Blog

Hello entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those who have yet to begin building a brand. Everybody has a story that others can learn from. Here is a collection of stories that will motivate you to take that next step on your business journey.

Ghost Hunting 101 and Tours

The Project

Ghost Hunting 101 and Tours will take you on tours of haunted locations and teach you how to conduct paranormal investigations. Their experienced team is led by empath psychic medium Julie Speer, who has experienced the paranormal her entire life. The team provides equipment and refreshments for those who join them at historical locations. Investigations can be led independently or as a team for up to four hours. 

What we did:

• Website Design, Build, and Hosting
• Copywriting
• Calendar Scheduling Integration
• Video Production

The Problem

Julie has been conducting investigations with local organizations for years. She wanted to branch out and build a platform for community interaction. Social media was an obvious next step, but a website would provide a place all her own.

Running multiple social media channels can be time-consuming and leave you over-encumbered with work. A website could unite those channels in a central location for her community to find what they seek. Want to see paranormal videos, hear electronic voice phenomena, share evidence, ask questions, or join an investigation? Visit the Ghost Hunting 101 and Tours website to find everything mentioned and more!

The Solution

We began by reviewing assets, assumptions, and a wishlist from the team. The assets helped define Ghost Hunting 101 and Tours as a brand, which is the foundation for building everything after. Our assumptions of a ghost hunting and touring company led to designing a rough website wireframe with assumed needs and requirements. This initial design iteration let us fit items from the wishlist into usability testing, which gave us, and the client, an idea of what was realistic.

This website can be competitive in functionality and, in our opinion, surpass the competition in visual design. A one-stop location for paranormal footage, community, and scheduling is just what they needed to launch their company into 2023 and beyond. By integrating scheduling services into the website, visitors can join investigations without leaving the website to schedule through a third party. Fewer clicks and less loading screens mean more convenience for your clients and more conversions for you.

The Outcome

After months of work for our small team, we’ve accomplished a few things we can pass on to future clients with similar needs. Designing websites with custom functionality is a challenge we don’t take for granted. Every new website provides challenges and lessons that we grow from. Julie Speer and Ghost Hunting 101 and Tours has been a pleasure to work with, and we look forward to keeping their website hosted and secure.

Our Work

Phil Farina Author

Phil Farina has been able to turn his love of writing into a career. Phil connects with his audience through his book series and travel blog. You can explore his published work or more personal pieces on his website. As technology disrupts print media, he turned to us to reach a wider audience.

What we did:

• Website Design, Build, and Hosting
• Brand Identity
• Copywriting
• eCommerce

The Problem

Phil started his website with us but needed a site update to highlight his latest book launch coming to his store. He also needed some more descriptions of his work and digital marketing banners. Increasing his copy on each page could help readers to find his series.

As design began, we ran into instances where Phil’s content needed to be updated or created to match this update. Some pages would need a lot of work to represent Phil’s updated direction for his website.

The Solution

The fresh design to go with Phil’s series of books was the ultimate goal. We revisited what he liked and disliked about his site and his inspirations. We also looked at competing author websites both regionally and nationally/internationally to make competitive recommendations. Our team compiled components that Phil had selected and some that offered a fresh look and feel.

After taking all the inspirations and previous site notes into account, we started the design work for the new launch. We designed and built marketing banners, book graphics, carousels, icons, and a new blog section. These changes significantly impacted the website’s appearance and operation, and Phil was thrilled to launch with the updated design.

The fresh design will also be featured across PortoSpire’s social media presence and highlighted in our recent work on the website. Besides a slight SEO boost, we write and post about our collective successes to celebrate what can be achieved together. This is intended to help bring awareness to his webpage and add another branch as we build and grow together.

The Outcome

Phil Farina gets a fresh site that he loves, that matches the theme of his work, and adds value to his growing community. Improving his marketing content, images, and blog section was the bulk of our work but offered an opportunity to try new approaches to get his message out. After passing our built and tested design to Phil for approval, he was thrilled and submitted no additional notes, and so the design was brought to life on his site.

Our Work

Hufnagle Insurance Group

Hufnagle Insurance Group (HIG) is an insurance agency that specializes in health, life, and medicare insurance in Ohio (OH). The group has insured clients from over 26 carriers and has served their community for years helping to protect their customer’s lives, homes, autos, and businesses. Owner Catherine “Cat” Hufnagle, often referred to in the local community as “The Risk Eliminator”, has built her brand around risk mitigation and emergency preparedness.

