Back in 2009 Gaetani Insurance of Binghamton, NY asked my team to build them a great website. They considered images of burning buildings, crashing cars and even developing a mascot as they talked about what they wanted their new website to look like back then.

Fast forward to 2015. Technology sure has changed in the last six (6) years! It's no longer about movement and Flash, it's about how mobile friendly you are. How quickly can visitors to your website find the information they're looking for and take that next call to action.

When I talked with Gaetani about how much the online world has changed and how their website wasn't displaying well on smartphones and tablets, they knew it was time for an upgrade. But was it worth the investment?

Gaetani Insurance said "Yes!". They're now proudly promoting their new website at http://gaetaniinsurance.com. My company is also thrilled to help them join the wonderful world of social media. Their business Facebook page is now branded to match the look and feel of their new website. We're also working with them on a 30 day kickstart program to ease them into this new social media arena.

Thanks for the privilege of working with you, Gaetani Insurance! For those of you reading this, if you're looking for personal or business insurance, talk with Joe or Pat at Gaetani Insurance. They've helped many businesses save money and enjoy the entire experience. Check out what other business owners had to say. 

Life has a way of sending the right influencers at crucial moments to help guide us. My life took a dramatic change at one such crossroad.

My grandfather enlisted in the Navy during WWII when he was 17. He was passionate about preserving our freedom, and now my family was looking for a way to express our gratitude for his service. So my dad started a business to honor military veterans, "So Proudly We Hail".

I was given the task of lining up advertising and producing the supporting business website and print materials. This was all very new to me, but I loved the thrill of marketing a business and honoring our military veterans. That is, I did enjoy it until I realized the website design company I hired was not going to have the website ready in time.

Would we crash and burn? Or would we find a way to rise above?

A week before the print ads were released, a friend referred me to a website design company in Binghamton. They produced a beautiful website design for us. Our marketing campaigns launched and, shortly after, the newspaper interviewed our company and some of the veterans and their families. From there we were contacted for a TV interview. It was thrilling to see these influencers come along at just the right time to change the course of our family business.

But this was just the beginning. A love of website design and marketing had really been fueled in me. I received a call from the website company in Binghamton, NY, whom I had worked with, asking if I would help them generate leads and better serve their clients. I said "YES" and enjoyed learning more over the next couple years. From there I started my own website design company in the Greater Binghamton area, but it all comes back to the day we decided to honor my grandfather.

I realized, though, that this wasn't just a random event that so dramatically changed my future. My path was being shaped much further back by great influencers.

My dad is a man of great vision and taught me from a young age that anything is possible. He also instilled a love of business, finance, marketing and honorable character by setting an example and allowing me to be a part of anything he was involved in...he set my sisters and I up selling Uncle John's Sweet Corn at a young age, he gave me a book to track my finances at age 11, he let me help pilot his plane while he took aerial photographs, he infused enthusiasm for our entire family to help build our house from the ground up, and he taught me to enjoy the journey.

Today I found a note my mom wrote to me a few years ago that seemed to sum things up appropriately: "It is so easy to get discouraged with how things go in life – one day you see hope or determine to be content and the next day all hopes are dashed because this or that happens – kind of like a roller coaster ride (you like the thrill of those rides – don't you?). Well hang on...today and each new day when "obstacles" come may you stand strong...keep the bar down and hold on."

Behind the scenes there are always influencers at work. I'm blessed to have a long list of people who have invested in my life. I would count it a privilege to play a role in investing in you and your business and helping you see the success you've envisioned.

P.S. Our So Proudly We Hail business is no longer operational, but it was a great stepping-stone. Maybe one day soon we'll open the doors back up.

 We want to assure you that the security of our customers is always a top priority. We began addressing the Heartbleed vulnerability issue immediately upon disclosure and have successfully applied patches to all of our platforms. The likelihood that private information was compromised is very minimal due to the lack of a public exploit at the time of the disclosure. We will continue to work to protect the security of our customers and their data.

Amy J Stoddard, Marketing & Design is very happy to announce the launch of New York Dental Group’s new website. The website design was developed using the powerful content management system Joomla. You’ll notice how the modern, professional website design has a very high usability factor due to the responsive website layout that can adapt to any screen size and device.