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SUMMER 2013

ROST, INC. MayeCreate D E S I G N

Two Designs and a Masterpiece

FLAT BRANCH HOME LOANS A New Identity & Fiber Internet

COMO MASSAGE Client Consideration Wireless

MayeCreate Design

ROST, INC.

Your desires, our quality, your dreams achieved.

Superior Garden Center can supply all of your gardening needs! Owner Toby Rost (right) is always pleased to assist!

Tim Rost, unbeknownst to him, began his landscaping career while in college.

After graduating he attempted to move on; however, his talent was so great customers insisted he keep working with them. His clientele grew until 1985 when Tim officially started Rost Landscaping, turning a part-time job into a full-time career. Upon opening its doors Tim added a new employee, his wife Toby, cultivating a true family-

The Rost Landscaping Cornerstone.

owned business atmosphere.

Rost, Inc. is a multi-service company consisting of the following divisions: Rost Landscape Design and Installation, Rost Maintenance, Superior Garden Center, Rost Wholesale, Salt Creek Tree Farms and Superior Irrigation (part of Rost Superior Services).

The Rost, Inc. business mission is two-fold: they strive to be a premier horticultural firm, offering more services than any other landscaping/greens business, while providing customers a complete customized landscape package, taking care of each step from beginning to end.

In the last 23 years Rost, Inc. has grown from one part-time landscaper to a business with over one hundred employees, several divisions and a

multitude of services available. As their business grew so did their need for further advertisement. In 1985 the Internet was not a key tool in marketing.

However, in 2008 the Internet was proving fruitful and Rost, Inc. was ready to get their hands dirty. It was time for a website, and they decided MayeCreate was perfect for the job.

MayeCreate began developing Rost, Inc.’s first online presence with two websites: one for Rost, Inc. and another for the Superior Garden Center.

The sites presented fresh designs with progressive features including a custom content management system, allowing Rost to update the site, as well as providing visitors the ability to register for events and purchase gift cards. The websites were perfectly customized to

what Rost, Inc. needed at the time, but the world of web changes quickly.

In 2010 the two websites needed to be updated and reorganized. The two sites were combined into one to create a more cohesive company identity.

MayeCreate hosted its Most Popular Website Contest in July 2010, and the Rost, Inc. redesign won third place.

Every few years it’s important that websites be dusted off, have new tools added, pictures updated and fresh graphics applied. For the third and current Rost, Inc. design, MayeCreate revamped for a modern look with a wider layout and updated color scheme. Upon their third website design, Rost truly began to realize what an effective sales tool their website could be by displaying the true quality of their work and products through pictures.

“

We are now confident in our online presence, which sets the stage for any marketing.”

- Tim Rost, Owner

New functionality now allows Rost, Inc. to greatly increase the strength of its online marketing mix by utilizing a variety of tools allowing online purchases, weekly featured blog posts, social media connection and easy to update photo galleries.

The changes to the Rost, Inc. website gave the business a new sense of confidence, explained Toby. Rost, Inc. hopes their improved online presence will help customers find the information they need and see Rost, Inc.’s high standards and quality of work. The theory must be working, as their business continues to bloom.

SGC Gift Cards Available online!

View more images at the blog post: mayecreate.com/2013/07/rost

Superior Garden Center Website 2008

Complete Rost, Inc. Website 2013

Superior Garden Center is located at 2450 Trails West Avenue, Columbia, MO.

Tranquility Internet & MayeCreate Design

FLAT BRANCH HOME LOANS

Taking Internet and identity to the next level.

The Flat Branch mission is clear: quality, impeccable, local, full service. A business aiming to be the best at every step of the home loan process, their goal is continuous improvement and growth.

Flat Branch opened in 2006, and after just two years of business quickly grew to 30 employees. Now, they have nearly tripled in size, employing 85 people, 40 of which were hired this year! In 2011, Inc. magazine listed Flat Branch one of the “Top 500 Fastest Growing Companies.”

Over the years, the Flat Branch services have expanded beyond standard fixed-rate mortgages to include FHA and VA loans.

In 2008, Flat Branch became completely local, providing all lending, underwriting and funding locally.

By staffing only the best customer service, processors and underwriters in the field, Flat Branch aims for excellence in all services they provide.

In the near future Flat Branch will be opening a servicing center allowing customers to make payments locally.

Flat Branch is busier than ever due to the current real estate market

The MayeCreate Designed Flat Branch business card.

and continues to grow keeping their customer’s well-being in the forefront of their plan.

President.

Big businesses require big Internet and Tranquility brought it: Metro

The Flat Branch building features the MayeCreate designed tree logo.

The Tranquility Experience As the oldest vendor of Flat Branch, Tranquility has provided Internet service every step of the way. Starting first with DSL, then supplementing with wireless technology. Now Flat Branch’s growth has surpassed even that connection!

Growing substantially in such a short time, Flat Branch could not anticipate continuously maxing out their Internet, and Tranquility was there to hold their hand. “By not upgrading our connectivity we were losing over $18,000 a month,” says Jim Yankee,

Ethernet. With this fiber technology Flat Branch was able to move a majority of their loan software online and work at lightning speed.

When Metro Ethernet was introduced, prices were steep. Since that time, pricing has decreased, making dedicated high speed Internet more accessible and allowing growing businesses to stay competitive.

The Metro Ethernet service level agreement states: YOU WILL BE ONLINE. Period.

Flat Branch’s growing pains extended to more than just their Internet

set 5

connection: they had maxed out their free Google Apps account and needed more than it could offer. Tranquility set up Google Apps for Business, basically Gmail on steroids, and provides local customer support at a phone call’s reach.

Flat Branch continues to work with Tranquility because in their experience, when they call, Tranquility answers. Anyone on the team is eager to help and willing to take time to offer personal service and real solutions.

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President Jim Yankee and wife, Jessie.

MayeCreate Designing Like good siblings, MayeCreate and FLATwith Tranquility often share business BRANCH each other. When FlatHOME Branch first LOANS approached MayeCreate about logos, there was already an idea waiting in the wings. The Flat Branch office is located near the originalsetMKT Railroad Station, 6 revised and it seemed appropriate to incorporate that history into the Flat Branch identity.

Hence the original logo: a train.

The train served them well with FLAT business cards, letterhead, even coffee BRANCH ME LOANS a mugs. However, when H Odeveloping radio campaign in 2010, after five years of utilizing the train, it proved difficult to avoid silly catch-phrases. “Ride on into Flat Branch.” “Bring your caboose into set 7 black Flat Branch.” Then it was time to “accept the brutal fact of your current reality,” according to Jim. “The train no longer worked.”

A play on their name FLAT inspired Flat BRANCH Branch to embrace a new, fresh logo: a HOME LOANS tree.

To Jim the tree “just made sense.”

It opened up a world of emblematic meaning and sound advertising. “Reach for the Branch” is proudly displayed on each side of the Flat Branch building.

FLAT BRANCH HOME LOANS Flat Branch Home Loans’ initial train logo.

The current Flat Branch tree logo.

When in the Flat Branch office, take note how each business card may have FLAT BRANCH differences such as one or two sides or HOM E L OA N S maybe an employee picture. Flat Branch wanted to allow their employees to express their individuality without sacrificing design cohesion.

Because of Flat Branch’s astounding growth rate, MayeCreate streamlined their business card ordering process.

When a new business card is needed or an existing one needs to be changed, an BRANCH online form isFLAT completed, a MayeCreate designer plugs Hin Othe M info E and L Othe A cards NS are printed and shipped.

Flat Branch is ever-growing and continues to reach for MayeCreate for their design needs.