What we did:

• Website Design, Build, and Hosting
• Brand Identity
• SEO Strategy

The Problem

Cat began expanding her business' reach into digital channels with a planned website and started encountering some serious challenges and issues along the way. Their website was being built within a WordPress installation by a local company that had come highly recommended. None of their online efforts thus far had resulted in direct quote conversions.

As the work on building the new design and content was underway, the original domain expired and was purchased by someone else. After the new purchase the site had been replaced to provide viruses and other malicious content to visitors. Additionally, the new WordPress installation was compromised and had itself begun to serve malicious content even after moving to a new domain. These series of challenges had damaged the brand’s reputation and they didn’t know how to begin repairing their online presence.

The Solution

Open forum interviews were used to capture and portray the voice and image of the Hufnagle Insurance Group (HIG). This process helps us to ask the right questions by collaboratively bringing in multiple voices and experiences.

As the design process can take some back and forth, this method helped us to get on the same page more quickly from design to development. Through research and interviews with Cat, we were able to bring her brand's voice to life through the website, illustrating their collective expertise to help bring peace of mind to the community they serve.

The Outcome

After partnering with PortoSpire for 2 years Hufnagle Insurance Group has observed a great increase of website visitor conversions and generated quotes for insurance coverage that can be directly attributed to the new site and online branding. After working through the discovery process to identify vision, themes, and target segmentation focus; the HIG brand now communicates a stronger cohesive story across all marketing channels. Cat mentioned that after working with some marketing assistance provided through State Auto she received the feedback that they all “Love the new brand story and ease of use with the new site”.

Our Work

The Bartender

I’m a bartender with an interest in making cocktails. After a few years of honing my skills, I entered and won a competition that landed me a position with an exclusive club. After a few more years of learning and working with the owner, now a close friend, I’ve launched my own business.

A patron asked me to bartend an event for their company. This person being a regular, and offering to hire me seemed like easy money, so I jumped at the opportunity. I bought all the equipment and glasses and offered another coworker an hourly rate to help.

The event went smoothly and the guests gave us great feedback on our drinks and service. That’s when I knew there was potential for a cocktail catering company in my area.

Six years in now and we’ve grown quite a bit. We have:

• A skilled staff
• Multiple vehicles
• A prep kitchen
• Cookbook
• Line of syrups
• Closing in on our first 7 figure year

My experience comes down to doing what I enjoy and am good at. Whatever you do, be creative and find ways you can make money in it. You can do something exactly like others have done, or you can change the model and have much less competition.

I didn’t want to compete with bars so I started a catering company. I wrote a cocktail cookbook as marketing instead of traditional ads. Find out what you are good at and leverage that thing in a way that fits you.

The Photographer

Having an interest in photography, I wanted to work for myself. Initially, I just wanted to make enough money to cover my living expenses plus taxes, so I figured around $50k. Leaving a higher paying ($90K+) unfulfilling corporate job would be worth it to be my own boss.

It took 2 years to hit that point where I could leave my day job. I had learned a lot, streamlined my sales process, added the option for additional photographers, integrated new products, and even began sales online through my website. By year 7, we had over $200k in profit.

There were times I wanted to give up and came close to doing so. It wasn’t easy, but coming the journey has been very rewarding. It never hurts to talk with others when you’re struggling because their encouragement can give you energy when you are run down.

I’d rather forge my own path, even by scraping by, than work for someone else again. I’ve tried several ventures that didn’t pan out, but learned a lot along the way. My philosophy is to grow in life, even if that means I don’t achieve my goals. I still achieved the pursuit of my goals.

Growing my business was spiritual in a way for me. It wasn’t about just replacing my income but allowing myself to change as a person to meet my goals.

The Fall and The New Build

I grew a business from nothing to 7 figures in over a decade.  My small pastry business also supplies airports and local businesses. It took so much energy and effort to get to that point, all for it to close due to Covid.

After trying to hold on for another year, I made the decision to close down. Dealing with the failure for the following year was difficult. It wasn’t easy to talk about, and I would break down from losing it all.

However, that story became something that a lot of people were interested in. So, I started discussing it on a podcast featuring other entrepreneurs discussing their failures and successes. Building this new business and learning a completely different industry has been difficult, but the challenge has been very rewarding.

It's challenging to get going when social media floods you with people who seem to be over night successes without much effort. The conclusion I’ve come to is that they are full of B.S. Luck, and networking is important, so get yourself out there.

Final Thoughts

Whether you are struggling with your business or have had to pivot, you can build something that will change your life. Keep working, creating, and learning what you can do to succeed; one day, you will. Stick with people around you who support your growth. Collaborate with others who are growing their small business. Build a community that gives you life when you’re tired and want to quit. We want to see you succeed and hear your stories. Be seen!