The Bureau Of Small Projects

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for Bartelsmeyer Jewelry. Our store is located in Fort Scott, a small town in Kansas. I am the Store Manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We worked with The Bureau Of Small Projects to create a new website for our store. This was a service provided by a grant to enable our store to update our old website.

What were your goals for this project?

To create a beautiful, functional new website that will drive traffic to our store.

How did you select The Bureau Of Small Projects?

After being awarded the grant, we were paired with a Project Manager to work on creating our new website.

Describe the project in detail.

I worked with Josh Woods at the Bureau Of Small Projects to create a new website for our jewelry store. Our new website looks stunning! We ran into some communication glitches and delays since most of our correspondence was virtual via e-mail and Zoom.

However, my questions did get answered in the end. I particularly liked the fact that all of our training sessions were videoed and saved. Each session was sent to me so that I can review the information in the future as I need to make new changes to the website. Overall I am extremely happy with our new website and feel adequately trained to update its information and pages in the future.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with Josh Woods. We also collaborated with his co-worker to work on our website's SEO. We also had several people in the background building parts of our website.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We ended up with an absolutely stunning new website! It is going to be much more functional and hopefully drive traffic to our store!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We accomplished working together well. We ran into some communication glitches and delays since most of our correspondence was virtual via e-mail and Zoom. However, my questions did get answered in the end. Overall, it was a very satisfying working experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I particularly liked the fact that all of our training sessions were videoed and saved. Each session was sent to me so that I can review the information in the future as I need to make new changes to the website. Overall I am extremely happy with our new website and feel adequately trained to update its information and pages in the future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only area that could use a bit of improvement was communication. Sometimes I had a day delay before getting an e-mail answered.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a gluten-free baking company. The company is named after my daughter, and I created the recipes with her in mind. We couldn’t find a gluten-free baking mix that she liked, so I used my background as a professional baker to create this product. 

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bureau Of Small Projects?

I had a storefront, but many people were requesting that I package my product to make it easier for customers to purchase it and take it home. At the time, I quickly made some labels and put them on a brown bag for these sales. While that was good for my storefront, that isn’t something that could do well in the commercial market. We needed an attractive packaging product as well as a strategy for selling it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had a general idea of what I wanted the bag packaging to look like. After sending it over to them for review, they said they were willing to work with me on the design and indicated that they may have a better idea of how to direct the design. I decided to trust in their skills and put the creative choices in their lap, confident they would come up with the best product for what I’m trying to sell.

From there, they worked on possible design options. In the end, they provided me with three choices. When they showed me the third choice, it was a natural, immediate fit. They also provided a website for us, working with a template.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with David (Creative Director & Founder), Trine (Project Manager), Josh (Designer), and Oscar (Developer).

How did you come to work with The Bureau Of Small Projects?

I found their company while searching on Clutch for companies that could work with a very small budget. I gave David a call to get a sense of the possibility of the bag design and cost. He was extremely helpful, willing to provide me with detailed information about their services before I was even committed to them. During the call, he gave me great advice and pointers. He assured me that they could work with my budget and encouraged me to call them back if I wanted to move forward. 

In the interim, I hired someone I knew that said they could help me. That was a big mistake because I didn’t get what I needed. That caused me to return to David, and he guaranteed they could help me create the packaging and get it out into the market. My primary concern was my limited budget, but they told me they could work with it. They were the only company that was willing to accommodate my budget.  

How much have you invested with them?

The initial quote for the bag design was about $2,900, but we spent a bit more on making additional changes. All in all, we spent about $3,500 on the bag design and under $4,000 on the website. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My first conversations with them were in July 2020, but I wasn’t able to start up right away. After getting some logistics in order on my end, we started working together in September 2020. Even though I slowed down the process a bit, the project was finalized in December 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I was happy that I gave them creative control of the artistic design choices because they gave me an amazing design that fit within my budget. In my role at my company, I’m wearing 100 hats and control everything. In this case, letting go of some of the control was the best thing I could’ve done. Their willingness to work within my budget made it possible for me to move my business forward. Up until working with them, I was stuck. They made a huge difference in helping me break into the marketplace.  

In their designs, I could tell they understood exactly what I was hoping for. Josh worked quickly, was amenable, and provided me exactly what I asked for from a design perspective. They took in my ideas and created something that accurately reflected the vision in my brain. Their team went above and beyond my expectations for the design and website, so my satisfaction is at 100%.   

