Facts
Here're facts about Dazmii.
We were establish in 2017.
Violet Services
In 2017 we were registered as a General Contracting service under the name Violet Services. That's right, Dazmii started out as a General Contracting business. We first started out as wanting to be a logistical service for contractors improving communication between contractors and their customers. When we first started out we invested capital into marketing efforts and obtain business as a contractor and then we would delegate out work to existing contracting services. Pretty much just like normal General Contracting services. We streamlined the process to have digital invoicing, text messaging for appointment follow ups, complete detailed invoicing, customer updates, and we truly were a no questions asked contracting service for clients. They enjoyed not having to know what types of resources were needed and we handled management of all the resources. 2017 was a complete year of a website siting on the web, listings on Google, Yelp, and Facebook we received no business.
January 2018 we decided to make a large investment into marketing. The first 2 months we spend over $12,000 in marketing services. Marketing services such as Yelp, Facebook Ads, Google ads, third-party video commercials, and additional listing services. We did not receive a single phone call or inquiry. This was a crash course in how other businesses were treated in regards to marketing.
We realized that if we were going to be successful we'd have to find a way to do more marketing ourselves. Learning more about SEO, Social Media, and referrals, Yelp, Search Engine algorithms we made some adjustments. Our primary backgrounds were communication tools and data development. Leveraging what we knew to utilize different techniques and fully leverage resources like Yelp and Google we quickly turned everything around and by month 3 we started to see the results we were looking for without having to spend any money on marketing.
By month 7 we successfully acquired over $125,000 in revenue. 90% of our business was all new business using techniques we learned. We did not attend networking functions nor did we see much referral business. We were very new and our biggest strength was customer service.
By month 9 we were kicked off of Yelp. We never received a letter from Yelp and our account was just locked. When we contacted Yelp to ask for support on getting into our account it was indicated in their notes we were 'too much of a competitor'. Yelp left our business profile visible but locked us out. With 90% of our business coming from Yelp this was a huge impact. We had just started to figure out how to get it working in our favor and it was quickly pulled.
While business was increasing and with Yelp closing us out we had another realization: we quickly learned that we were lousy contractors. Not having enough construction experience to vet good contractors we took on a lot of rework and our clients were not happy about how long their projects took.
Not possessing the desire to learn how to do construction ourselves we decided to pivot the business in a new direction. Finishing the remaining year completing what work we were obligated to perform we finally finished our last job in December 2018 totally about $250k in business.
2019
Start the year off with a new approach: let's teach these business what we learned. They can just hire us and we'll show them how we single handedly managed 8 internal contractors, estimator, admin person, and all our subs using software and technology.
Our first offering was Process Consulting. This is where we learn about your business's processes and find opportunities to streamline them with tools and procedures that create repeat results and allow for efficiencies which deliver increase speeds, and with faster deliveries means increased profit. While sitting with business working on their process they had so many needs for basic services. We were asked to do websites, provide answering services, SEO, CRM, leadership training, and on and on. There were so many needs beyond process that many of the businesses we met had stronger needs on basics than they did with process improvements. Can't really focus on how to take a phone call if there's no one answering the phones.
With businesses wanting support with basic marketing and admin services we looked to identify existing businesses. Now remember 2018 we spent over $10k on marketing that didn't work, so we could at least advise businesses not to do those forms of marketing. We found companies that were highly recommended and reviewed well. We tried them out and found out their services performed terrible. People were spending thousands of dollars and getting nothing in return and when they asked "hey, where're my results" they were told "add more money or just wait longer". We knew how to monitor analytics and then we're following up with businesses to identify what they were seeing. They're confirmed poor results.
With reputable marketing services not providing quality results we decided to invest our attention toward marketing. If we couldn't find a business that would do it well we would become that business. Marketing is needed and there's no need to do it poorly. What we found was old SEO companies really had lost touch with their own profession. Not delivering because they are suck in what worked 15 years ago. Social Media marketing companies provided visually appealing content and nothing else. No conversions. Just pretty pretty pictures by "young" people. And, web design that look to meet standards but want a hassle to deal with. Some of these web design companies would never return these client's calls or messages. Totally stuck with this website they're paying for and no communication.
Finally we decided enough was enough. We were going to start offering marketing services if this is the quality of what's out there. Even us learning would be better than what these businesses were receiving because remember with what they had at the time was no results and no communication. Just invoices. All we could do was improve.
We quickly focused on what causes marketing to do well on digital platforms. Is it constantly slamming people with ads everywhere and all day? No, that wasn't it. What people really are looking for is connection, relatability, and to have their needs met. Quality content is what people are looking for. Quality content is of course the most difficult talent to replicate. Digital marketing is often made up of two types of resources. Technical resources who understand how computers work and can get data to where it needs to go and fast. The other resources are "young" people who use platforms like Instagram. These individuals are great at creating flashy, clean, and modernized images that look like they belong on Social Media. That's it. One overly technical resources and one very creative resource. Put those two together and you get flashy content all over the place. Just those two elements alone do equate to quality. You can't just connect with your audience using flashy images. You can't create real connections with just those two elements.
We took on a marketing initiative to deliver those two previous elements but also focus on business needs and client needs. When we create content we create with the idea of what's this content supposed to do. What business needs do we need to accomplish and are we satisfying client needs with our content. With this approach we've seen significant results. Large increases in returns on clients' investments. We can put out a single form of content and it will out perform 100 similar examples because the quality is just that good.
2020
2020 was a big year for us. We started off well like most businesses in 2020 with promise of accomplishing our business goals and achievements. Then the great COVID virus came impacting small-businesses everywhere. With 4 months of almost zero business for small-businesses this was a difficult year for all of us. Our business did see some crease in other areas but definitely a reduction in marketing services. People don't like to spend money when the economy is uncertain. With businesses stuck working at home scrabbling to find new was to keep afloat we became very useful for many businesses. We helped them with streamlining internal processes to make them more efficient and profitable with what work they did have. Many of these projects were projects they'd been sitting on for years and just finally took the time to get them squared away. It's too bad these improvement could not be resolved before a shutdown but at least we were able to find time to be successful.
Dazmii
Mid-way through 2020 Violet Services became Dazmii. Looking to make a larger impact on our communities and clients we decided to perform a re-brand. Branding ourselves under a new name that would be more recognizable and brandable.
The name Dazmii is completely made up. The only contributions with the name is we specifically wanted two ii at the end instead of just one. We felt two ii represented two individuals symbolizing a team. It's pronounce "Daz-me" but with two ii you can see it's really a we in the me.
With Dazmii comes a whole new gambit of resources and services. With this re-brand we're now offering consulting, coaching, executive services, development, niche consulting, and marketing. Additional services made available to help businesses reach their goals. Working with them side-by-side until they can outgrow us and they can start to take on these services in-house if they choose to. Our goal is work ourselves out of a job! That's a good job for us. When your business no longer needs our services is when we feel that we've accomplished success. Don't worry about us losing work; there's plenty of businesses who need our services.
We're a U.S. based for profit corporation who services North America. We have clients allover the country. While we talk a lot about improving communities and working with non-profit functions and organizations we are a for profit company.
While we've not be successful with impacting every single State for community development we're working our way across the U.S.
Starting with Washington. Our first community to be impacted was Sumner, WA. We worked with a non-profit organization that provided community support with event, small-business development, and similar community activities.
We are a veteran-owned business. The majority shareholder and controller of Dazmii is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran.