Magnetic Attracts Success

Magnetic Attracts Success

COMPANIES by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

Careful hiring has allowed the Tampa-based web development firm to offer expert advice in design and development, attracting clients throughout the country. Its grown 300% over the last five years.

Former IBM executives Ken and Jennifer Bakunas know their roles at their 10-year-old New Tampa web development company, Magnetic.

"I'm the dreamer, she's the realist," says Ken Bakunas, the chief executive officer.

"We need his vision," Jennifer Bakunas says. "I steer the ship."

Ken Bakunas directs the management team and oversees all key corporate operations. He founded Magnetic in 1997 after identifying the need to help medium to large businesses leverage their Internet presence through better design, e-commerce and search engine marketing.

Prior to Magnetic, Ken Bakunas, a military brat, worked as web architect and technical consultant for clients including IBM, AT&T and Verizon. At IBM, he was the webmaster and principal technical architect in the creation of IBM.net.

Jennifer Bakunas, originally from Orlando, began her career with IBM as a web designer responsible for content, design, programming and maintenance of the corporate Web sites. She also worked for Kobie Marketing, where she initiated and designed the process for partnering Web site development with the overall marketing message.

At Magnetic, Jennifer Bakunas is responsible for ensuring the delivery of quality Web site products. Two years after Ken Bakunas founded the company, he and Jen married. They have two boys, 1 and 2 ½.

"Some owners of web development businesses have no technical background," Jennifer Bakunas says. "We have in-depth knowledge of the industry."

Smart hiring

Magnetic turns 10 years old later this year, and will mark the anniversary with a special celebration for employees and customers. The privately held company, which declined to release revenues, has always been profitable. And aside from 2001, when the dot com industry shrank, revenues have always grown.

Revenues climbed 280% since 2002. In 2005, revenues jumped 35%. In 2006 they rose 22%. And this year, Magnetic is on track to double revenues.

"In our industry, it's very hard to maintain that growth if we were churning through clients," Jennifer Bakunas says.

That's why the main key for the company's success is customer service.

"It all comes down to focusing on customer service," Ken Bakunas says. "We need to focus on that. We take a great interest in our clients. It's part of what web marketing is about."

"Customer service is a cliche," says Jennifer Bakunas. "We care about what happens to our customers. A lot of companies don't do it."

Another key is smart hiring. That's why company growth has been steady, but deliberate. Magnetic needs to find web designers and developers. Both require different skills.

"People who work here are intelligent and good at what they do," he says.

But hiring good people is a challenge for Magnetic. "It's hard to find people that are at the top of their game," Jennifer Bakunas says.

Still, the company plans to hire about 10 more people this year, including project managers and web designers.

"I've read that Bill Gates said that he always strove to hire people smarter than him," Jennifer Bakunas says.

Part of the staffing key is making sure employees are up-to-date on training. "We're like the medical field, always retraining, always changing," Ken Bakunas says. "They are always coming out with different products and programming languages. We need to keep ourselves educated."

Maximum exposure

Magnetic's office is in the New Tampa area, in the Tampa Palms Professional Center. If you're driving south on Interstate 75 heading toward Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and look over the trees, you can see the offices next to the massive USAA office building.

About half of Magnetic's business is from Florida. Those clients include the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Columbia Restaurant Group and Lex Jet.

The rest spans the United States, including businesses in California, New York, Virginia and Seattle. New sales come from businesses reading the Magnetic Web site and from referrals.

"We don't do cold calls," Jennifer Bakunas says. "We get a lot of referral business. They respect us as a company."

Client projects range from a 15- to 20-page Web site that can take four weeks to a complex web project that can last months. As the needs of businesses are diverse, so are the different kinds of Web sites.

"With the Internet," Jennifer Bakunas says, "the sky's the limit." Magnetic focuses solely on company Web sites.

The company stays in tune with modern web design changes, which clients ask about. "It's like clothes, or houses or cars," Ken Bakunas says. "You can see a site and say 'That's a late '90s, early 2000 site,'" he says. "Some sites are going to something like Web 2.0. They are user-developed and community based."

Besides design, Magnetic also helps clients maximize exposure on search engines. Part of the strategy is a well-designed site. Another part is paying search engine fees to get proper placement.

"Compare it to direct mail," Jennifer Bakunas says, "and the cost per lead is a lot less."

One of the more fascinating things about his job, Ken Bakunas says, is learning about his clients' businesses. Jennifer Bakunas likes keeping it light sometimes.

"It helps when you can joke around and have fun with clients," she says. "We communicate in person, through teleconferencing and through email."

Has anything surprised them since starting their own company? "The phenomenal growth of the web," Jennifer Bakunas says. "It's revolutionized the world. It's a central part of everyone's life."

What about expanding outside of Tampa? "We've considered it," Ken Bakunas says. "It would be the next phase of our growth. We've just been very careful and don't want to do it too fast and jeopardize the financial strength of the company."

Jennifer Bakunas says the company has thought of some cities to place offices in, but is currently focused on meeting its revenue and profit goals for this year.

Is there significance to the name of the company? It had more to do with finding an available domain name for the Internet than it had to do with a web design theme. There is plus and a minus to the name decision.

"It gets attention, because it's not standard, boring stuff," Jennifer Bakunas says. "But we do get calls, and two emails a week, about people looking to buy magnetic bracelets."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company: Magnetic

Industry: Tampa-based web development firm

Key: Doing quality work and getting new business from referrals