FULLY INTEGRATED BUSINESS SERVICES
CONSULTING
Every aspect of small business has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and with the rise of global pandemics, the need to adapt with technology is ever increasing. The increased use and lowering costs of business technology has forced business owners to hire specialized experts in the field of online marketing, advertising, IT, graphic design, accounting, and general operations. The high cost and legal risk of having employees has gotten out of control, and generally the employee pool in these essential skills is full of graduates and hobbyists with technical skill, but no experience. This lack of experience forces the employee to isolate themselves in their work, often with no consideration of how the product of their work effects the other departments in the business. This non-integration leads to inefficiency, office politics, job protectionism, and overall reduced performance of the enterprise.
Through our services and plans, we offer small business owners outsourced expertise combined with experience in the various technology dependent departments.
WORDPRESS WEB DEVELOPMENT
Every aspect of small business has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and with the rise of global pandemics, the need to adapt with technology is ever increasing. The increased use and lowering costs of business technology has forced business owners to hire specialized experts in the field of online marketing, advertising, IT, graphic design, accounting, and general operations. The high cost and legal risk of having employees has gotten out of control, and generally the employee pool in these essential skills is full of graduates and hobbyists with technical skill, but no experience. This lack of experience forces the employee to isolate themselves in their work, often with no consideration of how the product of their work effects the other departments in the business. This non-integration leads to inefficiency, office politics, job protectionism, and overall reduced performance of the enterprise.
Through our services and plans, we offer small business owners outsourced expertise combined with experience in the various technology dependent departments.
WORDPRESS MANAGED HOSTING
Every aspect of small business has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and with the rise of global pandemics, the need to adapt with technology is ever increasing. The increased use and lowering costs of business technology has forced business owners to hire specialized experts in the field of online marketing, advertising, IT, graphic design, accounting, and general operations. The high cost and legal risk of having employees has gotten out of control, and generally the employee pool in these essential skills is full of graduates and hobbyists with technical skill, but no experience. This lack of experience forces the employee to isolate themselves in their work, often with no consideration of how the product of their work effects the other departments in the business. This non-integration leads to inefficiency, office politics, job protectionism, and overall reduced performance of the enterprise.
Through our services and plans, we offer small business owners outsourced expertise combined with experience in the various technology dependent departments.
DIGITAL MARKETING
Once you have your website, and your database management (CRM) its time to increase the number of people who are exposed to your products and services. Most of your marketing in 2020 will be digital. The term Digital Marketing encompasses hundreds of techniques you can use to increase then amount of prospects, leads, and customers in your business. Paid Advertising, Copywriting, SEO, Video Sales Letters, Landing Pages, Webinars, and Email Marketing all fall under the umbrella of Digital Marketing.
Knowing where to start is the key. Experts in these fields will say “their” technique is the best, and you “must” be doing it, and if you aren’t “you are losing money!”.
The problem with hiring an expert in these fields is as stated before the lack of integration, and “big picture” view of how what they are doing fits into the puzzle that is your business.
We can help you sort it out. Objectively ask the right questions. Look at your ENTIRE operation and make sure that when you begin implementing a digital marketing strategy, it doesn’t just cause more problems that the implementer never considered.
We provide many of these services, and we are happy to work with your other chosen experts to help your company succeed.
Digital Marketing Service Contract reviews are always complimentary.
CRM & AUTOMATION
Modern CRM systems are essential to the success of ANY business now. If you are still using spreadsheets for example, you are now over two decades BEHIND your competition! The use of modern multi function customer database systems is unavoidable. Email and texting are must-use communication methods. Tracking customer behavior, like spending, website visits, and other data points (there are 1000’s) help you understand your marketing performance and industry trends.
The challenge: There are hundreds if not over 1000 CRM systems to choose from. On top of that you need integrations with your other software-as-a-service (SaaS) and technology. You want to avoid the trap of introducing new technology in your business and actually having it backfire, antagonizing not only you, but your employees, and your customers!
We can help you make better decisions, become more efficient, delight your customers and increase profits by helping you find and implement a modern CRM system.
