds cliché but I’ve seen a lot of young people start a business and then give up — after trying it for a short period. You really need to have an iron will and focus. It is very easy to get derailed by negative people and not very ideal circumstances.
I would also highly recommend reviewing your business constantly. Reviewing what services/products you sell that give you the highest margins. Where can you cut down on your expenses. What new products/services you can offer.
Also, you really have to listen to what your customers need or want and then evaluate how profitable those ideas can be. if you offered to other customers.
What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
I would say take the time to understand your business and the industry as much as you can. Always keep a close eye on the books, again how much money you spend and where. Stay up to date on the latest in the industry whether by reading magazines or popular websites. You should also read and many general business magazines, blogs, websites as possible. They’re usually always full of ideas on marketing, branding, accounting etc. Also keep a close eye on your competitors and what they are doing — see if there is anything you can take from there arsenal to add to yours.
What are your goals and plans for the future?
Well. right now we just launched our new website. The new website is very significant because it really represents our creativity and our business model as a whole. So we are doing a lot more advertising and PR to bring more awareness to it. We’ve never really done any serious advertising until this point. We have mostly built our business on word of mouth, and some third party businesses that found us clients. So we are now looking to advertise and market heavily to expand out business.
But our immediate goals service wise are to get into more TV commercial production and to do a lot more websites for small businesses, as almost every business needs a website. We will be also launching a new e-mail marketing system for our clients in the next few months.
