By: Scott & Ali Reynolds
When my wife and co-founder Ali and I started The Get Smart Group 10 years ago (!), we worked with our business coach at Turning West to craft a list of values that defined who and what we wanted to be as a marketing agency (and the type of employees we wanted to have on the team). At the top of our list of values is “Innovate.” Our cutting edge innovation in this ever-changing digital marketing world is something we’re very proud of being good at over the years. It has formed valuable partnerships with clients and allowed us to stay sharp with our skills and provide education to our clients as well as our own team. In this past year, it has led us to be part of something very exciting in the technology sector that is just beginning to gain recognition nationally.
Innovation with other businesses
A recent article in Pool Pro magazine spilled the beans on our year-long collaboration with Latham Pools on two ground-breaking tools to help pool builders sell more pools, communicate with their customers better, and make the overall buying experience better. These tools are the Latham Liner Visualizer and the Latham Fiberglass Pool Visualizer (iOS link only). We’re immensely proud to be part of these tools and some amazing new solutions coming for the 2020 pool season.
The years and investment we’ve put into innovation, and into growing The Get Smart Group and subsequently, The Realizers, into respected digital marketing companies in the Pool & Spa industry have allowed us to meet so many wonderful people and companies. We couldn’t be happier with the steady growth and recognition we’ve received over the years. But it hasn’t just been the creativity to innovate that has come that has led us to success with the company. It’s been our commitment to each of the values we have used to define our company culture that has brought us to where we are now.
Innovation in our own business
As a small business, we face many of the same daily struggles as our own clients: hiring, firing, managing cash flow, administrative paperwork, taxes (ugh), paying for tech tools (inventory), researching new products and solution and the ongoing Tech support (training) costs that are seemingly unending. We tell our own potential employees during the hiring process, “If you want a job that will never change and you want to just clock in and out every day, this is not the right place for you. But if you love to learn and are passionate about constantly improving yourself and sharing your knowledge to help others – you will love it here.” Our first day of training at Get Smart consists of learning our company story, mission, and vision and learning our company values. They are the foundation for how our team conducts ourselves in business every day.
Our understanding of the day to day struggles of small businesses, and our consistent creative applications of problem-solving – for ourselves AND for our own clients – has been what raises us above and beyond any potential competitors in the pool and spa industry digital marketing space. Yes, we can get you more leads. Build mobile-friendly SEO optimized websites. Help you get relevant metrics reporting you can understand. And yes, we can innovate new solutions. We love doing all of these things. But at the end of the day, we are just real people solving human problems and trying to make the world a better place.
Innovate with us
We help each of our clients become the best business in their region. If you’re interested in learning more about how we market for the pool and spa industry, give us a call at 415-800-2040 ext.701. We’d love to hear from you, explore your challenges, and help you plan a stronger future for your own company.
For excellent business coaching, we recommend reaching out to Dr. Steven Goodwin at Turning West. They have been essential in helping us plan and grow (and stay married!) over the years and have already worked with several clients in the pool industry.