How did The Bureau Of Small Projects perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve never had such an amazing experience with other professionals. I tend to be a micromanager and a perfectionist, but I was able to give that up when handing work over to Trine. It was a lovely experience, and I’ve never met a better project manager. Her professionalism and availability for communication were amazing. She responded to emails and phone calls almost immediately, always there to correct issues and make adjustments. I prefer old-school, verbal communication to reduce chances for misunderstandings. They were willing to talk with me on the phone, which helped us understand each other better. When working with other companies, things tend to get lost in translation, which can prevent them from addressing my needs. I appreciated and admired the way they choose to directly communicate with their customers.      

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re the best-kept secret in the marketing industry, and I will sing their praises from here to eternity. David promotes kindness in their work and has put so much amazing talent under one roof. He must select his employees very carefully. Their kindness and integrity is truly the shining star of their company.   

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they checked every box. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of CBS Lebanon, a Texas non-profit. Our projects are focused on transforming communities through Bible-centered projects in education, dairy farming, leadership development, and humanitarian aid.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We hired BoSP to develop the messaging, design, and marketing of our website transformingcommunity.com.

What were your goals for this project?

Google Ads conversions and lead generation.

How did you select The Bureau Of Small Projects?

Researched several agencies and reviews online. Conducted online interviews to get a sense of the ethos of the agency.

Describe the project in detail.

Communicating what distinguishes CBS Lebanon to a wide audience is not an easy task. We have to use terminology that is recognizable and easy to understand. The value proposition discovery research done by BoSP helped us hone our message to communicate who we are and what we do accurately.

In the design stage, BoSP gave us a power format for displaying our content on the web. The back end is reasonably easy to manage, so we can continue to develop our website content.

Once the design was done, marketing tuned our SEO and Google ads to take full advantage of our Google grant. The result is a beautiful website that communicates well and reaches the right audience.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, messaging consultant, website designers, SEO, and Google Ads consultant.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The website has been launched and is getting a lot of positive feedback. It'll take more time to fine-tune the marketing, but so far we are very pleased with the product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Scope of Work document was clearly crafted, so it helped guide the rest of the process. We had some delays and snags, but the project manager and all BoSP were committed to getting the job done. We pushed through and accomplished the goals we set.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The executive leadership has a clear vision and commitment, which spreads to the rest of the team. They are looking for ways to learn and improve the process. They listen and study the client organization.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Communication between the different team members on timing and expectations.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of the Marketing and Communications team at the American Chamber of Commerce in China, a non-profit member organization that helps US companies do business in China.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We hired BSP to do a total redesign of our website. Our previous site was old, clunky, and difficult to update/maintain, making it hard for our team to manage and a terrible user experience for our members.

What were your goals for this project?

In addition to a vastly improved user experience for our members, we were looking for fresh, dynamic, and relevant design that would help to drive traffic and achieve our business goals.

How did you select The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We had an extremely comprehensive RFP process, considering vendors from China, the US and elsewhere. BSP's bid was actually the highest of the 4 on our final shortlist, but was still within our budget and we were confident that they provided the best value for money, compared to the others.

Describe the project in detail.

The website - well over 100 pages in total - was based on about 20 template pages, which could be recreated and used throughout the site, simplifying the build, but also making it easier for us to add more pages in the future.

Once we submitted all our final content for the pages, BSP gave us 5 homepage designs from which we selected the final one. Then the templates were approved one by one, and the pages built out.

Finally we had some quality control and testing, before the site went live. They also provided several training sessions for our team.

What was the team composition?

David was the creative director we dealt with initially, before moving into discussions with the PM and lead designer. We also dealt with some other folks from the tech side, training, and maintenance.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have only just launched the site, so cannot provide any new data just yet. But everyone loves the new design and layout - from our team internally to uniform positive reception from among our thousands of members - so we're off to a good start!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had two main challenges: COVID-19, which first hit us here in China and then affected folks in the US; plus the time difference between the two locations. But with weekly calls and near daily email check-ins, we managed to cope with these two things.

A special mention for Konan who took over the project management half way through and really helped to drive the project to completion despite some challenging deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Apart from the actual product (i.e. the new website, with which we are all very happy), the courtesy, professionalism, and enthusiasm of the BSP team made them a pleasure to work with.

