By: Deborah Johnson Wood
When Mindscape moved to Grand Rapids last March, the company had six employees. Now, just six months later, they've added five people and are looking to hire two more, with the possibility of hiring another two in the next six months.
The company began in Muskegon in 2001 and moved to 820 North Monroe to tap the larger employee base here. The firm creates e-commerce opportunities, helps clients generate business leads, make more money, work smarter, and convert paper records to digital for clients based across the US, in Canada, and in China.
"Right now we're trying to find high quality web site designers," says Pete Brand, 37, co-founder with Paul Ferrier, 27. "A really good source of employees has been people who have owned their own business and wanted to come on board. We've had zero turnover in our tech side of the business."
Brand says one of the reasons employees are sticking around is because of the company's focus on the quality of life for its employees.
"Every job we bring on, we sit down and ask if this is going to negatively affect our quality of life," Brand says.
Every two weeks, employees get a four-day weekend. The company has applied efficiency tools to become as efficient as they can—like only checking e-mail at 11AM and 4 PM—and they're working toward a three-day workweek.
Brand expects the company to log just under $1 million in sales this year.
Source: Pete Brand, Mindscape; Elisabeth Veltman, Blue Pearl Strategies
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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