W177 N9856 Rivercrest Dr., Germantown, WI 53022
www.trivera.com
Industry: Online brand management, web development, SEO, email marketing and social media
Number of employees: 11
Education: University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, business administration
Family: Wife (and co-owner) Marjie, 3 grown children and 2 cute little dogs
What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?
“Totally revamping and upgrading our project management processes and software, and bringing aboard a great project manager to execute it. This has resulted in a night and day difference in our ability to deliver quality projects on time, on scope, on budget and on target.”
What’s new at your company?
“After working with, competing against and admiring Chris Remington for 10 years, we finally had the chance to make him part of our team. He brings a huge knowledge base with him and even better positions us as the firm to go to in our space.”
Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?
“As the economy rebounds, we hope to add one or two new team members for our growth areas: SEO and social media.”
What will be your company’s main challenges in the next year?
“The biggest challenge is the same one we’ve had since we began: an uneducated market. The web is just a big gray cloud to most small and medium sized business decision makers. As a result, many end up picking a web partner based on the wrong criteria or incorrect assumptions. They don’t now how to tell the difference between a talented, experienced, multidisciplinary web firm, and some freelancer, or an ad agency or tech firm that says ‘yeah, we do web, too.’ Our goal will be to continue educating businesses to help them avoid the huge cost of a bad vendor choice by making them smarter, wiser and more discerning.”
What’s the hottest trend in your industry?
“Social media: blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, online communities, etc. And while it’s still important to make sure you have a solid website, it’s even more important to be getting the Web2.0 part right. We’re making sure we offer the same best practice expertise in both.”
Do you have a business mantra?
“There is nothing that some man can’t make a little cheaper and sell for less. Those who consider price alone are this man’s fair game”
From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?
“All of the small business owners who put their tails on the line every day, working long hours, living payroll to payroll, just trying to do right by their employees and their customers.”
What was the best advice you ever received?
“Always surround yourself with people better and more talented than you. I got that advice 13 years ago when our company was just me in my basement. Every person we’ve hired was an attempt to do just that.”
What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you in your career?
“My 15 year radio career ended because of a Barry Manilow song! Email (or Twitter me @triveraguy) sometime and I’ll tell you the story.”
What do you like to do in your free time?
“I work in a virtual, digital world, so it’s therapeutic to regularly go work with ‘real’ stuff: landscaping, chopping wood, walking our dogs and socializing without using a computer.”
