When
Valorous Circle moves into its home at 2922 Fuller Ave. NE in May, it will be the third time the website design and development firm has upgraded its office space to accommodate growth since it first opened in 2010.
Currently located at 1950 Waldorf NW, Valorous Circle Founder and Chief Internet Marketing Strategist Jonathan Mast says the move from the northwest side of town to the Creston neighborhood offers the right balance of accessibility and functionality, allowing the developers to keep close to downtown without sacrificing parking or proximity to major off-ramps.
"We love the Grand Rapids marketplace," Mast says. "We did not want to be directly downtown due to parking issues for staff and clients, but we did want to be closer to downtown than we are now."
Though renovations on Fuller Ave. NE near Plainfield are still wrapping up, Valorous Circle's new 2,400-square-foot offices will boast larger offices, a casual workspace for less formal staff meetings or client reviews, two large conference rooms (complete with big screen TV monitors) to encourage more collaboration among staff members while working together and with clients on new designs and marketing strategies, and plenty of on-site parking.
Mast says this year the six-person team at Valorous Circle plans to add at least two more full-time staff members, though he says that's a somewhat conservative estimate.
"We're pretty conservative as far as making projections go, but this year we'll hire at least two more employees, but could hire up to four more," he says. "We're always pleasantly surprised at our growth."
What's made Valorous Circle so successful in its less than five years of operation so far? Mast says it's a couple things – connecting project managers with clients throughout each new design or web development so they understand the process and have an idea of what steps come next, finding solutions with a web-first approach to find more opportunities though the web and online marketing, and allowing clients full access to the back end of content management systems or company websites so they can make changes without the developer's approval, to name a few.
"The vast majority of our clients are still with us today," Mast says. "We work with content management systems which allow our clients to maintain the site if they choose – many do not, but we give that option."
They're all simple things founded on building trust between Valorous Circle and its clients, created to keep the web developers accountable and keep clients coming back for the company's services, which also include EIEIO online marketing systems, reputation management and search engine optimization.
Valorous Circle signed the lease for 2922 Fuller Ave. NE in February and as renovations wrap up over the next month, Mast says the staff plans to start moving in and making the space their own in the first week of May, happy to be headed where they are going in the Grand Rapids business community.
"The West Michigan marketplace, Grand Rapids in particular, has a great small business community," he says, adding that as the economy continues to improve, so do opportunities for life in West Michigan. "It's the combination of an improving economy and the track record of serving our clients well and with integrity," he says. "Not only us, but the rest of the business community, as well."
For more information on careers at Valorous Circle,
visit its website here.
Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Valorous Circle on Facebook
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