Businesses Speak Out - Cedar Valley Networking Group

Strategic Imaging – Mike Reyhons

Dedicated to Relevant Marketing Through Personalized Direct Mail since 2008

Strategic Imaging is a market-driven solutions provider, specializing in top quality variable data and variable image printing. We combine years of printing expertise and state of the art digital imaging with data management and programming specialists for target marketing and direct mail campaigns. We offer full-service commercial offset printing along with a full complement of bindery, finishing and mailing capabilities.

We are a one-stop shop for all your marketing needs. In addition to your printed materials, we also proudly offer Custom Branding products. We feature an exclusive online catalog of apparel and promotional items to help you with every aspect of your marketing and brand identity. Whatever your business specializes in — marketing, finance/banking, automotive sales and service, retail, restaurant and entertainment, etc. — Strategic Imaging can assist you in stretching that all mighty marketing dollar from concept to customer. We are located in the central Midwest for quick distribution of direct mail and shipping to anywhere in the U.S.

HM: Who is your customer target audience, the ideal customer you are reaching out to?

MR: A target audience would be anyone that wants to use direct mail as a form of marketing. So we do a lot with marketing agencies that have clients that need to get their word out and direct mail as part of their marketing plan. So agencies are a good one, and retailers and non-profits to get their fundraising out. We do a lot with non-profits in the area, to help them with their events and help with their capital campaigns or fundraising campaigns.

HM: What would you say was the greatest impact that COVID-19 has had on your business?

MR: A lot of what we do are for events and sales and since everything had to basically shut down, you can’t have your event. Our sales plummeted. Lots of things had to be rearranged. Everything just came to a screeching halt.

HM: What one or two actions have you taken to make a difference in your business?

MR: We do promotional material and apparel, so we have sold logo masks to companies that want to give to their employees. We mailed out 29,000 masks for United Healthcare and to their recipients in Texas. We printed, I think, 400,000 labels/stickers for Mercy One for Visitor stickers where they are checked in when they arrive, visitors stickers so you are allowed to be in. Some things kind of different, I would have never printed thousands of stickers or masks before now, it’s just weird.

The other thing we do, we are working with Bari Richter, Convey Sign Solutions, Inc. for social distancing signs and floor graphics that I outsourced to Bari. A lot of new communication for people. Also post it notes for the casinos that they put in the rooms saying this room has been sanitized. It’s just different work.

HM: What mistakes did you make along the way in your career and how can other people in business learn from your experience?

MR: One of the big things that you learn along your journey is that if somebody knew now, what you knew then, or what you know now. To be honest with you, never be afraid to ask for business. I guess that’s the only one thing I can think of. People that I know, but they went to another company for printing, but maybe because I didn’t ASK for their business. I just assumed it would come my way. I know a lot of people through networking, but you still need to remind them and ask them for their business. So, that’s one thing, is never assume somebody’s going to use you, you have to ask for their business.

HM: What is most inspiring to you today and what is keeping you positive going through this?

MR: What keeps me going to be honest with you, is the networking groups that I’m in. The Ambassadors, Rotary, CVN, and I started another one in Cedar Rapids, a business breakfast connection. Everyone is still plugging away, everybody’s still doing the best the can. So when you see that they’re doing it, I’m going to do it.

Contact information:

mike.reyhons@strategic-imaging.com 

888-852-3731

https://www.strategic-imaging.com

Micah Verseman – Moving Visual Films

Since a young age telling stories has been my passion. Once I was old enough to be trusted with the family’s video camera, I began making movies and the rest is history. With over a decade in the industry working on television shows, short films, feature films and promotional pieces, I’m excited to see how I can help you best serve your audience.

Moving stories, memorable characters and beautiful shots don't just happen by accident. Developing your next promotional film is what we do best. Just like every business is different, so is every promotional film. That’s why with every project we work to bring together the right team to craft a film your audience  will watch to the end and share with everyone they know.

HM: Who is your customer target audience, the ideal customer you are reaching out to?

MV: Our best customer isn’t necessarily one specific industry. There’s a couple factors that make up a good customer or client. There are those that have the time to put in helping to develop. Some customers come to us and are wanting something done and up in two weeks, we could do that, but that’s a very quick turnaround. So having the time is really helpful to us, to develop a good piece.

And then those customers that have a specific goal in mind for what they want us to do. If they have a specific goal, we’re always going to be able to make a better end product. Another one would be having a marketing budget to actually put behind both in terms of creating the video, but then having money to actually put behind getting it out there.

HM: What would you say was the greatest impact that COVID-19 has had on your business?

MV: I would say it’s a combination, people being overly keen on spending a lot on marketing. With everything being so digital, so many at a time like this just revert to do live videos on their cell phone. That’s going to be good enough for the time being. So that’s been a big factor as well as just the ever changing times, what’s allowed, what’s not allowed. Can we actually have the number of people we need to do this – can we social distance? So those have kind of been big factors.

