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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Meet Jeff Hall of Overflow Cafe, a Website Promotion Company

Overflow Cafe is a website promotion company in Toronto, Canada, founded in 1995. Jeff Hall is one of the founders, and his main job is to help the company's 40,000+ small business clients succeed at online business. Overflow Cafe gives away approximately 10% of their income to charity, and their staff volunteers time each week to different local causes.

1. How has Overflow Cafe evolved since it first got started in 1995?

When Overflow Cafe started in 1995, it was a one-man home business. As I remember it, the company was started on a dining room table with a monthly budget of about $20. A while later the company moved into a bedroom office and a budget of $100, and then a few months later a full basement with an employee and a monthly budget of $500, then around 1996 or 1997 a traditional real office with small staff and a few thousand dollars a month in operating budget--we were making some money.

Overflow Cafe used to do several business services: website design, business consulting, and business marketing. Our clients told us we were great at making their business popular, so we decided to stick to that, and today our focus is to make your website popular, and we don't do web design. Today we have over 40,000 clients worldwide, about 17 full time employees plus part time employees, 2 offices and over 100 partners who are software engineers, SEO specialists and MBAs who help us do fantastic work for our clients.

2. Why do small businesses need assistance when it comes to finding success online?

A person might be a great hair stylist and then think they can start their own salon. A person might be an amazing electrician, and then start their own contracting company. Usually they fail, not because they are bad at what they do--but because they are bad at running a business. Running a business is a completely different skill set than the product or service you offer. That's where Overflow Cafe comes in: we help you with business planning, we do a lot of online marketing for you, and we help you achieve your business goals with solid training and realistic planning and proven marketing. I like to think of it as gaining a skilled business partner.

3. Could you give us some examples of the type of work Overflow Cafe does to help your clients?

We have clients in many different countries, different languages and cultures. We service just about any business you can imagine, from hot air balloon manufacturers to plumbers, realtors, doctors, authors, artists, retailers and more. When you sign up with us, we scan through your website and help you correct errors and build your site into a healthy, profitable, productive business asset. We then match you up with hundreds of great internet properties such as search engines, business directories, social sites and get you plugged in properly so that you gain website rankings, traffic, popularity and hopefully lots of new customers.

4. What particular services does Overflow Cafe offer clients with crowdfunding campaigns on sites like Kickstarter?

We've been telling our clients about wonderful crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo since they started. A lot of our clients have completed successful crowdfunding campaigns (there have been plenty of failed campaigns as well). We help our clients by consulting with them, helping them start on the right track and helping them to manage their success after the campaign is over. Crowdfunding helps you build momentum, and without the right partners by your side, you can lose that momentum and fail. These days too many people start a business or project without the right partners and without the right planning to succeed. Just starting something doesn't guarantee success; there are so many other variables.

5. Reflecting on Overflow Cafe's charitable contributions and volunteer work, what would you recommend to other entrepreneurs about "giving back"?

Our small staff is required to do regular volunteer work at a place of their choice in the community. This winter it seems like we are doing a lot of snow shoveling for the elderly, but we also do soup kitchen work, homeless shelter work, and stuff like that. It helps keep life in perspective and keeps us healthy. Financially, our company gives as much as we can, and we make it a point to give regularly. This year (2014) we are giving towards several orphanages and teen programs. I recommend other entrepreneurs plan to give of their time and money. There's just something great about giving that enriches your life far beyond what money can give you. The most unhappy people I've ever known, the people who are pretty much failures in life, are usually people who are stingy with their giving.

Thanks, Jeff!

25 comments:

  1. You doing a great job. Top agency quality services, products, tools, links and tutorials.

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  2. I'm just thankful. I am profoundly grateful for your support. I can't thank you enough for being there during my ominous time. It's a privilege to have you on my side.

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  3. You are great , you helped me and my small business to get better. Many Thanks.

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  4. Overflow Cafe are both a full-service Internet marketing optimization company with full agency services, as well as an information resource for effective do it yourself Web marketing strategies and plans. Internet marketing is technical, detailed work, but you offer what it takes to succeed.

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  5. Without smart marketing, any great website will fail. Internet marketing optimization services is vital to the success of any site. Great service Overflow Cafe, thanks you.

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  6. Thanks for such a professional service... you doing a great job. Overflow Cafe have help me achieve high traffic to my website that converts to revenue.

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  7. These servicess can help turn a website in to a business' most powerful lead generator. Interesting services.

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  8. I wanna applaud for your effort and wanna appreciate your work which is really worthwhile and admirable. wish you all the very best. Overflow Cafe an expert of internet marketing services, help bring the clients' websites to unprecedented levels of success.

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  9. I am astounded, and relieved. I am so happy with the service. This is terrific. What a value and I just couldn't be happier. Thanks so much. I will certainly refer any of my clients who need website content assistance to you.

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  10. On behalf of our team I’d like to thank-you for the outstanding work you have done for us thus far. We are very impressed.

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  11. The service has been exceptional, and the result has been to add significant value to our sites. I regard them as a perfect partner for any business that wants to grow its online revenue.

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  12. We sure are happy to be working with your team. We look forward to a long lasting relationship. Thanks.

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  13. We've been very impressed with Overflow Cafe's great mastery of search engine ranking and SEO and the evolution of site to keep ahead of the changing SEO environment. We rely on Overflow Cafe for all our websites rankings to always beat the competition and move us to number one. Great Job !

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  14. I was looking over the link reports for (our site) recently. I just wanted to tell you and your team that I was especially impressed with the quality of your work. Thanks again for all the time and effort.

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  15. Thanks to the Overflow Cafe team, I appreciate that you guys are professional, fair and easy to talk to. Thank you.

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  16. I highly recommend Overflow Cafe website promotion company if you are serious about seeing actual results.

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  17. Just wanted to say thanks for all the link-building, help, tips and etc that you guys do for me and my site. I greatly appreciate it.

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  18. We are beyond impressed with the customer service and quality of work that you produces. They have helped us realize several moments and improve the overall SEO sophistication of our websites. Definitely coming back.

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  19. First let me say that from the very onset we have enjoyed working and will continue to with your team immensely. The professionalism have been second to none. And the results, well they speak for themselves... All the best always !

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  20. Fantastic company. Kudos to your team. Thanks for your time, attention and creativity.

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  21. In the online world where we have all found many people to be untrustworthy, Overflow Cafe is one company who I really trust. Much Love.

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  22. Just wanted to thank you again for the articles you've written and the links you have built so far. We continue to see great results. Thank you , Hope you are doing well.

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  23. I worked with a few other pros over the years with less than great results. I'd always heard good things about Overflow Cafe and I'm glad to work with you. The results have been fantastic, hitting number at least the top 3 for everything targeted. Keep up the good work.

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  24. Not only you are nice and professional people, but now our site ranks well for several competitive phrases... Hope to meet several of you in person. Thanks

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  25. I can't tell you how amazing Overflow Cafe and the team have been for our business. We have seen fantastic results since we started with their. We started from scratch with this company when he was still working from his house and he trained me to update our own website and some of the ideas behind optimizing our site for search engines to find. Thanks.

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