The Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony is a three day event that brings the nation’s brightest, most innovative business minds together to celebrate the remarkable achievements of the companies that appear on the 2011 Inc. 5000 list.  In true Active Website style, there were great parties, great people and most importantly, great information.

The people that attended the conference, as well as the keynote speakers, were inspirational. What I found most interesting, was that the conference’s materials and the other attendees seemed to have a lot in common with Active Website and what we believe sums up our keys to success. In fact, it almost mirrored Active’s official response to making the Inc. 5000 list.

Gary Vaynerchuck, author of The Thank You Economy, spoke about how the rise of the internet has given way to a shift in power to the consumer and the humanization of business. The empowered consumer now has options on where to go to spend their money, and it they don’t like your services, they will take their money somewhere else. Not only that, but through the power of social media, they can now tell hundreds of people what they think about your services.  This makes a high level of customer service crucial to your success.

As an employee of Active Website, I can attest to the fact that Active Website prides itself on treating its clients like family and, in turn, instilling that into the way they treat us, their employees. With so many competitors out there, a new focus has emerged to develop brand loyalty from the ground up. From the beginning, Active Website has been focused on providing a high quality product while providing a very personal level of service as well.

Another key message I left with, was that this new model of the empowered consumer has also transformed the way we need to market to them; they now can choose what they listen to.  Gone are the days of pushing your brand or message onto consumers; the new consumer chooses what brands and what information they want to bring into their worlds.

With that said, we need to be more mindful of how we communicate to our customers.  Brands need to become more human in order to effectively communicate to our consumers.  A tweet about how great your services are can be annoying, but if you interact with your potential customers and create a relationship with them, they are more likely to reach out to you when they are in need of your services.

Like Ze Frank emphasized at our annual conference this year,  it’s become less about selling and more about building relationships, humanizing your brand and creating ENGAGING content.

In today’s information age, new strategies and technologies are constantly emerging, so it’s our responsibility to ensure we remain ahead of the curve in order to adapt. Having the opportunity to attend the Inc. event and be recognized alongside other innovative companies served as affirmation that our company is aligned for future success. When looking towards the future, I see nothing but opportunity as we continue to exceed customer expectations and develop the most user-friendly websites available in the Real Estate Industry.

With millions of applicants vying for this honor, we are proud to have ranked #1743 in the 2011 Inc. 5000 list. With a growth of 153% over the past 3 years, our current ranking demonstrates how our ideologies and core values as a company have made us successful over the years.

We are honored to be recognized for this distinguished award and could not have done it without the hard work and support of our employees and clients.

Here is our official response:

We feel very lucky for the substantial growth we have had over the past few years. We are extremely proud and honored to have placed 1743 in the 2011 Inc. 5000 of fastest growing independent companies in the U.S.

We develop complex web based platforms for major industries. Currently we service the waste disposal and real estate industries and are eager to expand.

To be honest with you, we did not reinvent the wheel with the core of our business model. Henry Ford was a great man; a visionary, way before his time. I can sum up our keys to success with two of his quotes:

1. ‘It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the customer that pays the wages.‘

For a long time corporations had a tremendous advantage in the marketplace over their customers (many of which abused their position). With the increase of easy access to information and competitors via the web and emerging technologies, customers are better educated and demand more. This evolution is slowly forcing companies to provide a higher level of service and realize Mr. Ford’s vision, or risk falling behind.

Since Active Website was founded (in 1998), we managed every aspect of our business with this concept in mind. We treat our customers and employees like family, and pride ourselves with the highest level of service. In our yearly conference we often cover topics surrounding the customer centric business model, hoping to pass this notion on through our customers to theirs. We thoroughly believe that building a strong brand is achieved through satisfying your customers.

Furthermore, we see many businesses charging their entire fee or the larger portion of, upfront. We structured our business model to charge a small setup fee and an ongoing monthly service charge, meaning that we collect most of the fees on the backend of our contracts. This model helps us align our goals with our clients; companies that charge most of their fees upfront are typically not as incentivized to provide an increased level of service.

2. ‘A man who will use skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little, is bound to succeed.’

These words are really extended instructions on how to make the most of the first quote. To us, more than anything it resembles the need for quality and value in order to keep customers satisfied. Quality in everything you do; your products, your services, your team. When you lose your passion, start cutting corners, achieve the minimum required to get by, stop innovating and breaking new ground, you might as well close shop.

We passionately enjoy the challenge in taking on new and complex projects, but strive never to compromise quality in the process. We have found innovative ways in creating collaborative business networks to help speed up functionality production while reducing our customers’ costs.

