The workings of a manifesto
by Dave Onkels
I think of 2012 as a year of maturity for Dotvita. We made our first official hire (my lovely wife) in March, ran a full year on the Xero accounting platform under the tutelage of Team Blumer and even conquered our health insurance needs. This is on top of seeing record sales and building insanely cool things for our awesome customers.
As we start 2013 it hit me that we’re still failing to describe precisely what it is that we do at Dotvita. It’s particularly challenging because saying “we build websites” misses the fundamental passion we have for small biz.
There’s no doubt I would be a reckless entrepreneur who incubates new businesses as often as the wind moves if I weren’t able to live vicariously through our customers. They are what motivates our team to invest so much time into getting the user experience right. This drive means we routinely look past branding and marketing to solve our customers’ business design challenges. Be it a customer focus issue, a product problem or something more abstract, we continually find ourselves working on the operational challenges of our customers’ businesses that have far-reaching implications (for the better). Think of us like a managing partner without giving up equity.
So in the wee hours of the night I began to start what will probably become our manifesto at Dotvita. This smattering of thoughts helps capture our core beliefs and what we see when looking in the mirror.
- We are intentionally lean so as to remain agile but our product is the opposite of cheap. Value is at the heart of our pricing strategy.
- We’re are highly selective when choosing our clients because we want to serve them exceptionally well.
- We speak candidly and clearly because neither of us has time to act like politicians.
- We provide an objective, outsider’s point of view on your business.
- We teach you to fish by providing a design strategy for each point of customer interaction.
- While the end result is often something tangible like a website or logo, our emphasis is to create a remarkable experience for your customers, legitimize your business and help you be wildly successful at your craft.
I offer the following thoughts on each of your core statements:
1. We are intentionally lean so as to remain agile but our product is the opposite of cheap. Value is at the heart of our pricing strategy.
>> I spent weeks, if not months, researching various web and branding design options. For some reason, I kept returning to Dotvita. Indeed, their pricing appeared to provide the best overall value. There was also something warm and inviting about their portfolio. Little did I know at the time that their service and performance would exceed my value expectations.
2. We’re are highly selective when choosing our clients because we want to serve them exceptionally well.
>> I am honored that they selected me as a client! And, I was definitely served exceptionally well.
3. We speak candidly and clearly because neither of us has time to act like politicians.
>> A turning point in our business relationship came when Dave (incorrectly) thought I was displeased with their performance. He stopped the process completely and took the time to contact me by telephone to ensure that we were on the same page. I thought this showed true professionalism in what could have been a very difficult situation.
4. We provide an objective, outsider’s point of view on your business.
>> The Dotvita team nicely captured the image I was trying to convey to cyberspace about my business. They were patient, listened, and made corrections to the direction they were taking when asked to do so.
5. We teach you to fish by providing a design strategy for each point of customer interaction.
>> The words “design strategy” nicely captures the Dotvita approach. They genuinely seemed to care about how color, texture, font and overall look would play to my audience.
6. While the end result is often something tangible like a website or logo, our emphasis is to create a remarkable experience for your customers, legitimize your business and help you be wildly successful at your craft.
>> I believe that this is more than just words for the Dotvita team. I put them to the challenge as a most difficult client — and they rose to the occasion. Starting a new law firm can be extremely stressful. Dotvita helped alleviate one major part of that stress for me — the branding and web design. I am forever grateful for their compassion, hard work and dedication to an outstanding result. Thanks to Dotivita, I am proud of my business cards, stationary, website and even the logo on my branded coffee mugs. I suspect the branding they created will be around for the life of my business. Priceless! Thank you — and very nice job!