The Bureau Of Small Projects

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

CPG Jobs promotes independent contractors versus employees. I’m the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bureau?

Our frontend development for our website was through a developer years ago, before WordPress modules and before its popularity. We couldn’t update the site easily and put out our marketing plans.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They've updated our WordPress site to the 21st century. Now we can make changes and do the things we want to do.

The first thing they did was make what we already had work, which was done in a couple of phases, and they did other things along the way. Later, they told me that if I wanted directories and advertising and to be able to move stuff myself, we’d need to completely rework the site. We put together a spec and they did it. The next phase is putting in e-commerce.

What is the team dynamic?

There are 3–4 people. They have people for SEO and all kinds of things.

How did you come to work with The Bureau?

David [Founder/Creative Designer, The Bureau of Small Projects] is also a producer and a director. He created a movie called Kindness Is Contagious, about how you can be kind and still get things done. With that, we began to see who he was as a person and how he ran his company, and we were ready to move forward. He allowed us to work with them intermittently, while also working out payment plans. He really knows his people and his clients and works with them in the way they need to be worked. It’s not all about him.

How much have you invested with them?

The first couple phases were $3,000–$4,000. When we reworked our website, it was about $5,600.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a site that looks incredible and that people love. They know where to go because it’s easy to navigate. David has helped with that functional side as well. He knows what's pertinent, what’s trending, what people are looking at today, the mix between business and casual websites, and what’s visually pleasing. Both our current or possible clients know who we are and what we do. From this insight, we can now change the advertising blocks and add people because we have a directory now.

How did The Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re in communication back and forth, and he won’t work on something until we’ve approved the spec he's put together. I find that appealing because we know exactly what we want done, how it’s going to get done, and when. He’s always kept the deadlines and within price.

What did you find most impressive about them?

David has been a great vendor and supplier and friend. He knows who I am, what I want, how I communicate, and how I work. It’s not just stuff coming from the head but from his heart as well. He can connect with the person or company emotionally. That’s what a website, in this case, is all about. If I don’t connect with my clients emotionally, it doesn’t matter how great my website looks, I’m not going to get anything. He knows how to do that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. How he’s growing is important. He’s taking it step by step and not overdoing anything, which allows him to stay on track with the clients he has. He doesn’t overpromise. I can’t see anything different that he could be doing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a film and television advertising company in Los Angeles, California. I’m the senior VP and senior creative director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

My division has grown out of a larger company and it’s 2 years old. When I approached David [Founder/Creative Director, The Bureau], it was to create a new website for our company. We wanted a site that was visually arresting, showed our services in a simple and elegant way, and worked over desktop and mobile.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the site in WordPress in a way that made it easy for us to update it. I know they used certain plug-ins and templates. They did some initial design and then we built the main site. Then they made some upgrades to make it more efficient.

What is the team dynamic?

David was my primary contact. He has developers and WordPress specialists that he works with. What was nice about working with The Bureau is that I had a single point of contact.

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

I had tried to find someone through Upwork and other freelancer sites, but the firms there were too low-end and focused on small businesses for what I needed. Someone referred me to Codeable, where I searched for the type of company I wanted.

What struck me about David was that he hit the sweet spot. He was local, meaning in my time zone, and he was accessible by phone. It was not purely an email relationship. On top of that, he had done some entertainment work before, which told me he could understand our company and what we’d need.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them a monthly or quarterly maintenance fee. Our total spending has been between $7,500–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them early this year. They completed the site, but we continue working with them for maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re not a retail site, so I can’t speak to an increase in traffic or sales. However, it has given us a good presence in relation to our competitors. We’ve gotten positive feedback from clients and people looking at the site to do business with us or come work for us.

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

The Codeable site works well as a project management and billing tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m sure there are other companies that do exactly what they do, but The Bureau is client- and service-focused. It was easy to talk to them and make changes, and it was easy to discuss our creative needs.

