Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Jacobs.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started this company out of my passion for technology and web design. My love for coding was developed in 1996 when I began to work in text editors and Adobe Dreamweaver, developing small websites and coding small applications. In my initial non-professional escapades, I was able to help a lot of churches, organizations, and groups have a site that they could not afford to pay someone to do.
As time went on, I found myself sucked into the world of corporations. I worked for the largest provider in Tennessee as a technical team expert in dental research of all places. After a decade and multiple supervisors, I decided to pursue my passion.
By then it was 2014 and the landscape of web design had completely changed. WordPress had taken over 25% of the web at that time. Therefore, after learning to apply HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, and JQuery to the WordPress CMS, I founded this company originally as Root Web Designs, who helped a lot of local Chattanooga, regional southeast, and national companies “take root” online.
Moving to Florida in 2017 with my mainstream of work still coming from referrals in Chattanooga, I set up shop in Orlando under the business name of LeadStream Orlando Web Design as that is our specialty: We are a digital marketing company that creates you a stream of leads, a stream of revenue.
My goal is to create relationships with other business owners not clients and through that, we can increase each other’s business and succeed together.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being a business owner is never a smooth road. I was blessed with a mentor that helped me remove some of the struggles of a brand new entrepreneur. I knew how to work IN my business but not ON my business. He helped me in getting my books right, finding and selling to initial clients, and helping me get my feet under me.
I think the biggest challenge happens when you try to take on everything yourself. It leads to a lack of scalability and burns you out. Depression hits hard at that point. You feel alone with the pressure of everything and working in time off is something you have to do. Find people that can take care of the non-essential stuff that you are not great at and focus on those things that matter. It’s also important to have an awareness of the need to revamp the way things are done from time to time.
And as a funny aside, I work from home and my entire family (wife, five years old daughter, our dog and cat) are all having a dance party as I type this. THAT can be a challenge sometimes, but definitely fun.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in helping small businesses become thriving businesses. We don’t just build pretty websites. Technical SEO (search engine optimization) and strategy is the foundation of every project. We start with keyword research and your current pain points and address both before we start developing the first page.
For 2020 and 2021, we have been in the top 12 branding agencies in Orlando according to Expertise.com.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Whew. COVID-19… So here’s the thing that happened to us. At first, people were uneasy spending money on marketing with the unknown that was happening. Then everyone hit us all at once with online needs as doors were closing and an online presence became even more necessary. Then as it continued, people were running dry on reserves and the market became scarce again. We did see a bump when PPP started being distributed and now it is pretty much back to normal.
The biggest thing I learned from this, we always stress saving for the unknown, but wow didn’t see something like this coming. It has made us more thankful that we run as lean as possible and pass a lot of that savings onto other businesses to keep them afloat during trying times.
Contact Info:
- Email: richard@myleadstream.com
- Website: https://myleadstream.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myleadstream
