Where to begin? How do we summarize our first year as Edgeworks Creative?

On January 1, 2012 Edgeworks Creative LLC became recognized by our wonderful state of Vermont as an official business entity located in the hamlet of Rochester. The resplendent ceremony included many dishes of fish and fowl, silver mugs filled with grog and competitions of wit and skill....and then we got back to work.

Ed and Cynthia had been working together for 6 months by the time Edgeworks Creative was born, gestating the collaborative process that ultimately led to the decision to go into business together rather than continue operating two separate businesses.

The most noticeable change in our first year has been the move to our office in Waterbury, VT. Warm, comfy and in the heart of the state, our office has been a fabulous space for critical and creative thinking and provides a great atmosphere for generally getting things done. It helps that the Move-in Fairy left us a new Keurig coffee maker which has faithfully churned out liquid fuel for us everyday since moving in.

Shortly after our move to Waterbury in February we began to get involved in local business activities organized through Revitalizing Waterbury. It had a dramatic effect on our sense of belonging. We attended a business mixer and introduced ourselves to the community of business owners and immediately felt welcomed and valued as members of the business community. The local interest in who we are and what we do has been tremendous and we’ve made great new contacts and friends as a result.

Cynthia and Ed took advantage of a marketing course being offered to local Waterbury business owners. The course was offered free of charge to any and all Waterbury businesses in an effort to support the retooling and remaking of businesses impacted by the flooding Irene brought to the town of Waterbury. Initially they attended in large part to make continued contact with other small business owners and get our name “out there”, but found that they were making good use of the course materials in our own marketing efforts and they held each other accountable to complete the course and apply what was being offered.

We've had challenges and setbacks, but we don't have the time or the need to dwell on those....Ed likes to say we were able to make adjustments when things went poorly because we were small and nimble - that a larger organization would have withered where we were able to adapt. That has allowed us to focus on the successes and exciting challenges ahead!

In our first year we have gotten the strong, smart and dedicated team we were seeking when we set out on this venture. Phil has been with us from the beginning and can always be counted on for a unique perspective on things. With the addition of Adam to our crew we now find ourselves chugging along at a good pace and making constant improvements and refinements to our web design and development methods and tools.

Some highlights of our achievements in our first year of business doing website design in Vermont include:

1. We moved the development of our Edgeworks CMS platform forward by leaps and bounds allowing us to design websites for our clients that are powerful, fast and simple to use
2. We architected verticals for our platform for attorneys, schools and real estate agents
3. We introduced Biz Card websites built on our platform allowing even the smallest of businesses to get online with a website that can grow with their business
4. We developed our Blogging package for the Edgeworks CMS and tools to import WordPress blogs into it
5. We continued to grow the print design portion of our business and had a lot of fun designing environmental signage for Swedish Institute’s new building in downtown Manhattan
6. We continued to grow the Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing portions of our business
7. Cynthia and Ed appeared on WCAX to discuss the use of cell phone apps for busy people
8. We rolled out new parallax website for our own site which is super, super cool and we did it using the same platform we develop all our sites on - showcasing how it is possible to create just about anything on our platform.

And the blog? If this is your first time reading a post here, WELCOME! If not, then you understand that the blog isn't just some boring educational tool. No. Friday Props is one of our outlets for FUN (along with the Nerf Guns we have in the office) allowing us the opportunity to point out cool and sometimes silly things we notice. We certainly have enjoyed writing the series and the feedback we've gotten has encouraged us to continue it along.

But a retrospective on our first year focused solely on ourselves would be folly. Our success this first year has everything to do with the tremendous clients we have been fortunate to work with and to our many friends and family who have supported this endeavor. To you we are most grateful and appreciative.

Looking forward we have our sights set on improving and growing our business even further. We’ve come a long way in one year and we are confident in the future we have in front of us.