April 16, 2007
Meet Inc. Innovators: White, Wunrow, Dobinski
Web page specialists work together without an office
By Maureen Wallenfang
Q This is a company without an office, which is probably every new entrepreneur's dream — low overhead. But how well does it work for the three of you to be in three home offices?
A Dustin White: It works out fine because we're a totally Web-based company.
Jim Dobinski: We do have meetings. But 85 percent of the time we're on our own. It's not out of the ordinary to get 70 e-mails a day from each other.
Cathy Wunrow: We're in constant touch with each other electronically. The beauty of the Web business is we have laptops and I can design from anywhere on the road as long as I've got the technology.
Q You're going to have an office by the end of the year?
A Dobinski: Once everybody's out (of current day jobs) I think it's going to make us more efficient to be centralized.
Wunrow: The need is there to meet with clients in an office. It will be more professional. And we'll have employees.
Q How many clients do you have?
A White: Close to 30.
Dobinski: And five more on the docket.
Q One of the sites you did was www.watchdoghomewatch.com and I talked to the company's owner, Ken Langenhahn. He was happy that the site looked professional, but also was easy to navigate. Obviously, those are everyone's goals. Why do a lot of other web sites fall short?
A Wunrow: A lot of times people try to do it themselves. As a small business owner, you don't have a lot of money.
White: Even if they have a template, they still need to have some knowledge about how to do Web editors or how to do HTML.
Q You're saying you're building affordable Web sites. Ken said you weren't the cheapest. What are the costs?
A White: It really depends because we're all custom designed. But we've noticed we're on the top of the quality spectrum for design and programming, but we're in the middle for cost. You don't have to be up here in cost, the $100-plus per hour that most people charge. Our programming charges just went up to $75 an hour. Design is $100 to $150 per page.
Q What kind of volume are you doing?
A Dobinski: Last year was our first year, and we did $15,000. This year we're looking at $75,000. Next year, well into the half a million mark.
Q You all met at JJ Keller where I'm sure you had great salaries and benefits. Here, you probably won't have all the perks. This company can support everybody?
A Dobinski: It is. Our business plan is right on target to get everybody out and on their own. It stated that I was going to be out in March. Cathy will be out in two months and Dustin two months after that.
Q Who did the business plan?
A Dobinski: The three of us, through the E-Seed program.
Wunrow: We just placed fifth in the Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan Competition (out of 53 entries).
Q How do you handle health insurance?
A Dobinski: Through the Chamber. It has a really nice small business health plan.
Q What are some of the innovations that make you different from the many other Web design companies or individuals doing the same thing?
A Dobinski: Everything is in-house. I meet with a client, we have a designer on staff and a programmer on staff. We don't have to outsource anything. So many companies don't offer that. That's really where we found our niche.
Q What have been some of the innovative sites you've created?
A Wunrow: Player's Choice (www.pcappleton.com) was a dramatic change from what they had before. It has animation with balls bouncing around. It's easier to navigate.
White: We did a political Web site for Gary Tauchen. At a fundraiser, people came up to him and said he has one of the best Web sites for a state (legislator) they've ever seen. We had pay by credit card, a bunch of cool interactions, news stories, ways to help. There was a lot of innovative stuff that you'd see on a site for a governor.
Q He was elected?
A White: Yup. And he just got hold of me this weekend to update the site to show what he's doing in office. |
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