Small Business Summit Center

Ron Yoshida, Hello World Communications

Ron's main line of business is video production. What interested me most of all during our interview, however, had to do with a particular task that most people delegate.

AB: What marketing tool worked the best for you in 2007?

RY: For several years, the majority of our new business has been generated through the Internet. We’ve had a website for nine years. Initially, we directed people to the site if they wanted further information, but we did not detect any increase in business because of our web presence. Back then I started hearing about SEO or search engine optimization. I was fortunate to find a very knowledgeable guy who optimized our site for $700. Our site started to generate new business immediately. The best $700 we have spent! Today, his services would probably cost $15,000. Unfortunately, he left soon after to relocate to Arizona. I carefully examined what he had done to the site and I carried on his SEO work – tweaking it to conform more to the language and demands of our business sector and target demographics. I am spending a lot of time updating our site and testing key words to see which ones will drive traffic. It is a very interesting game - examining successful sites for clues and trying to stay current with the search engine algorithms. Our payoff is first page rankings for most of our keywords, but more importantly, a 75% increase in business.

AB: You do your own SEO? That is a rather specialized area… have you considered outsourcing it?

RY: For many business owners, SEO seems akin to brain surgery. They end up contracting a company to optimize their site and may pay over $20,000 for the initial optimization and the necessary tweaking. SEO does not approach brain surgery in complexity. Many of the rules and guidelines can be found on the Google site and can be learned through trial and error. Since I am also the web master of our site, it is a relatively simple task for me to tweak the optimization. What is hugely galling is to see a site ranked higher than ours for certain key words only to discover by examining the code that they have expended no energy on optimization – blind luck!

AB: What part of entrepreneurship have you worked hardest at?

RY: Few businesses evolve as quickly as video production and postproduction. New hardware and software are introduced daily, the terminology evolves and old markets wither as new ones take their place. To keep up, it is necessary to read articles on technology, communications, fashion, politics, business trends, sports, the arts, etc. in mainstream publications, on the Internet and in trade publications. Additionally, viewing movies, television shows and commercials, listening to new music and noting the latest fashions, etc., help to maintain a fresh perspective. No business, especially mine can be run on autopilot. Total involvement and waking up each day with renewed enthusiasm is essential. My greatest challenge is to stay conversant as the earth shakes. It’s be fresh or arrivderci!

AB: What would you do if you weren't in business for yourself?

RY: I would be envious of those who were. There are a lot of headaches owning a business and you quickly learn that you are working for a very demanding and critical boss. But I would not have it any other way. If you are like me, and you realize early on that you would have a hard time conforming to conventional career paths, entrepreneurship becomes an exciting and challenging alternative. But with freedom, there is the realization that, even though I have a terrific staff, the success of the business rests entirely on my shoulders. However, the people we meet, the challenging projects we take on, and the constant learning about life and ourselves make it all worthwhile.

Business Bio

To the urban dweller, growing up in Central California amidst vineyards, almond and peach trees can seem like an idyllic lifestyle. For me, the lack of stimulation was maddening. Nature appeared to be overrated. I was addicted to news magazines, documentaries and all the evening new programs. Books also offered an escape. The challenge was to find a way to connect with the “real world”.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, moving to Manhattan seemed logical. The choice was between a comfortable life and an interesting one. Bouncing from social work to bond underwriting and back again deepened my existential angst. And then a co-worker mentioned a workshop to encourage minority participation in media. I became the only non-Latin and non African-American in a filmmaking course – a career path that had not entered my mind at Berkeley. A whole new world began to open up.

Up to that point, I had displayed little technical acumen. But I quickly learned how to record audio for documentaries. Within five years I found myself working with the Maysles Brothers, Frontline, Bill Moyers in Japan and traveling around the world for PBS, the BBC and Grenada Television among many. Feature films followed with work on high budget commercials. Working with such luminaries as Albert Maysles, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Errol Morris and Martin Bell was immensely inspirational. All the while a dream began to take shape of forming a production company and of directing.

Hello World Communications was the realization of a dream to have a complete production company offering conception to realization capabilities. “Share The Magic” was our first production. The one-hour documentary about a school for magicians drew the comment from CBC producer Patricia Smith-Strom, “I was struck by the remarkable way you captured the characters of the young students, showing magic’s positive effect.”

Our client list now includes: Disney, Chase Bank, Harlequin Press, Savant, Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, Women’s World Banking, HBO, Ogilvy, BBDO, McCann Erickson, Foley & Lardner, Rubin Museum of Art, Forbes.com, GMC, Chrysler and Cadillac. Our considerable experience producing Internet content includes 12 videos for the CBS Survivor finale webcast, 4 videos for the Super Bowl and we recently completed seven shows for the cbs.sportsline.com show Match Points with April Wilkner that aired during the U.S. Open. We were responsible for the show titles; show concepts, research, motion graphics, postproduction, writing, ad copy and even drawing up contracts.

My staff of over-achieving, muti-taskers emphasizes a cheerful, can-do attitude and the enthusiasm to go the extra mile for our customers. People love saying the name of our company and one customer even sings a Hello World ditty.

It’s a long way from staring at an empty California sky and looking forward to raiding the magazine rack at the shopping mall.