There are always challenges in a large project of this nature, but it was clear that BSP - from David at the top, right through the team - cared deeply about our project and the end result as much as we did.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our team didn't know exactly what we were getting ourselves into at the start of the project, having not dealt with a website redesign before. If our responsibilities and inputs to the project had been slightly clearer, then that could have helped us to tighten up the timeline.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner and managing director of a real estate finance company. My partner is also a co-owner and MD.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We hired them because we needed some marketing and web design help. As with any startup, the challenges are always budget and time — you need things yesterday that are low-cost and high-quality.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us prepare a 15–20-page marketing deck. The team also designed and developed a WordPress website from scratch.

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least five individuals at different points, including designers, developers, and marketing people. We mostly interfaced with Konan (Director of Operations), who acted as our project manager. 

How did you come to work with The Bureau Of Small Projects?

I found them through a web search for web design and marketing firms in LA, and then I cold-called them myself. I spoke to David (Founder/Creative Director) about 18 months ago. It was a little bit too early to start our project, but about 9 months ago when we wanted to circle back and choose a circle provider, we interviewed them again. 

We interviewed a lot of firms and chose between about four finalists. We went with The Bureau Of Small Projects because they understood our point of view in the marketplace place. They were flexible in getting the project done in the time we needed but also on a budget that was comfortable for us as a startup. They were local, which was helpful. They also lined up with our vision and perspective.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started engaging them in February and then officially started in March 2020. They completed our first project in June, and then we entered phase two — which was the website — in July. The website actually went live yesterday (December 2020). There are still some tweaks to be done, but we’re just about done. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We just started showing the website to friends and family, and we’ve begun to get generally positive reviews. I think some of the more critical reviews are remaining, but it’s been positive so far.

How did The Bureau Of Small Projects perform from a project management standpoint?

My partner and I are pretty difficult people for service providers to deal with from time to time, both in good and bad ways. We’re complicated and have a unique perspective, which we like to have translated in the end result. That makes us a unique type of client for design and marketing firms. I think we sometimes chaffed at their project management style, but at the same time, we were very appreciative of how patient and diligent Konan was through the process. He helped guide us through our process as well as theirs to get the result that we were happy with. There were challenges from time to time, but Konan helped bridge any divides.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood what we were going for. We didn’t always get there on the first attempt, but we were appreciative of how they managed the project, and how they got us to a point where we were satisfied by the end. That’s no easy feat.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. It’s a process, and we appreciated how they managed the process.

Any advice for potential customers?

When you’re choosing a design or marketing firm, you have to be understanding of yourself as the client first. Know what your goals and needs are. If you like to drive the bus a bit, make sure you’re choosing a firm that’s comfortable with a more hands-on, engaged client. However, if you’re more passive and have a goal but don’t know how you want to get there, choose a firm that’s more assertive and service-driven. That’s a very important part of the firm selection process. I can’t recommend The Bureau Of Small Projects highly enough — they were very helpful.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Director of Marketing for a non-profit graduate business school

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We worked collaboratively on 1) competitive landscape to assess potential competition in our chosen positioning 2) formulating a powerful value proposition for potential students (customers), and 3) creating a new name for the school which reflects our value proposition.

What were your goals for this project?

The overall goal was to rebrand our university. To date, our recruiting efforts have been unsuccessful. In order to rectify that we wanted to reposition the school, create a compelling value proposition and finally rename the school.

How did you select this vendor?

A comprehensive search and interview process led us to choose BOSP. We felt a strong connection with the people at BOSP based on common values.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

This has been a comprehensive effort to rebrand the school. Starting with doing a competitive landscape analysis followed by constructing a value proposition and finally renaming the school.

What was the team composition?

Two people on our side, myself (Director of Marketing) and a colleague in my department. BOSP assigned high-experienced personnel to work on each separate portion of the project and a project manager. The firm’s principal often attended our meetings and often offered his much-appreciated advice and support.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Having only completed the project I can only offer preliminary results, but they are excellent. We are experiencing a pickup in activity on our website and increased interest in all social media platforms.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent. Members of the BOSP team were proactive listeners and consistently responded to questions and concerns. The workflow was consequently always very smooth and professional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I found their creative enthusiasm and willingness to listen to and respond to our needs and requests inspiring. I looked forward to meetings!