We have seen these fundamental concepts take us from strength to strength even through difficult market conditions. It is actually those hard times that provide us with the opportunity to further show our clients the value in our partnership.

We feel how fast we are growing, and while it would be easy to get overwhelmed, we really enjoy the fact that the larger we become the more impact we can have in increasing standards. We recently reached the size where it became viable to open our very own Active Usability Lab. Many vendors base their production on experience and preach their ideologies throughout their potential client base. Usability has come a long way; modern eye gaze technology allows you to scientifically analyze how customers best interact with your online presence and its content. We feel we can bring more to our clients by adding quantitative data to our already qualitative interpretation of user experience. Our findings often result in unexpected and sometimes drastic changes that have proven to yield significant results.

In this early stage of Internet evolution, many companies are still too focused on driving traffic to their sites. Some have progressed to targeting specific traffic. While this approach is heading in the right direction many companies are not aware of the impact of increasing the usability of their sites. With the customer centric model in mind, if we make the end user happier to use our sites, our brands will be associated with quality and greater service and will grow through additional positive user recommendations as well as invested marketing. Focusing on traffic rather than usability is counterproductive; it can lead to increased exposure to less than perfect production, which these potential customers will associate with your brand.

To ensure we’re providing a comprehensive technology platform, we have a dedicated team that works hard to keep our clients’ sites on the cutting-edge of technology. Without the continued support of our employees and clients over the years, we would not be where we are today. Together, we can ensure our placement on this list in the years to come.

First and foremost, we are very proud to have placed #1151 on Inc’s Top 5000 List for 2010. Our hard work and innovation is the driving force behind our company and network, and we are honored to be recognized for this distinguished award. 2010 was a great year and we look forward to an even better year in 2011!

Last month, our Usability Department also released its most extensive report to date with a focus on sitemap and navigation. Through a card-sorting activity and our Tobii Technology eye tracking system, we were able to produce “The Ideal Sitemap” for our customers. The report also addressed the most efficient main navigation style, best sitemap structure and best practices for content – just to name a few.

Last, but not least, we’d like to congratulate Laura Mulvany and Tyler Olmsted for winning Idea of the Month and Employee of the Month, respectively. A big thanks to them for their dedication to Active Website!

To read more about our team, several new product releases and other related news, check out our August Newsletter.

Recognizing the hard work and innovation that went into building our company into what it is today, Inc. ranked Active Website #1151 on this year’s list. In addition, because we saw a 258% growth rate over the past three years, Active ranked #18 overall in the real estate industry category and #22 overall for companies based out of Denver, CO.

We are honored to be recognized for this distinguished award and to be a part of a network of entrepreneurial leaders.

Here is our official response:

We feel very lucky for the substantial growth we have had over the past few years. We are extremely proud and honored to have placed 1151^st in the Inc. 2010, 5000 Fastest Growing Independent Companies in the U.S.

We develop complex web based platforms for major industries. Currently we service the waste disposal and real estate industries and are eager to expand.

To be honest with you, we did not reinvent the wheel with the core of our business model. Henry Ford was a great man; a visionary, way before his time. I can sum up our keys to success with two of his quotes:

1. ‘It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the customer that pays the wages.‘

For a long time corporations had a tremendous advantage in the marketplace over their customers (many of which abused their position). With the increase of easy access to information and competitors via the web and emerging technologies, customers are better educated and demand more. This evolution is slowly forcing companies to provide a higher level of service and realize Mr. Ford’s vision, or risk falling behind.

Since Active Website was founded (in 1998), we managed every aspect of our business with this concept in mind. We treat our customers and employees like family, and pride ourselves with the highest level of service. In our yearly conference we often cover topics surrounding the customer centric business model, hoping to pass this notion on through our customers to theirs. We thoroughly believe that building a strong brand is achieved through satisfying your customers.

Furthermore, we see many businesses charging their entire fee or the larger portion of, upfront. We structured our business model to charge a small setup fee and an ongoing monthly service charge, meaning that we collect most of the fees on the backend of our contracts. This model helps us align our goals with our clients; companies that charge most of their fees upfront are typically not as incentivized to provide an increased level of service.

2. ‘A man who will use skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little, is bound to succeed.’

These words are really extended instructions on how to make the most of the first quote. To us, more than anything it resembles the need for quality and value in order to keep customers satisfied. Quality in everything you do; your products, your services, your team. When you lose your passion, start cutting corners, achieve the minimum required to get by, stop innovating and breaking new ground, you might as well close shop.

