Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Schweers.
Hi Jared, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I became interested in graphics, etc. in high school, Photoshop specifically. I took some more classes the first year of college and then selected a degree in Communications Technology, which focused on graphics, PR, web design, communication law, and technology in general. Once I graduated it was difficult to find a job that paid more than I was making as an electronics store manager. It was a partially commissioned-based job that I’d started my freshman year of college part-time and moved up to management and full-time hours.
Driving to Dallas for less money didn’t seem to make much sense, my wife still had one semester of college, so I stayed in retail. I did web jobs on the side and freelanced some. Then, one of the managers I’d trained at the store moved on to a local real estate office. She got me in contact with a realtor that had a web and graphics business and needed some help. Oddly enough she disappeared after two weeks at the real estate office, we still do not know what happened to her 16 years later. But the connection was made and that proved to be beneficial.
So, I started working on sites and designing graphics with the owner of that company, Evan. This was good, but it was not a full-time income, so I worked it on the side. I then moved out of retail and began working for a promotional company doing graphics, shirts, and other promotional items. After about 8 months of that, they found themselves in a difficult spot financially and needed to cut overhead.
At that point, a bit scared and unsure, I started working the web and graphics business full time. It started to grow and the current owner didn’t have the time to keep up or give the business much attention. At that point, I purchased the business and started moving forward. Even though it was an existing business, it had very little residual income in it and the flow of business was certainly modified by the previous owner exiting. It was like starting over. It took about 2 years to get things flowing more regularly.
I believe the connection made was nothing short of God’s hand guiding me to where I needed to be. It was something I would not have chosen myself. My parents had a few businesses after exiting the corporate world and I saw the strain, the challenges, and the highs of owning your own business. But I would never have said that was for me until I was sort of forced into it.
As our family grew so did the business, my wife quit teaching after our second child and God continued to provide in the business. Although it still wasn’t where I wanted it to be, it was growing every year. Early on I began providing monthly services for SEO, search engine optimization. This helped establish a more regular income and also contributed to a lot of the growth since search engines became the way people find the services they need.
I continued to grow the lines of service and jumped into apparel. I focused on becoming a one-stop shop for marketing needs. Print, digital, apparel, promo, design, etc. Adding apparel provided another revenue stream that didn’t require a lot of overhead from me. As that grew, with a combination of many other circumstances, with some partners we started a screen-printing shop in 2017. Now I could better control the delivery and quality of the shirts.
Shortly after starting that business, the digital marketing business began to grow at a greater rate and then we signed on some larger monthly clients that really allowed us to grow and have a higher level of consistent revenue. In that process, we added on Google Ads management. With larger clients and an added service the yearly growth went from 20-30% to 50%. And this is where we are today. On track to do at least 25% more this year and the second business, the screen-printing shop is likely going to double in revenue after purchasing another shop in January of this year.
I spend as much time as I can afford serving in our community. I coach youth sports, volunteer at non-profits, I was recently a Co-Advisor for the Rockwall Leadership Class of 2022. I’ve taught Bible Study for High School Seniors and taught middle school kids through college. I love my community and try to give back whenever and wherever I can. This also allows for various connections to city leaders, elected officials, etc. that can turn into good business connections at times.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve experienced the same issues many small business owners face. Starting out is not easy. Most people don’t have a built-in revenue stream, you have to go find clients. Then once you have some business, you have to iron our your processes, figure out how to better serve your clients, etc.
In addition to getting started and trying to develop business, I found myself working on the projects I had and not paying enough attention to invoices. I’d send invoices, but if clients were slow to pay, I didn’t have a system to follow up. Not only that, was I even sure everything I was doing was accurate? No. So, I hired a CPA for monthly services and even though it wasn’t something I wanted to spend money on, it help me smooth things out and allowed me to not have any worries about filing, paying, or invoicing.
Growth creates challenges as well. How do you get more work done with the same amount of manpower and time? You have to figure that our for your business. Solving that equation for me didn’t take long, but solving it allows a business to continue to scale and grow with minimal obstacles.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are known for our great website builds, honesty, speed, and service. Unlike others in our industry, my degree alone sets me apart. Anyone with some creativity and graphic skill can build a site these days. But they probably won’t build it in the best way, using best practices. It likely won’t have all the search engine components it needs. It will probably not load as quickly as it should, etc. All these things can also be learned, but there is a stark difference (and steep learning curve) between a professional building a site and a site that was built by someone that watched some YouTube videos and learned how to start building sites. Not only that, but things change frequently, so staying current requires a time investment.
We provide marketing solutions. Although we focus on web design, search engine optimization, and paid click management, we offer a full line of print and promotional products. Having a solid company to help you with these items is key. It is easy to waste a lot of money in online marketing. We pride ourselves in using the marketing dollars of our clients in the most efficient way possible. And we help our clients spend their dollars in a way that best compliments their goals and their business.
In 2016 we were voted the Rockwall Area Chamber Small Business Partner of the Year and were nominated again in 2021. Being that the Rockwall Chamber has over 700 partners, most of which are small businesses, it is a great honor to even be nominated.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Marketing will always be a need of businesses. What that marketing looks like with change not only with the changes in society and technology but from industry to industry. Home services might see a big shift in voice search over the next 5+ years. But, for those industries that operate more business to business, voice search may not be as important.
Organic search and paid search constantly change, I think that will continue. Google will get smarter, it will be more specific, it will give business more opportunities to reach users in different ways. Our world is visual and video/images will continue to become a bigger part of grabbing the attention of a user or selling your product/service. 89
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @keyelementmedia
