Blog

Like I said, we’re just getting started.

By Tom Ossa, CEO
Rockland Web Design Inc.
RockWeb Systems Inc.

In September 2022 I wrote a blog post called “Back to My Roots“. I announced a series of free courses – providing more great information on how to grow your business this coming year, and by extension of your good work — yourself. You can read the post and still get free stuff here. No obligation. Two free books from myself and my WorkSmartNY.com partner, Irene Gutmann.

But I’m now adding a bonus, exclusively for our 500+ clients across the Tri-State area.

RocklandWeb is now 15 years old, and it’s afforded us the time to start learning a little deeper about your business model, and how you aim to grow this year.

Join us for a one-on-one, personalized free 20-minute Zoom session, to better learn about how we can make our 2023 line of services better — for you.

This year we’ll be using our vast digital experience and highly talented team of designers, programmers and marketing professionals to help you to grow the right way in 2023.

Fill out the form below to get started, and we’ll send you a Zoom link for your session.

If you wish to contact us to learn more, call (845) 877-7333, dial extension 1 and use the code free2023.

Our goal is to help you do better digital business in 2023. We look forward to meeting with you.

~ Tom

If you can make it to the end of this blog, I’ll give you a free, professional self-help book, available on Amazon for $9.99. That’s how much I believe in what I’m writing here.

Some of you know that I was a Technology Instructor at Rockland BOCES for the past 19 years. I do it mainly because I love it. My Grandfather used to say about me “Put him in front of an audience, and he’s in his glory.”

Of course, I always try to make it valuable. My method has always been to first inspire, then inform, followed by one-on-one adjustments. It takes more time, but it seems to me to be a more effective, consistent method.

This year, due to the need for increased attention on our companies Rockland Web Design, RocklandNews.com and RockWeb Systems, I decided to step down (for now) from teaching at BOCES. I love it, but prepping, traveling, teaching and recuperating definitely draws away my energy for the focus I need to drive the companies forward.

When I started teaching in 2001, I was a vastly different person. I didn’t run two companies, serve on a bunch of local Boards, and didn’t have the responsibility of paying a talented team of web developers, graphic designers, content writers, videographers and programmers. I love it, but it takes a lot of time and care to do it right. I also like my 7 hours of sleep per night.

So, as Einstein said (paraphrased) “energy can not be created nor destroyed. It can only change into different forms.”

Starting September 2022, I’ll be devoting that educational energy to teaching inside the companies – showing people how to work smarter, not harder – so that they can continually aim toward the lives they each envision.

Joining me on this journey is my esteemed colleague and friend Irene Gutmann – with whom I’ve co-hosted with on her radio show The Coaching Corner (2008-2012), and currently co-host with on our podcast Work Smarter, Not Harder.

In addition to the podcast, beginning 9/20/2022 – I’ll be hosting a series of new, free workshops within the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce, which will show startup and solo business owners how to grow a company, organization or cause.

The topics will be varied. Here is a sampling of some of the topics I will be covering:

• Software Topics
  • Using (Microsoft Word)
  • Using PowerPoint (Presentations)
  • Using QuickBooks (Online Financial Management)
  • Using Excel and Google Sheets (Spreadsheets)
  • Using Canva and Photoshop (Graphics)
  • Using Promo and Premiere (Video)
  • Advanced Zoom (Meetings)
    
• Business Topics
  • Creating Policies & Procedures Manual
  • Cutting Company Costs
  • Using QuickBooks Online
  • Pricing Strategies for 2023
    
• Professional Sales – Strategies & Tactics
  • Using a CRM
  • Creating referral pipelines
  • Generating Leads
  • Using Sales Scripts
  • Creating Compelling Offers
  • Closing rates (Initial and follow up)
  • Increasing Frequency of Purchase by Customers
  • Reactivating Former Customers
    
• Digital Marketing (2023)
  • The basics: Website, business cards, and a nice shirt.
  • Creating a Market Dominating Position
  • Fostering Trust, Expertise, Education
  • Bundling Your Services
  • Drip campaigns
  • Publicity and PR
  • Building an Online Company

The first workshop will be at the Stony Point Pancake Factory, Tuesday Sept 20 at 7:45 am, hosted by the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce.

