This week’s blog focuses on our colleague and friend, Lyndsay Clements of Ellen Grace Marketing. We have worked with Lyndsay on countless projects, some remodels, some ground up builds – and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it! We know you’ll enjoy hearing about how she moved from the corporate marketing world to building her own company.
Tell me a little about you – Where did you grow up? What inspires you?
I grew up in Scottsdale and then went went to college in Northern CA (Santa Clara University). I ended up in San Francisco for 10 years working mostly in corporate retail and then getting my MBA in Marketing before I relocated back to Phoenix for a job promotion. I am inspired to help small business owners grow faster and more efficiently. I have a business partner (Craig) who is also my brother. Combined we bring over 30 years of corporate retail experience to our clients and are passionate about helping them accelerate their growth and increase profitability.
Why did you decide to start Ellen Grace Marketing?
Prior to starting this business in 2015, I worked for larger retailers and really learned the ins and out of retail. Large companies are smart in how they look at their marketing and sales data, to help them make strategic decisions.
About 4 years ago, I started to realize – mostly through conversations with friends who had either opened up a retail store or were selling products and services online – that there was an opportunity. Most smaller business owners were brilliant at sourcing products and really passionate about understanding their customers’ needs but sometimes neglected their marketing or analyzing sales data because they wore so many hats.
It was then that I decided to go out on my own and bring the corporate way of going-to-market I had learned into the hands of smaller businesses, primarily retailers. This also gave me the opportunity to be more flexible and present with our family. My husband and I have two daughters whose middle names are Ellen and Grace, hence the name of the company. I wanted to create a business that gave me the flexibility to work hard while still being present for those valuable moments that I saw myself missing while working in a corporate office.
What is unique about your style and product offering?
While we are a marketing company at the core, we are hyper-focused on driving profits for our clients. Marketing can bring customers in the door and drive sales, but at the end of the day there are so many factors that contribute to our clients’ bottom line. Our reporting and data analytics encompass key figures that a typical marketer would not normally unveil. These areas include profit margins, churn rates, customer lifetime value, customer & product segmentation, as well as taking a deeper dive into the Financials/P&L statements and helping businesses develop sales tracking and forecasting.
What advice would you give other women business owners?
Don’t be afraid of your business numbers and data. It’s so empowering to know what’s working. At the end of the day we only have so much bandwidth to execute our plans and having visibility to what’s working will help you stay focused on the right marketing efforts, make smarter decisions and ultimately increase sales & profits.