HM: What one or two actions have you taken to make a difference in your business?

MV: A couple of things; one I did was do some cold calling. It’s never going to get the greatest result. But we did have some businesses who took advantage of it, either because of how they were having to change things during this time, or different ideas that struck a key with them, so they give it a try. Then another thing was just developing some resources. We wrote some blog articles aimed more at helping businesses understand how to use the video aspect of social media. We sent stuff out in our email related to what you can be doing.

HM: What mistakes did you make along the way in your career and how can other people in business learn from your experience?

MV: Probably the biggest one, is figuring out what you’re worth. Whatever the budget is, if you’re constantly doing jobs that can’t pay you what you need to be making, you’re never going to be able to stay in business.

HM: What is most inspiring to you today and what is keeping you positive going through this?

MV: I think for me, just being a creative person.  I get ideas, really cool, to do some type of project with this business or industry. And how can I reach out to them and see if they did that something this industry needs, and how can we make that happen.

Contact Information:

319-883-9097

movingvisualfilms@gmail.com

https://www.movingvisualfilms.com

Ted Batemon – Electronic Engineering

In the early '90s, Bill Clark remained Chairman of the Board and appointed his son, Mark, President of Electronic Engineering. We launched our Internet Gateway system. This allowed our customers to send text message pages via the World Wide Web to anyone who had paging service with us. We also added more Electronic Engineering locations in Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Waterloo, Mt. Pleasant and Omaha, Nebraska.

In 2005, Electronic Engineering expanded into the Quad Cities in Iowa and in 2006, we opened our twelfth branch in Fremont, Nebraska. This affirms our long- term vision to be the premier provider of communication products in Iowa and Eastern Nebraska, from both an economic market and geographical model.

Electronic Engineering remains our company name. However, we have "branded" all our different product lines to include Beeper People (paging), Two-Way Connect (radios), The Cellular Store (phones), EMS+One (lights and sirens), Security Solutions (alarms, DVR's and closed-circuit television) and Tech'xperts (repair, installation and licensing). Today Electronic Engineering employs over 115 people in 11 locations.

HM: Who is your customer target audience, the ideal customer you are reaching out to?

TB: That’s really an important question. We work with so many different businesses. We do work in manufacturing; but we also work with farmers to put cameras in their farms and radios in their tractors and combines, police stations, municipalities, and we do a ton with schools. So really anyone who has a need for a camera or a better way to communicate with their staff. There’s no set demographic or set customer mindset, if there’s a need, we can fill it. We pretty much sell to anybody that has a need, we can generate that need with them.

HM: What would you say was the greatest impact that COVID-19 has had on your business?

TB: We really slowed it down. We’re considered an essential service. So as long as you’re servicing police and hospitals and whatnot, we still have to stay open.

So we felt the impact from the customer volume standpoint, meant some customers just shut down and do their normal maintenance. On the upside of that, we were able to get into schools and work on projects that were pushed back to fall or summer. So we got stuff done that wasn’t going to get done until later on in the year. So our impact was different than other businesses because of what we do, and because of our customer base we were able to do more than just keep the lights on so to speak.

HM: What one or two actions have you taken to make a difference in your business?

TB: So a lot of our guys are out in rural areas and they’re on towers. I, myself, have to go into public health departments and hospitals a lot. So we’ve taken steps to secure ourselves; wear masks, hand sanitizers. At every location, we have temperatures taken at the doors. So just taking extra precautions going into buildings, we abide by whatever rules that they have, taking precautions, hand sanitizing and temperature, that’s the biggest change we’ve made, so we still have business as usual for us.

HM: What mistakes did you make along the way in your career and how can other people in business learn from your experience? 

TB:  Probably my mistake is not marketing enough.  I think doing a target marketing is probably one of my biggest mistake to add more specific targeting and again, because our customer base is so wide, it’s hard to do..but it can be done. I think I need to do a better job at target marketing and going into specific customers for specific products.

HM: What is most inspiring to you today and what is keeping you positive going through this?

TB: Looking at the Coronavirus numbers, and the people who have recovered and that it’s looking pretty darn good. We can get through it.

Contact:

tbatemon@eengineering.com

319-235-5556

https://www.eengineering.com

Jim Burbridge of Comfort Inn & Suites

Cozy lodging by our beautiful riverside town

The Comfort Inn & Suites® Waterloo-Cedar Falls is the perfect hotel for your business trip or much-needed vacation. Our staff are ready to assist you if there’s anything that comes up while staying with us. There are plenty of fun things to explore in and around the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Metropolitan Area. Our hotel in Waterloo is also located within a short drive of the University of Northern Iowa and other area attractions nearby.

