Malaka Hilton

Owner and President

Admiral Travel International Headquarters

In May, we opened a wholesale division called AuthentEscapes, and rebranded from being a retail boutique travel agency into selling wholesale to travel agencies all over the country and all over the world. With the amount of exclusive product we have available to us, from professional athletes to world-famous chefs, it just made sense to coordinate trips with celebrated hosts and exclusive access. AuthentEscapes has been a very smart business move on our part; we’ve received great feedback from clients and from travel agents, who’ve been waiting for something like this. In addition, we’ve recently been accepted to Virtuoso, which is an invitation-only leisure travel network made up of over 300 agencies from around the world.

Bill Starck

owner, Camp Bow Wow

We went to other dog businesses in the area and built relationships with them—dog groomers, vets, high-end dog stores. They let us put our cards and brochures out, and it’s paid off in tons of client referrals. It’s pretty much free marketing. Our grand opening was June 15.

Peter Quartararo

General Manager

Davi & Valenti Movers

We’re using a lot more online advertising in conjunction with our print advertising. We’ve been advertising online with Biz941 and Sarasota Magazine, as well as with others, and we’ve really been seeing results. People have been calling in and have said that they have seen both the online and print advertisements. It validates the power of advertising and shows that people have heard of our company. Our company is top of the line; and through the broad range of advertisements, we’re getting our name out there.

Steve Nielsen

President, Critter Ridge Landscape Contractors

Not only are we advertising online and in print, but we’re doing everything we can to remain in the public eye, which includes attending functions, running TV commercials and putting graphics on our vehicles. Through all of this, people see us and we hope that we always remain in the back of their minds. We’re trying to combine all different forms of business strategies. We’re hopeful that not just one thing will contribute to bringing in customers and that it will be a combination of everything we do.