David helped us find real-world solutions. What keeps us going back to them is the fact that we work well together, and we like their service and their business and creative philosophy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Any problems we had were expected, and they were able to correct them. I don’t have any complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I worked as a liaison with The Bureau, so we spent a fair amount of time prior to the build discussing the website. We tried to have a very clear idea of what we wanted the site to accomplish before we started talking to them. That made the process more efficient, and David was able to move in the right direction right away.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of coachart.org, a nonprofit that offers free art and athletic lessons for kids impacted by chronic illness. The kids sign up and tell us what they’re interested in learning; we then recruit volunteers who are willing to teach them those skills and we match them for one-on-one or group lessons.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We engage with them for any of our website’s frontend and backend needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve had The Bureau on retainer for years now; they do all kinds of projects for us. They designed and built our website on WordPress, and they currently maintain it. They just did a custom page recently for our upcoming gala that has modern functionality and cool graphics that rise and fall as you scroll around the page. For our ongoing web needs, they’re our go-to partner for both the design side and the backend.

What is the team dynamic?

I think there’s one primary developer, but being that they’re an agency, they sometimes recommend a particular person on their team for a particular project that best fits their skill set. Over time, we’ve worked with a handful of different people. David, their founder and creative director, is our main point of contact and he’s very interesting and creative.

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

They were here before I was, but I believe it was a board member recommendation. They are extremely competent and very cost conscious and generous with their time towards us. They’re fun to work with as well and David is a really nice guy.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t know the cost of the initial project, but our ongoing annual projects are in the four digits.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s been a long time since we’ve started working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People tell me all the time that they love our website and think it’s really well designed—it has a fun and good energy to it. The most recent gala page they designed has gotten positive feedback its sleek and classy look and feel. I get positive feedback on their work all the time.

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

We email directly with David and they’ve always met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re creative and clever with their work and we’re always impressed by them. I can’t imagine looking for anybody else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of Vitality, a small medial wellness center. I am a physician specializing in integrative and functional medicine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I was originally an emergency medicine physician but wanted to start a more holistic medical practice. I approached The Bureau in order to build a website to reach that goal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bureau developed an image for and put together my WordPress website. The goal was to have an informative, educational website for people. I focus on culinary medicine and provide recipes, so I wanted to start to get that out there.

What is the team dynamic? 

David Gaz [Founder, The Bureau of Small Projects] was my main point of contact. He recommended a photographer they work with for the photos. I also used an SEO specialist from their team.

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

They were a referred by a friend who had used them. I called David after having interviewed a few others. He was laid-back but also able to listen to what I wanted to do. I liked his website, and felt that The Bureau could represent me the best.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of their work was between $2,500 and $3,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them a few years ago, around 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I get a lot of new clients through the website. I have good traffic, and their SEO work was beneficial. I hear comments on how beautiful and easy to navigate the site is all the time.

They implemented a button through which people can schedule appointments or find more information, which has been helpful for generating inquiries.

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

We don’t use any project management tools that I know of. If I have an issue, David calls and we talk through them, or he just resolves the issue. Deadlines were met without issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

David’s communication is very strong, and I like that he coordinated with the photographer. It resulted in a site where everything fit together well. He was good at telling me about the up-to-date things that needed to be done on the website.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a psychiatrist with a private practice, Integrative Psychiatry Practice. I also have a consulting business, and I do medical education, all as a sole proprietorship.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bureau?

As a physician who does uncharacteristic things including public speaking, education, and consulting for non-profits, I needed a way to share my skill set outside of the traditional ways that physicians market themselves. For many physicians, we’re so entrenched in the direct service provision piece. It can be difficult to get our names out there and approach prospective partners, clients, and other professionals. The goal was to convey those pieces of my work in a way that was accessible nationwide and even globally. I needed help with web marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I relied on them mostly for web development. I didn’t know anything about web hosting, or how to operate WordPress, or how to generate web forms and employ Google Analytics. Their web development package included these technical pieces, as well as creative input, which I found even more helpful. This included branding, logos, and creating a product that was truly unique and customized and not what I would have found if I were to have established a do-it-yourself options website.

This week I communicated with them about additional help with social media and SEO. The team was super responsive and very clear about expectations and what services would be provided and cost.