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can think of none. Honestly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of DesertStrandMusic.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bureau of Small Projects?

I needed to update my website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bureau of Small Projects created my original website, which is used to promote my music. Their team reskinned it, which is what they called rebuilding the website.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people from The Bureau of Small Projects on this project.

How did you come to work with The Bureau of Small Projects?

I found the company eight years ago and used them to build my website initially. I’ve always gone back to them because they’re the best.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $5,000 on this most recent engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

I hired them around January 2020 and the project was completed in April. Their team had to wait because I put the project on hold a few times as things kept changing with my business.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The project was super successful. I’m extremely happy with their work and how the project unfolded. The website gives me everything that I wanted it to. They tailored the website for my look, which wasn't easy. The Bureau of Small Projects created a custom, specific website for me.

How did The Bureau of Small Projects perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated by email and they used Dropbox. Their team made it simple for me. They communicated clearly and responded right away. Their team was organized and gave me a timeline for the project. Their team was efficient and always got back to me in a timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team was creative and technical. They managed both the technical side of the project as well as the creative side well. They’re able to do both sides of the project well, which most web platforms don’t achieve.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I was really happy with them. I always have been.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of The HXS Group. We offer Fortune 500 level human resources services for small businesses, with the objective of boosting productivity and business results.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

We needed to complete our marketing strategy, and develop our digital presence and website from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

We had two goals:

1. Develop a marketing strategy that helped us to communicate the value that we are bringing to our customers.
2. Develop a website that could reflect the innovative approach that we were bringing, in an industry that is traditionally very conservative, as HR is.

How did you select this vendor?

I researched and interviewed 15 other agencies.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Develop our value proposition, digital presence, and website.

What was the team composition?

The team with whom I worked directly consisted of David, who is TBOSP owner and is specialized in business strategy; A senior marketing strategist, A project Manager, A developer. But I know that there were more people from the team involved behind scenes.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

You can visit the website to see it yourself.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was lead by one person. He was very responsive and professional when managing my project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have worked with TBOSP since June 2019. I honestly can’t say enough about how positive my experience has been with them. I have founded several companies and over those processes, I have worked with several providers, from big firms to freelancers.

Working with TBOSP, however, was a different kind of experience. You can expect to have the personalized experience that you have with smaller firms, but the results and level of services/products that you have with the bigger firms. The difference? They will charge you a fraction of what those big firms will invoice you. Over these months, I have worked with several members of the company, and without exception, they went the extra mile every time.

They focus on making your business successful, not just on delivering whatever you contracted them for. They are business-minded, and small business owners themselves so they understand your situation and needs from day one. On the other hand, their previous experience at big firms becomes evident when you see what they are capable to do. I contracted them for several services, being one the building of a website. The results were beyond everything that I expected.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Even when there is always room for improvement, nothing comes to mind based on the experience that I had over this project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sahara Atlas Tours is a small company with 3 permanent and several freelance staff. We offer high-quality guided tours of Morocco. I am the Communications Manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

For the 12 years that our company has been going, we had had websites designed cheaply by friends. We were getting very few enquiries through the site, and we knew the site did not create the right image for the quality of services we offer. We were also not appearing on the first page of Google searches. So we decided to go for a complete re-build of the site, looking for a design that promoted our high-class product.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to increase enquiries from potential clients through the website and the online enquiry form, and we also wanted to appear on the first page of Google searches. In particular, the site had to reflect the high professional quality of our services to target clients looking for a luxury experience.

How did you select this vendor?

We feel very lucky that we found the Bureau of Small Projects. We searched online and came across the platform Codeable, which specialises in design of websites using Wordpress, which we wanted. This enabled us to advertise the work we needed doing, see the profiles of designers, and engage in discussion with them in order to see who would best meet our needs.

David Gaz from the Bureau of Small Projects asked the most challenging and best questions of us, questions that really helped us to think about what we needed from our website. He also explained how BOSP would provide us with training and empower us to manage the website ourselves once his work was done. This was key in making our choice of this vendor. We also felt the price was very good value for money - as a very small business, this was important to us.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a series of Zoom meetings with David to work through ideas, and he provided us with a small but very clear set of options for the website design. Given our expertise is not at all in IT or web design, he helped us think through issues we would not have otherwise realised.

