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EZSolution has grown by providing services that clients request [Central Penn Business Journal (PA)](Central Penn Business Journal (PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) REGION So far, EZSolution Corp. doesn't do video work. But based on the East Hempfield Township company's history, that might very well be on the services list someday. "I'm a sales guy," says Tom Malesic. He was selling for a website business that declined to do a project for a gay pride jewelry line, a decision he disagreed with. So he quit, borrowed $2,000 from his mom and started his own website development company in 1997. The business grew, Malesic says, and clients started asking him for IT assistance, assuming that if he could build a website, he could fix their computers. He referred them to another company for a while, then decided that referring all that business away didn't make sense and bought that company. The same logic applied when he brought Mike Rice and Hale McCulloch on board at EZSolution in October. Rice owned and operated marketing communications firm Rice & Rice Ltd. for nearly 23 years, and McCulloch was art director there for 20 years. Their advent means EZSolution is going, for the first time, to "produce, direct mail, newsletters, banners, catalogs, brochures, displays, print ads and much more to support our clients and the marketing efforts," Malesic says. The reason? "Same kind of thing: People would say, 'Can you do my logo?'" Malesic says. "I just get tired of saying no. Why am I turning business away?" "My firm was creating marketing strategies and tactics that worked well for clients with ROI before websites and email," says Rice. "We had great success developing ad campaigns and tactics and producing direct-mail pieces, newsletters, brochures, catalogs, outdoor and broadcast advertising and displays. Today, however, websites, SEO, social media marketing and email marketing are the norm and have become the big player in the marketing communications world." The business, Malesic says, has grown every year since he started it, and this year it was featured on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. EZSolution was ranked 3,118th, with 106 percent growth to $2.3 million in revenue in 2012. Today, Malesic estimates that twothirds of the company's business falls under the general category of Internet marketing, which ranges from designing websites and doing search engine optimization to running Facebook pages for clients. The rest is IT, typically for small companies that have 15 to 75 computers. Malesic doesn't expect the technology learning curve to level out any time soon. Moving to the cloud is going to be a big thing, he says, and the switch from single servers to multiple servers in a box is just one of the ways the industry has already been changing. His team goes to a lot of trade shows and conferences to stay up-to-date. On the other hand, he says, using technology to help a business attain its goals is sometimes not cutting-edge at all. For example, Malesic says, one thing his company routinely does for clients is install additional monitors. "Let's say a monitor's $200 and a video card is maybe $200," he says. "If the person's making $40,000 and becomes even 10 percent more efficient, that's more than $400." On the Internet marketing side, Malesic says, business owners have definitely transitioned to seeing websites as sales tools. "Now business owners look at that technology and say, 'If I'm going to spend the money, I want this to make money for me,'" he says. Consequently he's seeing more sites encouraging people to enter their contact information to obtain a download, more sites that focus on personality instead of just presenting the facts, and more website-unique phone numbers so owners know which calls are from people who have visited the sites. And, he says, "You're going to see video on websites more than you ever have before." But so far, EZSolution isn't shooting that video. "We still contract that out at this point," he says. "Now business owners look at that technology and say, 'If I'm going to spend the money, I want this to make money for me.'" Tom Malesic, EZSolution BY HEATHER STAUFFER [email protected] (c) 2013 Journal Publications Inc. |