What is the team dynamic?

There were about five team members. Most of my communication was direct with their principal and chief creative consultant, David [Founder/Creative Director]. He delegated to the best person on his team to help. I haven’t had much direct contact with the people on his team.

How did you come to work with Bureau?

I found them through a referral. They created the most remarkable and personal website for a physician that I had seen. It was captivating, compelling, and exciting. It also was selling the service, the product, and the expertise as much as individualizing the person behind it. I spent hours looking at this website.

How much have you invested with them?

It cost about $3,000 to get things up and going. I will probably spend $500 each year for upgrades, updates, and perhaps new content.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early 2015 and completed within a month. It remains an ongoing relationship for additional help.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has shifted the way that my work is perceived within the professional community. Historically, physicians would operate by word of mouth and they’d have an impressive CV [curriculum vitae]. Now anybody in the world can Google my name, see the work that I’m most proud of, and see if I may or may not be able to serve their business needs.

The website has also been incredibly helpful for prospective patients to find me, as well as to read up on original content that is relevant to my practice or the diagnoses and treatments that I offer.

How did Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of the communication was by either email or phone calls. It may seem low-tech relative to the industry, but I found it very helpful to be able to get on the phone with the leadership at Bureau and talk personally about my project and receive training on how to operate all the backend tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even though they call themselves the Bureau of Small Projects, they have some huge clients and they do some super impressive e-commerce work and web marketing for giant organizations. Even as a very small business operating out of a small space, I felt just as important to them as one of their big clients. My business goals were equally important to them as they were to me.

One of the pieces I am so grateful to them for was that backend training, which was included in the basic fees. I’m not relying necessarily on a web developer to do minor content updates and formatting and different pieces. I’ve enjoyed learning how to operate the backend of WordPress and some of the different plug-ins on my own without needing to reach out or incur additional costs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They offer a subscription membership package for ongoing updates. There are three options with that package ranging from personal to business to a larger personalized business approach. While this includes regular updates and web security packages, I would have liked to see more packages that include creative time and web development. Those are only available on the larger packages and monthly plans. For the small business that just needs a couple hours quarterly or 12 hours over the course of a year, I’d like to see more options for that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the current marketing manager of Quady Winery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Most companies run into a situation where they have an outdated website in terms of the platform, design, and branding components. We reached out to them wanting to do a new website in WordPress.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They went through the usual process of figuring out what the website needed to do, what it had to look like, and who the visitors were. The Bureau was able to provide all branding components and the whole experience went very well from my understanding, which is why we’re still working with them.

What is the team dynamic?

I don't really know what goes on behind the curtain, but right now, we go through David [Founder, The Bureau of Small Projects], and he'll either do our projects or hand them over to a couple of other people on his team.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the couple of years we've worked with them, we’ve spent over $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with him in 2015 and ended in 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't know if there's any one particular thing that happened. It’s a culmination of all the little things that came together, and it wouldn't have happened without David’s help, direction, and expertise. We gave them a rough idea of how we wanted our site to look and operate, and they figured out the best way to do things.

To a certain extent, a lot of the work that these guys do is a bit of a commodity. You tell them what you want and they get it done, but the service component of it is such an important factor. What you’re really paying for most of the times is to have somebody that you can reach out to that is not only a pleasure to work with but also timely, attentive, and thorough.

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

We mostly communicated through email and phone calls, but they accommodated us on whatever platform or service we wanted to use (e.g., GoToMeeting). They were attentive and punctual, and although there were a few times when we got really close to the deadline, it was always justifiable.​

David is a really nice guy; he’s easy to work with and if you give him a direction or something you want to do and he's on it.

​​​​​​What did you find most impressive about them?

They made the process of maintaining a website and continuously designing and developing the various aspects of it very easy. This process can sometimes be daunting and time-consuming, but they were very flexible and easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We'd always love to have their services for free, but other than that, they met every expectation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of The National College Center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had multiple goals, including the creation of a visually-attractive website with a user-friendly interface. Another goal was the ability to email coherently to multiple individuals with different types of emails.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bureau of Small Projects built a user-friendly platform for us, while also getting us up on the search engine optimization ladder. I’m more of a grassroots marketer, but I do appreciate this. I don’t know how many developers worked on our project.

