My wife, Jamie Moeller, and I started a company. JMedia, in October of 2019 focusing on social media marketing for the SMB market. Jamie is a marketing executive with over 30 years of experience and when meshed with my 30+ years of IT experience we make a strong team. Jamie took on the full-time job of running the business while I was helping off-hours as I am employed full time elsewhere.
The timing seemed right and we were off to a good start. In January of 2020, we added a Nettl franchise to our company to add website design, search engine optimization, traditional print, and show fabrics to our portfolio. Nettl is an international company based in the UK that we chose to use as an add on to our business and we became JMedia • Nettl of Cuyahoga Falls!
We were excited to provide services to our Cuyahoga Falls community until the pandemic decided to take us in an unexpected direction. I was furloughed from my current position in early April allowing me to work with Jamie full time to expand our offerings and try to keep the sales funnel if not full, at least not empty. The experience of us being able to work together has been a godsend for me as it allowed me to stay busy and help at the same time. We’re not the type to sit still for too long!
So on to our pandemic saga.
One of the Nettl locations in Dublin, Ireland decided to add a community support website designed to allow local businesses to advertise for free as well as a way to donate what your commute dollars to local charities. They were willing to share the site code with other Nettl franchises around the world and we designed www.supportcuyahogafalls.com for our local businesses and charities during the pandemic.
The site design is simple, yet highly effective and showcases local businesses that are working to survive these trying times. Three weeks in and we currently have over 30 companies listed! Our donation page, Donate your Commute, encourages people to take the monies normally spent commuting such as gas, coffee, drive-through breakfast, etc. and donating those funds to local charities such as food banks, cancer care groups, beautification teams, or any charity that supports our local community. We didn’t stop at just the site however and have been posting on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to put the word out about all the various businesses and charities in our community. We check in regularly with our members to see how they’re doing and to offer an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. All of this is free to our community as a way for us to give back.
So, what about the post-pandemic?
Do we stop there? NO! We plan to continue to support our community. We’ve made some friends during this time and as we return to reopening our world the need to be out there in the minds of the public will not diminish. We are currently in production of window graphics that can be displayed in the storefront as well as designing coffee mugs, shirts, and other marketing materials to last beyond this pandemic to that end.
This year has started off a little rough, but we feel that it has strengthened our family, our neighborhood, our city, and we look forward to supporting them all!
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