Humble beginnings
Like many kids of my generation, I learned to play guitar at a very young age and set out to be a “rock star.“ Of course, nobody in my group of friends (including me) knew exactly what that meant, but we were sure it was what we wanted! By the time I was in my early twenties, I had built a career in which I was making my living playing and teaching music.
There was only one problem: I hated it. Not the part where I was playing and writing music, but pretty much everything else. Late hours, no security, spending hours every night in smoky bars; the conditions were rotten, with not much hope for advancement.
So I quit that career path, and went to work for Fender, the world-famous guitar company. In the beginning, I was doing a lot of the technical writing and production work for owner’s manuals, spec sheets, etc. Eventually, I grew bored, and wanted something more. So I convinced the powers-that-be at Fender to let me start a magazine. That is how Fender Frontline was born.
For the next eight years, I served as the editor of that magazine. It was the greatest job I ever had. I got to meet many of my boyhood heroes, see oodles of concerts, and was sent every single new album that the record companies issued. It was also an incredible learning experience.
In the beginning, I did pretty much everything, including all the writing, all the layout, and much of the photography. Eventually, I built a remote-based team of photographers, writers, designers, and more. This was to serve me incredibly well as I moved into the next phase of my career: Internet marketing. In what was a very unusual move for an in-house publication, I also sold ads for the magazine. This proved invaluable later on when I needed to market my own business.
Moving online
After I had been running the magazine for about five years, one of the changes I made was to have local music-industry experts writing articles for the publication. And I would bring them in for a photo shoot for their articles. It was during one of those sessions that a writer mentioned “the Web.“
He asked me if I had heard of it. I replied affirmatively. (In truth, I had only first learned of the Web at all a week before that.) But when he said he needed somebody to build a “web page“ (what they called it back then) I stated confidently that of course I could.
Little did I know that big mouth of mine just opened up a whole new career path!
Caroff Communications (my company)
In addition to hiring me to build his website, this company president offered to pay me a commission on any new customers I brought in through the Web.
There’s nothing like a sales commission to motivate someone to work hard. And work hard I did. For the next three years, I maintained my full-time job while also building up this client’s business, and in the process, my own company.
Since I already knew how to write and design for print, it was a pretty easy transition to do the same thing for the Web. As far as coding the website itself, it was quite a bit easier in the beginning. Honestly, I learned everything I needed to know about programming a website within half a day through an online tutorial.
But it was the marketing portion of this gig that was such a complete unknown.
Developing search engine optimization
I was at a loss as to how to market the client’s company online, since nobody else seemed to know any more than I! So I did the only thing I could think of: I found related but not competitive sites, and emailed them directly with the request to trade links with my client’s website.
Talk about serendipity. When Google revolutionized the search engine world, the key marker they looked for in order to rank sites was “inbound links.” What that means is links on other sites that point to your site.
Because I had been building those up for years, once Google came into prominence, my client’s website had an incredible advantage. Organic search started to drive sales with a vengeance.
That was some time ago. A lot has changed in the industry – most notably the prominence of mobile devices in website use. But much has also stayed the same. The principles of user-friendly layout and navigation structure, well-written text, and easily understood messaging still apply.
Current challenges for the business
In the beginning, I was way, way ahead of the curve. And so I was able to build a company based on the fact that I was such a leader in the field. Of course, that didn’t last forever. After a while, the biggest roadblock to getting new clients was the fact that the field was so saturated.
The problem for me became: how do I make myself stand out among a sea of other “experts“ in websites and search engine marketing? It turned out that there are two key factors.
Exploiting uniqueness
After a number of years, I began to join networking groups. Because most of the people that were competing with me were much more comfortable online, they were filling the web with advertisements, and overwhelming potential clients with email and phone marketing. The fact that I was meeting people in person made me stand out.
But what really worked was going back to my roots – as a guitar player!
Merging the band and the business
I’ve always been fascinated with Latin music – especially jazz, and traditional forms like Salsa and Samba. Twenty years ago, I had begun writing that kind of music, but was having a hard time assembling the musicians to play it. A fellow musician suggested forming a Santana Tribute band, and voila!
Actually, that’s an incredible understatement. Developing and marketing a successful working tribute band was a massive amount of work. But once again, my experience in marketing came in handy. This band (“Savor”) has also provided a number of unexpected rewards. In the last 20 years, we’ve played hundreds of shows, for audiences of up to 6,000 people. I recorded a CD of my original music, and have sold 1,000s of them.
But until about six years ago, I was careful to keep the business of the band and the business of websites and SEO completely separate. (I thought potential clients would look askance at a musician doing their marketing.) It took two pretty savvy fellow business owners to convince me that was a mistake. And boy, were they right.
There must be hundreds of thousands of digital marketing companies out there. But as far as I know, we’re the only one led by the frontman of a Santana Tribute band! Most people I meet seem to be fascinated by that, and as a result, I’ve quadrupled my revenue in the last six years.
The team that rocks
One of the things I’ve learned during my time running this business, is that what makes a business is the people behind it. Sure, I can use my “rocker” image to get attention, but it’s providing superior service that keeps clients with us, and leads them to refer others.
Due to my background in virtually all the aspects of digital marketing – writing, design, coding, and data analysis – I have been able to assemble a stellar group of people. We’re a fully remote operation, so my team has lots of flexibility, but wow, do they perform.
And because we have no overhead, we’ve been able to keep our costs reasonable, while continuing to improve the value of the services we offer. It sounds simple, but it takes constant tweaking and refining to maintain quality while increasing efficiency.
What advice I can provide to others
Basically, I think success in business boils down to three key things:
- Get a solid foundation in the field you’re entering. Unless you understand and have experience with the basic skills needed, you’ll constantly be challenged in trying to build your company
- Work on getting great people, and value them. Every company culture is different, but your team is critical to your success. Make sure you show (not just tell) them how important they are to you!
- Learn how to sell. Many people (including me!) don’t feel like they are “good” at sales. But that is in great part based on a vision they have of what sales is. (Mine was a smarmy used-car salesman! Turns out my style is nothing like that.) Finding a voice and presentation style you’re comfortable with lets you sell naturally. However you do it, sales is critical; without it, no business can succeed.
What the future holds
Every business owner has a vision for their organization. Some want to grow fast and sell for a huge profit, some may want to build a legacy for their kids. I realized years ago that I like having a business that feels like a family. In fact, many of the people who work for me are family! And most of the others are long-time friends.
So we’re relatively small (currently at 12 people), and we have great longevity. The average team member has been with me for 8 years. We enjoy what we’re doing, and enjoy a great deal of freedom – and aim to keep it that way.
I believe that nutrition science is a wonderful helper both for the preventive improvement of health and adjunctive therapy in treatment. My goal is to help people improve their health and well-being without torturing themselves with unnecessary dietary restrictions. I am a supporter of a healthy lifestyle – I play sports, cycle, and swim in the lake all year round. With my work, I have been featured in Vice, Country Living, Harrods magazine, Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Women's Health, and other media outlets.
- Bell Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits - April 19, 2024
- Products That Assist with Stress Relief - September 21, 2023
- TRÈFLE – THE ROAD TO THE 15TH - July 29, 2023