We send emails specifically for the people looking to join our organization, so there’s a filtering process in place specifically for them. People approach us at different levels, from the initial contact to follow-ups to our meetings, when they decide whether or not to join the organization.

We also have a newspaper/blog called The Reporter, through which we gather information around the nuances of different colleges, SATs, and other material. We have a layout similar to The Atlantic’s, allowing users to click on pictures and find the articles they want. I am able to change our lead articles based on geographical area.

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

I placed an ad on several platforms, including Craigslist and Upwork, mentioning that I needed affordable custom work. I didn’t have a massive budget, but I also didn’t want to go to Wix. I also made a point of mentioning that I was not digitally-savvy and needed to have colloquial communication. I do have a very good nose for exploitive people and was able to screen them out over several dozen calls. David Gaz was very friendly and knowledgeable about the area I was coming from. I did need to pay for quality, but he told me I didn’t have to pay for it through the nose. I just had to find people who knew what they were doing, which was the case with The Bureau of Small Projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

Anytime I come up with a new idea, I will call The Bureau.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The Bureau was able to layout a user-friendly magazine format that can be followed by anyone and looks quite attractive. Our website has been working well in San Francisco, where we were mainly focusing our efforts. We do also want to reach Los Angeles, which is on fire, politically-speaking, so we will clone our website using The Bureau and tailor our magazine-style blog.

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

I’m an older person, and I find some of the industry acronyms to be fancy words used by tech people to show that they’re smarter than the client. I had qualms, but The Bureau has been able to explain these matters. They also provide digital competency and good communication.

What did you find most impressive about The Bureau of Small Projects?

They’re a good, knowledgeable, quick, and affordable team. They’ve shown me what I needed, even if I didn’t know it. The Bureau can take my input and come up with far more attractive, user-friendly, and visually appropriate versions. I’m not an artist, but The Bureau’s people are.

Are there any areas The Bureau of Small Projects could improve?

They could charge me less money, but, in truth, The Bureau is an affordable company. I feel I’ve gotten good value.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder, creative director, and editor-in-chief of Imagista. It is a digital and print platform doing profiles on interesting, creative people in different sectors around the globe. Our primary focus is entertainment, but we also do fashion, music, and the arts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our existing web development team came with a price point that was way beyond our means as a startup.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website had already been built using a custom CSS, and there were some technical upgrades that we needed to apply. The Bureau suggested that we go from our custom platform to WordPress. It was a much more time-effective and cost-effective option. The initial project was completed. Because our company is growing exponentially, we have engaged The Bureau for a redesign of the website. There are a few other services which we’re adding, including search engine optimization. The Bureau will be building our e-commerce platform. Once we’ve raised enough capital, they will also handle our Facebook and Instagram marketing. I plan to hand those tasks straight to The Bureau, without bidding them. I trust them, and they’ve always been transparent about costs. There was never a sense of subterfuge, and I never felt like the team was trying to hide something.

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

I did a search for a new developer and found David Gaz and The Bureau of Small Projects. They came in at a fraction of our original team’s quote. We posted ads in different places, looking for a development team. I don’t remember which one The Bureau responded to, but the tonality and communication style stood out. A lot can get lost in translation in terms of web development. I have worked with people who I thought had a clear understanding of what I was saying, but who came back with completely different results compared to our brief.

How much have you invested with The Bureau of Small Projects?

I cannot provide a number, but I can say that The Bureau’s estimate was maintained almost perfectly. We spent around 15% extra after I added a few bells and whistles that weren’t in the initial briefing. Their cost was 25% of the estimate we got from the initial development team. I almost thought that The Bureau’s team was kidding, given how much lower the price was.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Bureau of Small Projects three or four years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our site traffic has more than quadrupled since The Bureau built our new version. I don’t think that we would have had the same results with a poorly-made site, but it’s also hard to give a direct measure of The Bureau’s impact. Had they done a bad job, then we would have seen site crashes and other issues, but this didn’t happen. We’ve had a stable technology experience. I’m not a technologist, and I don’t really want to know anything about the field. I simply want to have a competent team solve the problem I’m having, regardless of what coding goes into it. I don’t know how many coders were used, which was actually something I liked about the collaboration with The Bureau.