Once we had chosen the template for our Wordpress site, we were able to work with David to discuss the design, specific pages and structure, and we then provided a selection of images and texts while David put it all together. We really appreciate the fact that, as a small company, we were advised about work that we could do ourselves (with training from BOSP) to save costs.

At each stage of the process we were able to communicate about improvements and tweaks. BOSP then provided us with 3 1-hour training sessions to learn how to manage some core features of the site ourselves. This allows us to update material on the site, but they also gave us lots of advice about how to maximise the site's reach, e.g. by having our Travel Tips in a regular blog with weekly/fortnightly contributions rather than a single page, and posting regularly on our Facebook page, as this would improve our search results.

Since then, we have subscribed to their monthly update service, which ensures there are no conflicts between the different software updates, and optimises our SEO. This has also allowed us to get a discounted price on further work that we wanted doing i.e. adding a page to show information and photo examples of the accommodation we book for clients.

What was the team composition?

The project manager was David Gaz, and we mainly communicated with him throughout the project, though we were also aware that he was bringing in a technical specialist to help with advising on and migrating our site to a new server, and another designer. We also had training from another colleague at BOSP.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The rate of enquiries from individual clients coming through the website has increased massively since we launched the new website - to be honest, we are now struggling to keep up with the volume of work it has generated!

We are looking to take on a new member of staff to deal with it. We have also been contacted by new potential partners (overseas travel agencies and luxury hotel owners in Morocco) who have been very impressed with the quality of the website and the vision it projects. David promised us that he would get us better results, but we had no idea it would be this successful!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between us and BOSP was very effective. David and the team at BOSP were great communicators, and we were always very clear about what they were going to do and when, and what we needed to do and when. 

They were especially effective in resolving some tricky difficulties in transferring our website to a new server, which required communicating with several different parties - thank goodness BOSP took charge of this. We were always able to raise any questions we had with them and get a rapid and clear response. Much of this was done through the "workroom" we had set up with them, but the Zoom conversations were also highly valuable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

David and the team at BOSP were so professional and so knowledgable, they really helped us to think through our business needs in respect of the website in a way that we could not have done on our own. Also they were so patient with us and our lack of experience in website design and management. Nothing seemed like too much trouble to explain, and we learned a huge amount during the project itself as well as the training sessions.

We're also totally confident that we can go back to them with any questions. They were very reassuring about their desire to empower us to manage our website ourselves and give us control over it (which was very much NOT the case with our previous experiences elsewhere!), at the same time as supporting us whenever we might need it. The design itself is so beautiful and classy, but most of all, it is bringing us lots of clients and it is bringing us the demographic that we want.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We don't think things could have gone better - there aren't any improvements we could suggest from our point of view.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Dr. Pimple Popper is a digital media brand that focuses on dermatological videos and content. The brand has amassed a following of 3M+ subscribers on a variety of platforms. I am the Operations Manager for the parent company, Skin PS Brands, which manages the Dr. Pimple Popper brand, as well as the SLMD Skincare brand.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Bureau Of Small Projects?

Our primary brand website had not been refreshed in 2+ years and our brands following has grown tremendously since the inception of our website. Before the refresh, our website hosted a ton of videos and content but was not easy to navigate nor was it aesthetically pleasing.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to give the brand an aesthetic refresh and carry that into the new web design. We also wanted to put certain content behind paywalls and initiate a subscription program for users to access all of the content on the website.

How did you select this vendor?

We found them on Clutch.com actually!

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Brand refresh and website overhaul. They completely redid our entire website and all of its content and completely revamped the brands look and feel.

What was the team composition?

We had a primary account manager who was our day to day contact but once a week we had a meeting with the entire team (David the CEO, a designer, a coder, etc.) to make sure everyone was on the same page about what needed to happen before the call the following week.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

In just a short amount of time without formally launching our subscription program, we've already seen people signing up and exploring all the content. We've also noticed our bounce rate is down significantly since the updated website launched.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They were absolutely amazing about project managing. They were always following up and providing detailed outlines of what they need versus what they have and were never pushy or aggressive about getting information from us. They were always on their game but were incredibly patient with us when we were not due to extenuating circumstances around the office.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Everyone on the team is incredibly kind and genuine. They seemed to be just as invested in the success of our website as we were and were truly a partner and an extension of our team while we were working together. They were also incredibly willing to work within our budget.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None - can't recommend these guys enough.