Name of your website?
StreetSmart
Your name?
Kerry
Your Location (city, etc)
Calgary
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We are a personal security and self defence company. We teach Women's Personal Safety courses, Street Proofing courses for teens, as well as a Security, Restraint/Control seminar for Doormen and security personnel. We also offer security consulting services.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
The fact that we can affordably reach a potentially large target audience with our services was the initial draw.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Our original site was a cobbled together work on FrontPage. It wasn't a bad first effort but our current page is much better visually as well as in conveying our message to potential customers.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Ironically the answer to that comes from everyone's mom. I remember being a kid and my mom telling me that I had to be "Street Smart". A lot of us have had that lecture as teens and it just kind of stuck out when my business partner and I were looking at potential names for the company.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Our website is not busy. It is clean and simple to navigate and allows visitors the oportunity to learn about our company and the courses/services we offer. They also get to see what we do when we teach personal safety courses. We also provide a free personal safety tip of the month. What really sets us apart from other sites is our diverse backgrounds. We are experienced Peace Officers with over 20 years experience in the combat arts. We have provided training and consultancy services to some of Calgary's largest education and entertainment organizations.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
We would eventually like to expand our market to Western Canada and promote the company full time.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
The nice thing about what we do is that our overhead is not very high. We utilize custom built "Padded Attacker" suits when teaching to allow student's to experience the "freeze response" caused by adreanaline flooding the system during an attack. The suits while allow student's to safely train full power against a determined advasary. We are starting to see some contracts come in as well as some former client's yearly courses. We would eventually like to run 4 courses a week.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would definitely have a good radio and television advertising budget. Exposure is always the key for any business. Ours is so specialized that unless you know where to look, you could miss it. I think we would also have an ad agency look at how we can reach a larger potential market.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Oh yes, I think we would comfortably and happily work on the business full time if the opportunity presented itself.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Nothing really, all of our costs have been fairly negligible for the start up of a new business. Our biggest expenses have been in equipment purchases. We did learn very quickly that for as much as we know about personal security and self defence, we knew equally little about how to run and market a business. Thankfully we have had the help and guidance of some very good friends who are quite good at the business and marketing end of things and we have listened to their advice. Only time will tell of course, but the early signs are that the business is growing very quickly.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Convincing people to take responsibility for their own safety and personal security. The funny thing about what my partner and I teach is that it is like an insurance policy. You are investing time and money now into a skill set that if used properly will likely ensure that you never encounter any serious problems. But if you never encounter any serious problems did you really need the training? Our philosophy is that personal security does not have to be a large investment in time or money. Our courses are modular and run in four hour sessions. I've always looked at personal security this way..."I'd rather have the skills and not need them; than to need the skills and not have them". To us it's a no brainer just like learning first aid and CPR.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Well we are still pretty new (Only a few months online), but we are starting to move up in the webstats. We seem to have found the right niche and I hope the number of hits will continue to grow.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Not really other than it's been a steeper learning curve than I anticipated. I like having the ability to control what we have on our site, and to change it as we see fit
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has been up and active for about 5 months now. We will keep it up indefinitely. We are looking at adding to our webpage with streaming video of classes to show interested students what they can expect in one of our courses. This is a great tool, we see it as pretty much indespensible to what we do.
What is your website address?
StreetSmart