I hope you’ll join us on this journey. You have my word I will endeavor to make it fun, useful and valuable.

Are you ready for your free book?

In 2016 I wrote a book called “How to Program Your Life”, which outlined essential steps to starting, growing and running a business. It’s still available on Amazon for $9.99.

But I’d like to give it to you for free.

It’s not the perfect book. But it’s chock full of wisdom and stories from the first part of my journey as a serial entrepreneur, from 2007 to 2016. I hope you will enjoy it.

If you want to learn more after you read the book, feel free to contact us, and we’ll give you more cool things to help you grow in your professional journey. After all – that’s where the fun is.

Click here to get the book How to Program Your Life, as well as an additional free offer.

A few months ago, we posted a bunch of domains that we own that we don’t want anymore. We bought them over 10 years’ time, on a set of random whims.

We landed on RocklandNews.com about 2 years ago, so in addition to our web design and maintenance divisions, our 2-year strong news company is keeping up very busy!

So – if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, or a business/organization that needs a better domain name, perhaps we have something for you that will help.

There’s a ton of available domains. A lot of good names we’ve picked up over the years. But hey — we can’t develop everything. As Clint Eastwood said, we gotta know our limitations. So we’re putting them on AFTERNIC.com.

You can still pick one up! Visit our AfterNIC.com profile to view available domains!

Start your business with the right domain name!

Below is the list of domains, with their retail appraisal value according to GoDaddy.com. Obviously, that’s the so-called retail price. You can get the domains for a more affordable amount. Especially if you’re a local company, organization or cause in Rockland County, NY.

If you are interested in any of these domains, please contact us and we can get you connected with a representative from AFTERNIC. You can make a qualified minimum bid, below retail.

Effective August 31, 2022 – @rocklandwebdesign.com will no longer be used for business correspondence on projects, tasks or inquiries.

This post has been long overdue. But, better late than never. If you are a customer of RocklandWeb, please read the important information below.

After 2 years of detailed work and settings adjustments, RocklandWeb has launched its new project management system!

This does mean some changes are coming, and we hope you will be kind enough to help us make the transition smoothly!

Effective August 31st, we will be shutting down all our @rocklandwebdesign.com email addresses. Emails will now go to and from @rocklandweb.com addresses.

In the interest of efficiency, we have also created a new support portal, the details of which we will send to each of our clients. (We’re keeping it secret – we hate spam)

Further: Using our new project system (a combination of Basecamp.com and Hey.com – we will be making it a lot easier to handle your assignments and support requests! Here’s how.

1. Each customer will receive a unique email address to send questions during projects. These will filter into your Basecamp project portal.

(Example: client@rockwebsystems.com, project@rockwebsystems.com, etc.)

2. All new or existing work assignments by new, existing or prospective clients must be loaded to https://rocklandweb.com/support. The password is the current year.

3. Our team members will respond directly to, and handle your requests, via your unique email address. The address will forward to your main email.

We’re doing this because we feel that email is broken. It is an inefficient way of handling multiple projects at once, which can sometimes lead to a lot of delays and frustration by you, the customer. It is our commitment to improve our service to you, and we feel this will be a major step forward.

Please note your account with RocklandWeb must be active and in good standing to initiate new work assignments.

In conclusion: Thank you. It’s been a great journey thus far these past 15 years. We appreciate your loyalty, and look forward to another 15 years of service to our valued clients, along with our new, developing platforms for our region: 

• RocklandNews.com 
• RocklandShopping.com

…and we’re just getting started.

Thomas C. Ossa
RockWeb Systems Inc.
(845) 877-7333

Reach up to 20,000 North Rockland Community area residents per week. Stats below.

Thanks for visiting.

We’ll get right to the point – we have an advertising program that can give your local brand thousands of views more per month. Here’s some stats from August 2022:

To learn more, watch the brief video above, and download this PDF to follow along with the presentation.

After watching, if you would like to sign up or learn more, fill out the form below.

Thanks for your time! We look forward to working with you. =)