Guest Speaker: Brian Forth

     This week a gentleman named Brian Forth came in to speak to our class. A repeat guest speaker, Brian is the founder/CEO of the Tacoma web design company SiteCrafting. While the service they provide (website and app design and maitenance) is fairly run-of-the-mill contracting, the way they go about their operation is a wonderful example of what a company should be like.
  The first thing that struck me was Brian's entrepreneurial experience and how it evolved into his company. He started as an elementary school teacher who did web design for a friend here or there. Soon enough, just through word of mouth and quality of service, he had numerous clients  and a booming side business. He eventually left teaching to pursue this full time. He then slowly expanded his one man company into the 30-something person operation it is today. While he seemed to be omitting a lot about the struggles involved, it still seemed like he had an experience where he was in the right time at the right place, took a risk after he had built some momentum, and succeeded ever since. This, to me, is a paragon entrepreneurial story.
  What I liked the most about Brian's operation was that they have no marketing team. Not that they made a point not to market, but their developers and leaders do enough networking and branching out on their own to promote their services. The reason they remain so successful is simple word of mouth; their customer service and product are so good that they are constantly recommended to good clients. That is something I have never encountered, and it's incredibly inspiring. It gives me a little faith that in my future endeavors I can (partially) rely on the quality of my work to speak for itself and bring me success.