I found the management side at The Bureau to be the most compelling. Our previous team had a tough time even getting on calls and explaining what was going on. It was a really unpleasant experience, but working with The Bureau’s team was much easier and less stressful. It’s why I’ve continued the relationship and brought The Bureau in on other projects, as well as referred them to other companies.

One of the things I love about working with The Bureau of Small Projects is that I know that they understand me, and nothing will get lost in translation. They can take my layman’s description of what I want to be done and translate it into an effective technology. With our previous team, we found that developers will often be unable to have a normal conversation. They have a hard time explaining in plain English what we’re doing in terms of technology. That observation is also on our internal team’s past experience.

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

I know that there were some original options for project management tools given to us, but I’ve preferred email and phone calls. As the editor-in-chief, I have a lot going on so I didn’t have the time to learn a new system. Email and phone were enough for the projects we were working on with The Bureau.

What did you find most impressive about The Bureau of Small Projects?

It’s all about the communication process. I find that The Bureau is transparent and upfront about everything. Working in a startup is not always a linear process, and the other developers I used didn’t provide a very fun experience. I prefer working with a team that knows what it’s doing but also creates a pleasant working atmosphere. The Bureau is simply easy and fun to work with. David hires very good people who are not only good at what they do but also know how to communicate well. This is a very important factor for me and my company.

Are there any areas The Bureau of Small Projects could improve?

I resisted using project management tools because I wasn’t personally interested in them, but, had my organization been bigger, we could have benefited from something like this. On my end, there was only myself and two other people working on the project. This isn’t a criticism of The Bureau, but rather of my own organization. I wouldn’t have continued to work with The Bureau four years later if I thought that there was any significant weakness in their performance. The Bureau is not a big company, so I don’t know how they would perform on a much bigger scale. I would hesitate to refer them to a company like Dell. But, for our scope, I have zero complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an award-winning digital marketing agency providing branding and online experiences for clients. I am the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Bureau?

We exclusively develop WordPress sites for our clients, although the platform itself is not the main focus in our conversations. We had a large project for which we needed to find a partner that would be available and able to complete the work in a timely manner. They also needed to be creative and understand the scope well. We had a large project with many specialty requirements, such as memberships, online payment and so on. They needed to understand the WordPress platform and pick the best plug-ins for our purpose.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bureau developed our WordPress site, handling its memberships, online payments, community functionalities, and so on. We worked directly with their principal, and I don’t know what the team size was. As long as David Gaz [Founder and Creative Director] was available to us for meetings, and understood our scope of work at a high level, and assigned the right people, we were satisfied.

How did you come to work with The Bureau?

We have a lot of experience working with individual developers, as well as with companies with their own staffs.

The Bureau had experience with small businesses, but they’ve also developed sites for Fortune 500 companies. They knew what type of membership and online payment solution would work best for the client organization, as well as many other details we needed. Having good compatibility between the different plug-ins we were installing was also important, especially at our scale.

They won our trust through the way in which our first two large projects were handled.

How much have you invested with The Bureau?

The overall cost of all our projects has been around $20,000 so far. The majority of this has gone into two large projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them almost one year ago. We plan to continue working with The Bureau of Small Projects exclusively since we have a very high level of trust in them. I know I can count on them to make projects happen.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The feedback from clients around our projects, from milestones to the deliverables, has been head-over-heels. We have received compliments in terms of timeliness and the work itself.

The main project I mentioned was done for a high social person who had an audience in Canada and outside of the country. We had a pre-launch beta which was evaluated by a number of people in terms of user-friendliness and capabilities. We received all 10s, so, as far as our work went, everyone was thrilled.

How did The Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of project management, we have used various tools during collaborations with other firms. The Bureau of Small Projects uses Dropbox, inside of which we developed the project, with folders for each individual landing page, image group, content, and so on.

