The short version:
Minnesota native. Marketing designer since 2004. Loves a basketball coach named Tim. MBA in Leadership. Bachelor's in Theology. Classically trained pianist. Enjoys a good root beer float. Roadtrips with a yellow lab named Chase.
The story of Candy Rice Design...in her own words
I spent a lot of years wondering how I should spend my professional life. While I had no specific career path for many years, I knew that I wanted work worth doing, that made a difference in the lives of the people I worked with. That overriding direction led me to a variety of great positions. I created my first small business in Kansas City in the late 1990s (when the internet was in its infancy) creating websites and teaching 60-85-year-olds how to use the internet and their new personal computers. I spent time in the higher education world as a head volleyball coach, senior woman administrator, and business software professor. I also taught Theology in a private high school in the southern U.S.
I began a small college sports photography business in 2002, which came in handy shortly thereafter when I accepted one of the defining positions of my professional career: the director of sport marketing for a private liberal arts college in Ohio. During this role, which made me responsible for marketing 20 NCAA III athletic programs as well as managing the media relations for those teams, I discovered how my past roles were converging to point me in a new professional direction. My love of photography helped me teach my staff to take great photographs that were used in our marketing. My passion for design (both web and graphic) helped me develop and maintain a 400+ page athletic website filled with continually dynamic content (most of which is still in use today). My interest in marketing expanded and my team and I reaped huge rewards for our hard work, tripling game attendance and changing the prevailing attitude on campus that the athletic department was a joke.
However, that same position that began to shape my professional future also took about 80 hours of my time each week. I began losing sight of my personal priorities and when my husband, the men's basketball coach, resigned his position, I decided to do the same in order to refocus on what was important. We put all of our possessions in storage, except for a laptop, camera, and some clothes, and hit the road in our Honda Element (complete with yellow lab Chase). We called it our "Pause on Purpose" roadtrip and it turned out to last 8 months (see the blog). Eventually we decided to settle near Denver and began building our lives in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
In the spring of 2007, I was contemplating whether my passion for photography could be parlayed into a bona fide business. I attended a week-long photography conference in the Rockies. That was quite a week. At the time, I was employed by a lead generation company as their marketing communications director and was helping them write sales copy, build a website to collect data, and launch a new direct mail campaign. Two of the company's 40+ employees took critical company information to a competitor and caused the company to go bankrupt, which meant that two of my previous payroll checks bounced that week. At the same time, I was owed several thousand dollars in back pay, and payments we had made were bouncing left and right as a result of the company being bankrupt. So it seemed the perfect time to launch a new business! Right?
I had realized at the conference that while photography could be a great business, I wasn't ready for the investment in equipment. I saw that the small business owners in the class with me had a huge need for stylish, effective marketing and design. I knew that my marketing experience, combined with my design aesthetic and web knowledge, could easily translate into a new business serving the small business owner. I could manage their marketing efforts and help them grow their businesses with creative business planning and stylish design.
So I came home from the conference, built my website, and launched my business the following week, working with a photographer from that conference. I built her Flash website and took over most of her marketing. That first year her business grew by 36% and I knew I was onto something.
At first, my company was focused on building custom websites and marketing. I built sites for nonprofits, businesses, and photographers. Then I realized that my true professional passion was helping organizations become better at understanding how marketing and business planning could expand their revenues and market share. So I shifted the focus of my business (the flexibility to do this is part of why I love small business so much!) to marketing consulting tied to stylish, effective campaign design. I still build websites because they are a necessary component to any comprehensive marketing plan, and we continue to offer copy writing services, software training in Adobe and MS Office products, as well as photography services.
We coach business owners to think critically about their business practices and marketing efforts, and we've seen our clients experience dramatic results. Our business is on track to double this year, and we love what we do! Our clients come back to us time and again for strategy sessions, brainstorming, and new campaigns. I consider it a huge blessing to do what I love and, in doing that, to help others make such a radical difference in their businesses and personal lives.
I spent a lot of years wondering how I should spend my professional life. While I had no specific career path for many years, I knew that I wanted work worth doing, that made a difference in the lives of the people I worked with. That overriding direction led me to a variety of great positions. I created my first small business in Kansas City in the late 1990s (when the internet was in its infancy) creating websites and teaching 60-85-year-olds how to use the internet and their new personal computers. I spent time in the higher education world as a head volleyball coach, senior woman administrator, and business software professor. I also taught Theology in a private high school in the southern U.S.
I began a small college sports photography business in 2002, which came in handy shortly thereafter when I accepted one of the defining positions of my professional career: the director of sport marketing for a private liberal arts college in Ohio. During this role, which made me responsible for marketing 20 NCAA III athletic programs as well as managing the media relations for those teams, I discovered how my past roles were converging to point me in a new professional direction. My love of photography helped me teach my staff to take great photographs that were used in our marketing. My passion for design (both web and graphic) helped me develop and maintain a 400+ page athletic website filled with continually dynamic content (most of which is still in use today). My interest in marketing expanded and my team and I reaped huge rewards for our hard work, tripling game attendance and changing the prevailing attitude on campus that the athletic department was a joke.
However, that same position that began to shape my professional future also took about 80 hours of my time each week. I began losing sight of my personal priorities and when my husband, the men's basketball coach, resigned his position, I decided to do the same in order to refocus on what was important. We put all of our possessions in storage, except for a laptop, camera, and some clothes, and hit the road in our Honda Element (complete with yellow lab Chase). We called it our "Pause on Purpose" roadtrip and it turned out to last 8 months (see the blog). Eventually we decided to settle near Denver and began building our lives in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
In the spring of 2007, I was contemplating whether my passion for photography could be parlayed into a bona fide business. I attended a week-long photography conference in the Rockies. That was quite a week. At the time, I was employed by a lead generation company as their marketing communications director and was helping them write sales copy, build a website to collect data, and launch a new direct mail campaign. Two of the company's 40+ employees took critical company information to a competitor and caused the company to go bankrupt, which meant that two of my previous payroll checks bounced that week. At the same time, I was owed several thousand dollars in back pay, and payments we had made were bouncing left and right as a result of the company being bankrupt. So it seemed the perfect time to launch a new business! Right?
I had realized at the conference that while photography could be a great business, I wasn't ready for the investment in equipment. I saw that the small business owners in the class with me had a huge need for stylish, effective marketing and design. I knew that my marketing experience, combined with my design aesthetic and web knowledge, could easily translate into a new business serving the small business owner. I could manage their marketing efforts and help them grow their businesses with creative business planning and stylish design.
So I came home from the conference, built my website, and launched my business the following week, working with a photographer from that conference. I built her Flash website and took over most of her marketing. That first year her business grew by 36% and I knew I was onto something.
At first, my company was focused on building custom websites and marketing. I built sites for nonprofits, businesses, and photographers. Then I realized that my true professional passion was helping organizations become better at understanding how marketing and business planning could expand their revenues and market share. So I shifted the focus of my business (the flexibility to do this is part of why I love small business so much!) to marketing consulting tied to stylish, effective campaign design. I still build websites because they are a necessary component to any comprehensive marketing plan, and we continue to offer copy writing services, software training in Adobe and MS Office products, as well as photography services.
We coach business owners to think critically about their business practices and marketing efforts, and we've seen our clients experience dramatic results. Our business is on track to double this year, and we love what we do! Our clients come back to us time and again for strategy sessions, brainstorming, and new campaigns. I consider it a huge blessing to do what I love and, in doing that, to help others make such a radical difference in their businesses and personal lives.