HM: Who is your customer target audience, the ideal customer you are reaching out to?

JB: My target audiences; I have two of them. My weekday business, I’m looking for that corporate traveler who travels throughout the Midwest who is looking for the best value so he can save his company some money. My other customer is the weekend tournament, who is either in town for wrestling, baseball, soccer, softball; whatever event that may be, and wants to put his family in a safe, comfortable environment, but yet still wants to save a little money at the same time.

HM: What would you say was the greatest impact that COVID-19 has had on your business?

JB: My occupancy levels that has business wise had the largest impact. As we’re coming into our busy season, March is normally one of my better months. But has been the worst month since I took over seven years ago. We are taking baby steps as far as occupancy goes.  Every little bit obviously helps.  But we still have a long way to go to be back to even half of what is normal. The other thing is my employees. They went from working hard and staying busy for 30 hours a week to being scheduled 10 hours a week. Obviously, they are virtual to my business and they have families to feed, they need to put food on their table as well.

HM: What one or two actions have you taken to make a difference in your business?

JB: I have really focused lately on communication with my staff. I have always been upfront and honest with them, showing my financials, and I think you and I have talked about that before. I’m very open and honest with the staff, trying to let them know why I make certain decisions, it’s not always the easiest of decisions to make, but ultimately moving forward that’s where we need to get to and trying to get everybody to buy in and take ownership of the hotel.

HM: What mistakes did you make along the way in your career and how can other people in business learn from your experience?

JB: I guess the first one would be to have enough financial cash in the back to overcome these situations.

Personally, my wife and I have set aside a little money, not enough to retire on by any means, but to overcome some situations like this. Everybody thinks that past experiences will just always continue on, they don’t always prove that all the time.

HM: What is most inspiring to you today and what is keeping you positive going through this?

JB: So I have a couple. One of my staff said they’re gong through challenges too. And as a leader, if I come into work and I don’t give 100%, they’re going to realize that and then they’re going to do the same. They literally follow my lead. But if I come in every day, say hi, smiling, waving, talking to my guests, finding out how they’re doing and talking with my staff, each and every one of them and treating everybody fairly. That’s one, there are a couple things that Ive been really striving to maintain.

Contact information:

https://www.choicehotels.com/iowa/waterloo/comfort-inn-hotels/ia203?mc=llyxyxpx Visit.203@gmail.com

319-830-4039

Brett DeVore, Cutting Edge Embroidery

At Cutting Edge, we put our customer first and work hard to ensure your satisfaction. Our team strives for speedy service and delivery - most jobs we can do in 2 weeks, although some do take us a little longer. For us, no job is too big or too small - from a 1 piece design to 1,000 pieces or more, we can do it!

Not only do we offer embroidery, screen printing, direct-to-garment printing and signage, we do rhinestone designs, mugs, can koozies, awards, customer and employee incentives and much, much more. If you can think it, we can probably do it!Stop in or call us at 319.238.8000 and see how we can help you make a statement with apparel or gifts. We've got you covered!

HM: Who is your customer target audience, the ideal customer you are reaching out to?

BD: Customers – basically corporate clients. Any company, helping them with their marketing needs. Helping get their logos out in front of people, whether on apparel, notepads, pens, backpacks. Creating brand awareness.

HM: What would you say was the greatest impact that COVID-19 has had on your business?

BD: To start with, we were one of the businesses that were mandated to close by the Governor. So that gave us time to actually refocus on what we could do to help the community and we actually created face masks for several weeks to donate and give out to community members.

HM: What one or two actions have you taken to make a difference in your business?

BD: First thing I’ve done is I’ve actually taken the time to focus on some institutional learning in terms of virtual trade shows. It was a three day video conference, getting just basically some different ideas from industry professionals throughout the country, what they’re doing, what they’ve been successful at that I may not have been thinking of. So that’s primary. I’ve actually started to look at where we can start incorporating that. Quite honestly, I use this to reinvigorate myself, I need to double down and focus more on our social media.

HM: What mistakes did you make along the way in your career and how can other people in business learn from your experience?

BD: Probably not putting time in.  Some of the professionals that are out there who have been in business for 20, 30, 40 years; looking at what they’re successful at. And trying to turn that negative attitude to, let’s try it, let’s give it a whirl. One of the biggest things is we moved forward with some direct mail marketing pieces during this time. The challenge was to stomach spending the money, but that gets our name out there.

HM: What is most inspiring to you today and what is keeping you positive going through this?

BD: I would honestly say, absolutely nothing related to business whatsoever, but seeing how some of the different community members have pulled together.

Hearing what other people are doing to help their communities, not only their communities, but the broader community. That’s been kind of really cool. And I count ourselves when we were doing that, as part of a group that really cares.

Contact: Sales@cutedgeemb.com

319-283-8000

https://www.cutedgeemb.com