We passionately enjoy the challenge in taking on new and complex projects, but strive never to compromise quality in the process. We have found innovative ways in creating collaborative business networks to help speed up functionality production while reducing our customers’ costs.

We have seen these fundamental concepts take us from strength to strength even through difficult market conditions. It is actually those hard times that provide us with the opportunity to further show our clients the value in our partnership.

We feel how fast we are growing, and while it would be easy to get overwhelmed, we really enjoy the fact that the larger we become the more impact we can have in increasing standards. We recently reached the size where it became viable to open our very own Active Usability Lab. Many vendors base their production on experience and preach their ideologies throughout their potential client base. Usability has come a long way; modern eye gaze technology allows you to scientifically analyze how customers best interact with your online presence and its content. We feel we can bring more to our clients by adding quantitative data to our already qualitative interpretation of user experience. Our findings often result in unexpected and sometimes drastic changes that have proven to yield significant results.

In this early stage of Internet evolution, many companies are still too focused on driving traffic to their sites. Some have progressed to targeting specific traffic. While this approach is heading in the right direction many companies are not aware of the impact of increasing the usability of their sites. With the customer centric model in mind, if we make the end user happier to use our sites, our brands will be associated with quality and greater service and will grow through additional positive user recommendations as well as invested marketing. Focusing on traffic rather than usability is counterproductive; it can lead to increased exposure to less than perfect production, which these potential customers will associate with your brand.

In the pursuit of perfection for our clients, we have had little time to devote to our own online presence. We are finally releasing our updated website in Q4 of this year.

Please check it out: www.activewebsite.com

You will be able to learn more about our history, service offerings, current projects and more.

We try to keep the public well informed about our news and events via our blog and social network pages.

Every year, REAL Trends ranks the performance of residential real estate companies across the country by sales volume, transactions, mortgage, etc. This annual report is a trusted standard of measuring performance, so again, congratulations to the following companies for a successful year.

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Transaction Sides for 2009)

• 12 – Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 112- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 154- The Hasson Company
• 156- Skogman Realty
• 192- The Danberry Company
• 199- The Kentwood Companies
• 242- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 285- Milestone Realty Consultants

The 500 Largest Brokers in the U.S. (Ranked by Closed Sales Volume in 2009)

• 12- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 89- The Hasson Company
• 99- The Kentwood Companies
• 108- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 223- Skogman Realty
• 261- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 335- The Danberry Company
• 339- Milestone Realty Consultants

Top Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Affiliates

• 7- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 43- The Hasson Company
• 44- Skogman Realty
• 50- The Kentwood Companies
• 62- Milestone Realty Consultants
• 63- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors

The Largest Independents

• 8- Ebby Halliday Realtors
• 42- The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• 52- The Hasson Company
• 62- The Danberry Company
• 63- The Kentwood Companies
• 72- Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• 76- Milestone Realty Consultants

The Billionaire’s Club! (Those who closed at least one billion $ worth of real estate in 2009)

• 12- Ebby Halliday Realtors

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Mortgage Closings

• The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Top 500 Firms Ranked by Title Closings

• The Group, Inc. Real Estate

Real Trends Market Leaders

• Ann Arbor: Charles Reinhart Company Realtors
• Dallas/Ft.Worth: Ebby Halliday Realtors
• Denver: The Kentwood Companies
• Fort Collins: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
• Lexington: Milestone Realty Consultants
• Portland: The Hasson Company
• Toledo: The Danberry Company

To read more, check out our press release, The Active Enterprise Network Makes Real Trends Top 500 List for 2009.

By Amanda Stephan

This Boulder, Colorado based real estate company was founded in 1976 and is the largest independent real estate company in Boulder County. Experienced agents cover a wide array of services including residential, commercial, farm, ranch and mountain properties. WKRE also offers great relocation assistance for those new to the Boulder area.

Knowing the importance of relationships, Wright Kingdom Real Estate is an active member of the community and supports over 100 local charities. Referrals and repeat business make up more than 80% of WKRE’s business and with such loyal clients, it is no surprise they have won this award five times in the past six years. To view the award, click here.

WebAwards are given to those who excel in these seven categories:

1.    Design
2.    Innovation
3.    Content
4.    Technology
5.    Interactivity
6.    Copywriting
7.    Ease of Use

To view the award online, click here

Nominations for the awards come from those in the industry in 47 different countries. To make a nomination, go to www.webaward.org.