View more images at the blog post: mayecreate.com/2013/07/flatbranch

We’re settling into our new paperless process, and I love how Tranquility is responsive when we’re having issues. I looked out the window one day, having just called for assistance, and saw Jacob literally RUNNING over to help! ” – Jessie Yankee

Tranquility Internet

COMO MASSAGE

Therapists at KeLani Wellness: Samantha, Alison, and Andrea

CoMo Massage at KeLani Wellness Spa strives to provide its clients with therapeutic massage in a day spa atmosphere. Alison Sower, founder of CoMo Massage, started her career in 2009 after she fell in love with the calming benefits of massage.

CoMo Massage stands for not just Columbia, Missouri, but also Combined Modalities. Sower focuses her therapy on the health benefits of massage to maximize the therapeutic payoff for her customers.

Sower often wonders what the world would be like if everyone just had a massage. This idea became one of the motives behind moving CoMo Massage to the former KeLani Wellness Spa

Adapting a Tranquil Environment.

building on East Walnut Street. Because of the increased space, Sower and the other therapists of KeLani are now able to ensure that more customers experience the relaxation of mind and body through massage.

CoMo Massage specializes in working on precise muscle areas, so their customers receive the most beneficial experience possible. In the same way, Tranquility wanted to give CoMo Massage the Internet service they needed for their specific business.

Sower desired fast Internet for CoMo Massage, but not the cost or hassle that is often associated with business Internet packages. Tranquility was able to offer high-speed service at a justifiable price.

The low-lighting throughout CoMo Massage evokes an immediate sense of calm.

CoMo Massage is located within KeLani Wellness Spa.

Alison also appreciated the thought of working with a local company with personal service. She was amazed at how easily she could now make appointments, manage her calendar, and run credit cards. Tranquility Internet Services essentially eliminated the “dial-up days� from her daily business operations.

At CoMo Massage clients can enjoy a variety of treatments in a tranquil, relaxing environment.

View more images at the blog post: tranquility.net/2013/comomassage/

MAYECREATE DESIGN & TRANQUILITY INTERNET

Sibling Companies Run by Siblings

Tranquility Internet Services, Inc. was purchased by the Schumacher family in 1997, as a side business for University of Missouri professor, Leon Schumacher. His son and daughter later came to work for the family business: Travis as a tech and Monica as a web designer.

Monica established the web design division, now referred to as MayeCreate Design, in 2003. Upon graduation from college in 2005, Travis began overseeing the daily operations of the Internet division.

Managing their respective divisions, the brother and sister combo work well together. Monica explains, “I see yellow, and Travis sees blue, collectively we get green, so together we’ve got most of the spectrum covered.”

The sibling divisions support each other in much the same way as their sibling managers. If you need a website, MayeCreate can design and build it for you. The website has to be hosted, and Tranquility has it covered. Together the divisions make a complimentary package: data and design.

The Tranquility/MayeCreate management team: Travis, Leon, and Monica.

MayeCreate believes you deserve BETTER, why don’t you? It’s their goal to produce sassy, high-quality websites and print materials that don’t stink.

MayeCreate customizes your design experience so you end up with drool worthy marketing artifacts.

Tranquility is NOT 1-800-Pull Your Hair Out. When the phone rings, a real person answers with real answers.

Down the hall, Tranquility provides fast Internet, at competitive pricing, to residential and businesses, while offering personable customer service.

Meet the staff of Tranquility Internet and MayeCreate Design!

DEL

JACOB

JEREMY

MARIE

MATT

PADEN

SADIE

STACY

MayeCreate Staff Tranquility Staff STEPHANIE

TYLER

307 Locust Columbia, MO 65203 (573) 443-3983 (800) 326-8638 (573) 447-1836 TO:

Connects you to the web.

Wireless Broadband High Speed DSL Metro Ethernet T1, Fiber Server Co-Location Google AppsTM Remote Tech Support Web Hosting Consulting Spam Filtering

Makes the web pretty.

Custom Websites WordPress E-Commerce Sites Online Ads Consulting Business Cards Corporate ID Postcards Fliers Brochures Print Ads

Photography by Sadie Thibodeaux Photography