MERCHANT PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
Over 15 years ago, this company started by helping clients reduce the amount of transaction fees associated with taking payment via credit cards. The payments industry has changed immensely since that time, and transaction fees are a reality.
But we haven’t given up. Many of our clients have been with us over a decade. That’s unheard of the payments world. They stay because we fight to keep fees low in the face of auto-increases, shady techniques, bait and switch, unethical equipment leases, and other tactics used by the processing companies to fleece small business owners.
We have never analyzed a statement in which we couldn’t save someone money.
The merchant services industry has expanded to include ATMs, Short Term Loans, Factoring, Point of Sale, Automatic Billing, and industry-specific solutions like tableside ordering for restaurants, or mobile transactions for drivers.
Every business is unique – we will help you chart a path that eliminates waste, increases efficiency, and gives you value returned from the transaction fees you are forced to pay by the payment processing industry.
know the true cost of things.
master the fundamentals.
always seek to improve.
THE THINGS WE DO...
Consulting
Every aspect of small business has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and with the rise of global pandemics, the need to adapt with technology is ever increasing. The increased use and lowering costs of business technology has forced business owners to hire specialized experts in the field of online marketing, advertising, IT, graphic design, accounting, and general operations. The high cost and legal risk of having employees has gotten out of control, and generally the employee pool in these essential skills is full of graduates and hobbyists with technical skill, but no experience. This lack of experience forces the employee to isolate themselves in their work, often with no consideration of how the product of their work effects the other departments in the business. This non-integration leads to inefficiency, office politics, job protectionism, and overall reduced performance of the enterprise.
Through our services and plans, we offer small business owners outsourced expertise combined with experience in the various technology dependent departments.
wordpress Web Development
Integrated, professional web development is difficult to obtain these days. There are plenty of developers and agencies but few understand integrated business processes like marketing, analytics, fulfillment, public relations and customer service. Your website is heavily involved in all of these areas of your business. It’s not enough to have a nice looking site anymore…
Adaptability, efficiency and scalability are built in to our platform design process. You won’t need a re-design the next year or the year after because there is some new trend or technology.
managed wordpress hosting
Your hosting matters. The adage “you pay for what you get” has never been more true as it is with your WordPress hosting. We go a step further, because just hosting a website will not help you create your vision. Our 10+ years experience in dealing with hosting companies, big & small, cheap and pricey, has helped us design awesome MANAGED hosting programs for our clients.
Overview
There are thousands of choices when it comes to choosing a hosting platform for your WordPress site. Prices range from FREE – $1000 per year or more. The range of prices is the main indicator of the differences in choices.
What many people (especially entrepreneurs, startups, and home-based warriors) don’t understand about hosting is how to make a decision about their hosting service.
To fully understand the differences between hosts you have to understand the components of hosting, the nuances of WordPress, and the trade-off between your resources, meaning your time and money. The general rule of thumb is this:
The less you pay for DIY hosting, the more you will pay in time (and money) to maintain your site. The more you will “pay” in downtime, broken functions, and time explaining to a tech (if and when you can get ahold of them) with zero business experience (never mind your industry) what needs to be done.
When it breaks, you will have to fix, or hire someone to do so. Either way, running a successful business platform costs time and resources.
Standard vs Managed
Hosting is not one size fits all. Every client is different. Every business owner has different skills, different employees, time challenges, and of course budget plays a role.
The web hosting industry is always targeting business owners, site operators, bloggers, and anyone who will click an advertisement with the “lowest cost” plan and the “feature rich” plan for slightly more. Most people have no idea what they are purchasing, and while hosting companies have commoditized the actual service of web hosting, it has not made the consumer more diligent when choosing a web hosting company.
Running a website is more complicated than most companies lead you to believe. 99.99% of hosting companies are merely renting hard drive space to you for $X per month. They have no interest in your business, your operations, whether you are profitable or not, how fast your site loads, the plugins you use, where you rank in search, or any other “aspect” of your business that is directly or indirectly impacted by the performance of your website.
Our solutions address these hidden issues and are crafted to help you choose where to start, knowing you can always scale up with us.
We offer 4 levels of managed hosting for UIS clients. They range from economy to elite and provide you with maximum efficiency and value with world-class hosting and professional plugins tailored to your exact business needs.