Using specialized tools leads to a better-organized process, but it can become too much. It takes time to train people, so using something like Teamwork can get too crazy. There’s too much downtime required for setting up the project, so we keep it simple. Dropbox is a simple tool which anyone could use, whether it be my client, or our developers and project manager. Anyone can get some images and content in it.

What did you find most impressive about The Bureau?

As far as I’m concerned, they receive 5/5 stars for everything, from being available to discuss projects on a weekly basis, to understanding our scope of work and bringing in the knowledge base for what we need to accomplish with a website. I’ve been doing this work for 15 years, and I’ve had both in-house and outsourced help, but their team gets it. They understand what it means to get the job done, no matter how complex or simple.

Are there any areas The Bureau could improve?

I hate to say it, but I can’t find any faults with The Bureau of Small Projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Paddle Diva is a stand-up paddle-boarding business based in East Hampton, New York, and Puerto Rico. I am the founder and head of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were moving away from a customized software management platform, which was very limiting and not good for SEO. We needed to have a number of twists and turns on the backend in order to get picked up by the main search engines, and we also wanted a WordPress solution that appeared customized and didn’t make us look like every other paddleboarding business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Bureau of Small Projects was able to build a site that offers the WordPress SEO benefits, but which is also graphically compelling and makes us stand out. I can login to the backend of the site and make updates easily, change text and graphical parts. I rely on The Bureau of Small Projects more for the latter, mainly because I’m brand-focused, and want every picture to be as optimized as possible. They provide maintenance for both the backend and design portions.

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

We have an image-intensive experience in terms of branding, so we undergo yearly photoshoots. The Bureau of Small Projects was a referral from my photographer. I wanted to find someone who understood the power of photography for the web, besides the design itself.

How much have you invested with The Bureau of Small Projects?

The cost of our project has been between $10,000 and $15,000 overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Bureau of Small Projects in 2015. It’s an ongoing project, and we plan to work with The Bureau of Small Projects indefinitely. I find them to be very fair, accessible and responsive. They’re also good at what they do, and have built a site that I haven’t had to update yet. It’s current, so the prospect of rebuilding it is far off into my future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Out of all other paddleboarding sites on the web, I can guarantee that anyone would pick ours, so long as location was not an issue. We have the best site in this industry. Many of our competitors have standard WordPress sites, which is something anything can build, but what The Bureau of Small Projects has managed to do, has made us stand apart.

Based on The Bureau of Small Projects’ work, our business grew by 20% in the first year. I also receive incredible feedback on the site’s look vis-à-vis my activity. What I do is nebulous and it’s generally hard to sell the service online. Clients have mentioned how much they love my site, how well is looks on mobile devices, and how easy it is to use.

The Bureau of Small Projects’ team doesn’t design solely for the computers they’re sitting in front of, and they’re meticulous about optimizing various devices, both old and new.

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

They’re very fast and efficient. Like all website projects, we targeted an April launch, but didn’t finish until three or four weeks later. I had my own expectations, and I wasn’t upset. I’m a good client in this sense, and knew that I needed the site up and running by July. I set April as a goal, and we hit May, which was enough time for me to test-drive it. Websites are hard to build and there are always delays, some of them on my account.

What did you find most impressive about The Bureau of Small Projects?

I appreciated their responsiveness and design capabilities. The Bureau of Small Projects has an incredible graphic and web design team, which is backed up by the technical people. This isn’t always the case, and The Bureau of Small Projects’ work makes them one of the best design companies out there. I’ve worked with plenty of firms, and come from a design background. In comparison, I found that The Bureau of Small Projects takes the design approach first, and lets the rest of the technical elements follow.

Are there any areas The Bureau of Small Projects could improve?

A customized WordPress website is a little trickier to maintain, and I’ve heard this from the SEO person I work with. I have stayed with The Bureau of Small Projects for this purpose, and they did deliver what I wanted. If I wanted a straightforward website, I may have had fewer issues, but I knew what I was in for. I don’t have any improvement suggestions for The Bureau of Small Projects.