Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheri Harkleroad.
Cheri, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started my career in marketing back in the mid-90’s as a telemarketer. I worked my way up to sales and marketing assistant and had the opportunity to work with some of the best marketers in San Diego. I worked hard, paid attention to every little detail and took notes on how my mentors achieved success.
In 2013, I was working in-house for a company here in San Diego and we needed someone to run the digital marketing efforts. I had two choices – hire out or step up and take it over myself. I took a leap of faith and proposed that the company train me in SEO. Two weeks later, I found myself being trained by one of the bigger names in the SEO industry.
Coming from traditional legacy marketing, the digital space was a whole new game. It was a constant learning curve, and I found myself reading, training and learning nearly 7 days a week. I watched as the hard work paid off in increased ranking and traffic, and we first doubled, then tripled the company’s daily search traffic. We started climbing to the top ranks in Google search and I was hooked.
To get better at SEO, I learned web development and started building websites. I knew the more I could learn about the technological part of websites, the better I could do in SEO.
Co-workers began to take note and asked me to take on side projects for them for their side businesses. I built their websites and did SEO for them. Same thing again – hard work paid off in beautiful websites and increased ranking and traffic.
They started recommending me to their friends and after achieving more results, I decided it was time to start building Craft & Clover. I spent about a year working in-house and building Craft & Clover – it was two full-time jobs and I worked night and day, 7 days a week until I was finally ready to let Craft & Clover fly.
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to growing an amazing team with old-fashioned customer service – we’re now a team of 2 developers, an SEO specialist, 2 designers, a copywriter and a team of link building specialists, and we’re all committed to our partnerships with clients.
I launched Craft & Clover in May of 2016, and we quickly became a full-service digital marketing agency, offering everything from website development and maintenance to SEO, social media marketing and branding. I built the most amazing team and decided to.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ve been incredibly lucky to have enough word-of-mouth referrals to give us a healthy client base. But learning how to run a business hasn’t been easy. Finding the right team, developing systems and processes, the never-ending learning curve of becoming a business owner – that’s all been a challenge.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning to accept uncertainty. I am incredibly grateful that we’ve been thriving, but I know nothing is guaranteed. Always feeling like this could literally disappear tomorrow and not allowing that to deter me, is certainly a challenge.
Craft & Clover – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a full-service digital marketing agency, bringing old-fashioned customer service to the digital marketing scene. We offer website design/development, SEO, social media marketing, branding, and consulting services.
We are known for our honesty and ethical approach – especially when it comes to SEO. We are known for partnering with our clients and truly becoming part of the team to drive their success. We are always looking for ways to add value to our services and for our clients and always strive to over deliver.
We are most proud of our client relationships. There are so many digital agencies out there, but we pride ourselves on our ability to become a trusted partner.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
My definition of success has started to shift. At first, it was all about getting more clients, increasing revenue, holding our own as a company.
But lately, I’ve determined that success lies in the work/life balance. I’m a single mom of two small children and we’ve had to sacrifice a lot since I started the business. I came to the realization that while having a thriving business is something to strive for (and be proud of), it’s meaningless if it takes away from your sense of well-being.
Now, success to me is maintaining the business without people needing to sacrifice their own well-being or that of their family. Maybe I want to have my cake and eat it too, but I want Craft & Clover to be a company that values a solid work/life balance, all while continuing to grow.
Pricing:
- Websites start at $2500
- SEO services start at $300/month (after initial investment)
Contact Info:
- Website: craftandclover.com
- Phone: 619-840-1666
- Email: cheri@craftandclover.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craftandclover/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/craft-and-clover-san-diego
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