We are sure you will find the perfect fit your business in one of these solutions.
Required Maintenance
WordPress is technically an application, just like the apps on your phone. Additionally, the plugins that power the features and functions on your site are also apps. So like your phone, these apps must be updated continuously to make sure they are working right, and are as secure as they can be. Cheap hosting will never include actual human eyes on your site, making sure that these updates go smoothly, and the backup before and testing after the updates are installed.
Free vs Paid Plugins
One reason WordPress is so prolific is the fact that it can be easily modified using plugins.
Plugins are installable code that can add features, functions, and aesthetic elements to your site with relative ease.
Currently there are over 50,000 plugins available in the WordPress plugin repository.
They are divided into 2 groups: Paid & Free.
The fact that there are Free plugins available presents a challenge to the owner of a WordPress site due to the fact that if something is FREE you will generally choose it without understanding it.
In the last decade of building and operating WordPress sites we have learned (several times unfortunately) that, like in life, in WordPress NOTHING is free.
There are are costs and consequences to choices.
This is the reason we DO NOT USE FREE plugins (with a few exceptions) on our managed sites.
We only use professionally developed software that is well supported and regularly updated.
This increases the stability, and dependability of your site by reducing errors, downtime, and wild-goose chases when something breaks.
The UIS Economy plan includes must-have plugins for just about any WordPress site valued at over $600 per year, and the Elite Plan includes licensing for $8500+ worth of the best plugins the vibrant WordPress community has to offer!
Digital marketing
Once you have your website, and your database management (CRM) its time to increase the number of people who are exposed to your products and services. Most of your marketing in 2020 will be digital. The term Digital Marketing encompasses hundreds of techniques you can use to increase then amount of prospects, leads, and customers in your business. Paid Advertising, Copywriting, SEO, Video Sales Letters, Landing Pages, Webinars, and Email Marketing all fall under the umbrella of Digital Marketing.
Knowing where to start is the key. Experts in these fields will say “their” technique is the best, and you “must” be doing it, and if you aren’t “you are losing money!”.
The problem with hiring an expert in these fields is as stated before the lack of integration, and “big picture” view of how what they are doing fits into the puzzle that is your business.
We can help you sort it out. Objectively ask the right questions. Look at your ENTIRE operation and make sure that when you begin implementing a digital marketing strategy, it doesn’t just cause more problems that the implementer never considered.
We provide many of these services, and we are happy to work with your other chosen experts to help your company succeed.
Digital Marketing Service Contract reviews are always complimentary!
Customer Relationship management
Modern CRM systems are essential to the success of ANY business now. If you are still using spreadsheets for example, you are now over two decades BEHIND your competition! The use of modern multi function customer database systems is unavoidable. Email and texting are must-use communication methods. Tracking customer behavior, like spending, website visits, and other data points (there are 1000’s) help you understand your marketing performance and industry trends.
The challenge: There are hundreds if not over 1000 CRM systems to choose from. On top of that you need integrations with your other software-as-a-service (SaaS) and technology. You want to avoid the trap of introducing new technology in your business and actually having it backfire, antagonizing not only you, but your employees, and your customers!
We can help you make better decisions, become more efficient, delight your customers and increase profits by helping you find and implement a modern CRM system.
and many more
merchant payment solutions
Over 15 years ago, this company started by helping clients reduce the amount of transaction fees associated with taking payment via credit cards. The payments industry has changed immensely since that time, and transaction fees are a reality.
But we haven’t given up. Many of our clients have been with us over a decade. That’s unheard of the payments world. They stay because we fight to keep fees low in the face of auto-increases, shady techniques, bait and switch, unethical equipment leases, and other tactics used by the processing companies to fleece small business owners.
We have never analyzed a statement in which we couldn’t save someone money.
The merchant services industry has expanded to include ATMs, Short Term Loans, Factoring, Point of Sale, Automatic Billing, and industry-specific solutions like tableside ordering for restaurants, or mobile transactions for drivers.
Every business is unique – we will help you chart a path that eliminates waste, increases efficiency, and gives you value returned from the transaction fees you are forced to pay by the payment processing industry.