YGG’s second interview is with Sean Alsobrooks of Third & Grand web design firm in Wildomar, California.

Hi there Sean. How are you?

I am great, how are you doing?

I’m doing good. Alright, let’s get started on this little interview here.

Sounds good.

Let’s start things off by telling us a bit about yourself?

Sure. I have been in the web design industry since 1999. I own a company called Third & Grand. We make websites for clients all over the US. We absolutely love doing this stuff….it is our ultimate passion and that makes it very easy to come to work each day!

When did you start your first company?

I believe it was early 1999…the California Cactus Company. Our plan was to sell Cacti online and retire millionaires!

How’d that work out for you? ;)

Ha ha, we sold a total of 0! However, it was the middle of the dot com boom and it really allowed me to get my feet wet with the internet and ecommerce and all that good stuff

Yeah, I guess cacti and bubbles were never meant to be together.

Good point!

So how long after that until Third & Grand began?

Third & Grand was born out of that. After making that first website I had a few requests from friends and family to design small websites for them. I really had no real clue what I was doing; I went down to Best Buy and bought some HTML editor and went to work. It was September 1999.

How much has your business grown since then?

Great question. It has grown wonderfully. The Lord has really blessed us with great, high profile clients and a steady flow of new work every month. It took a while to get to this point. There were some very hard, slow months, but it seems like we hit a point a couple years back where it started to get much easier….find clients that is.

What do you enjoy most about the web business?

Definitely the design aspect. I just said to someone the other day, “I love this business, I love everything about it, except the people!” That was just a joke, but the creative design part is amazing. I love to create tools and sites and apps that that really work well for the end user.

Did you have a design background before starting Third & Grand?

Not really. I always loved to draw growing up, but when I was attending Eastern Michigan University, I was studying to be a teacher. So I did not have any formal training, I just really studied on my own, looking at great design and many times copying it until I could learn to come up with nice stuff on my own.

Imitating great ones while trying to learn how to be great is definitely a great method.

For sure, imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

You probably get asked this a lot, but where’d the name Third & Grand come from?

Great question. We first started in 1999 and named the company Mighty Box. We stuck with that for quite a few years. Last year we decided to go for a change, to better represent the way our work and focus and style had changed. There is no real meaning to it, just the result of a lot of brain storming. We wanted something sort of unique, catchy, easy and “upscale”, so to speak.

One of the things I really enjoyed about your company is the unique way you tell a story for each of your clients and projects through video. How has that approach helped your business?

Another great question! It has had a very dramatic impact. We get calls/emails all the time from people telling us how they really enjoyed watching the videos. We tried to create a story about each client. We had gone through many, many versions of our portfolio and wanted something that really shows our capabilities while at the same time focusing on our clients and most importantly, we wanted to give the visitor something worthwhile to watch; something a bit more interesting than just reading about it. It’s fun to create those as well!

For those clients, what’s your process for taking their problems and manipulating it into a solution on the web?

We focus almost entirely on their potential visitors/audience. In the early days, we tried to make something that was “pretty” so that the client would really like it and could show it off to their friends. Nowadays, we think about who will be using this website and what do they want/expect to get out of it? How can we make their experience better and easier? At times this has caused a bit of friction with clients as they often want to do things “their way”. But they usually come around and see that it really “isn’t about them”, it’s about their visitors

To carry off of that, your 6th reason of your “7 reasons you shouldn’t hire us”, describes clients that want to fit into their industry with a cookie cutter website. How do you deal with clients like that?

Ha ha. That is a funny question because it occurs so often. Clients usually go out and find their competition’s website and say, “do this!” We can usually get the feel of a client up front, and the ones we are able to educate/show the light to, we go ahead and produce something amazing for them. For those clients who insist upon doing it just like their competition, we usually refer them out to our competition!

It’s nice to hear that your firm has the cojones to show them the door when needed.

Well, to be fair, it is not the easiest thing to do, but sometimes it just has to be done. We try to identify “problem” clients up front and say “goodbye” as soon as possible.

It seems like many businesses think of a website as mandatory but not a significant part of their company.

Why do you think there’s such a disregard for the importance of an online presence, mainly with small companies?

Great question. I think that most small business owners either “get it” or they don’t. They either recognize the power of the internet and are ready to try to harness it or they really don’t have a clue. I think when small business owners hear on TV or a website that they can get a website for $99 it tends to devalue the whole idea of what a website can/should be doing for them. We have a saying around here, “they don’t know what they don’t know”. To be as honest as possible, most business owners don’t have a clue about the internet or their website.

I mean that in the nicest possible way of course!

Haha, of course. I kind of see it as a generational gap, where most of the 20 somethings and teens just getting into business will have an understanding of the importance of the web in all their future ventures.

That seems to be very true.

You have a great blog called “Hello, Website”. Do you think it’s essential that a business has a blog nowadays, and why?

YES, YES, YES! Thank you by the way, I appreciate that. Yes, it is a free avenue to the heart of your customer, why the heck wouldn’t they? I think blogs are awesome when the owner/blogger is passionate about their subject/industry. If not, I have seen a few that are a giant waste of time. I think a blog has the power to start conversations and really open up the “relational” door with your potential customers. Instead of reading through your sales talk and industry jargon, they can learn and read the thoughts of a “real person”, even interact with that person. That has a powerful effect

Yeah, the personality a blog creates is much more impactful that pre-packaged sales pitches.

Amen!

When it comes to this whole “web 2.0� madness, where do you think websites are going in both form and function?

Great question. I think the direction websites are taking is heading towards being much more simple and purposeful. Not using flash just for the sake of using flash, stuff like that. I also think the social/interaction part is a huge thing. Getting users to create, modify, share content is huge. Overall, it’s a good thing and an exciting time. Sometimes however, I do get the strange sense of 1999 all over again, especially with so many internet startups working so hard just to be purchased by Google or Yahoo. That worries me a bit.

I think we’re all expecting the sound of burst in the near future.

I am afraid you may be correct

You offer a monthly marketing package on your website. What are some of the best ways young go getters can market their websites, along with your package of course?

I think marketing a website successfully on your own can definitely be done. It takes one thing for sure though, time. If YGGs can put in the time to visit forums, write blog posts, respond to comments, setup links with other sites and most importantly, keep the content on their site fresh, they will do very well for themselves. Most of the technical and difficult part is just the icing on the cake, the main ingredient is to put in the time and effort.

I wrote a short ebook a few months ago and gave it away free on our website. Since then, it has been downloaded hundreds of times. That was my last idea, give away something of value, share your insight, it will come back to your for sure!

We’ll close things off with a golden nugget. From all the triumphs and mistakes of your career, do you have a story or tip that every young go getter should remind themselves of each day?

It may sound like a cliché, but it is true, do something you really love. Something that you are passionate about. Don’t just look for a “get rich quick schemeâ€?, but do whatever it is that you absolutely love. The work will be easy, you will be good at it, the jobs and money will follow and you will have a blast along the way!

Fantastic tip Sean. Well, thanks a ton for the interview and best of luck to you and Third & Grand.

Thanks so much for having me for this interview, I really appreciate it.

Be sure to drop by Third & Grand.