thecomplexestateWe hope everyone is off to a great start in 2012. The economy seems to be slowly changing for the better.
At InKnowVision, we have seen some changes as well. Here is what happened in 2011.
Randy is retiring!
After 10 years with InKnowVision, Randy is retiring. He recently was offered a controlling ownership interest in a local P & C Agency (Allstate) keeping him close to home with his children and his adorable granddaughter. We wish him the best. Of course if anyone within the Chicagoland area needs insurance or knows someone who does, send them on to Randy at 630-235-5475. He will take great care of them.
Kyle Hafstad attended Pinnacle’s Certified Business Exit Planner program with Scott this past November. The one week program in Boston was intense and very informative. Kyle is in the process of submitting an exit plan (a requirement for certification) which should qualify him as a Certified Business Exit Planner. This capability will allow us to add a new dimension to our planning for business owner clients. Kyle also has done numerous presentations this year and we expect that this area of responsibility will continue to grow in the future.
Kim Hamilton has invested many hours and developed an in-depth knowledge of marketing successfully with LinkedIn. InKnowVision attributes a significant number of new leads – some of which have already been converted to revenue – to these efforts. Kim continues to get rave reviews for her monthly marketing webinars, held on the 4th Wednesday of each month.
Jessy Crawford has been the moving force behind the creation of several new marketing pieces for InKnowVision, including a new sales process brochure, capability brochure and the creation of a one page planning chart that shows our clients all of their assets and plan outcomes on a single page. Early reports from users on all of these materials report great results.
Sue Hillstrom continued on as the head of command central at InKnowVision. She manages the team, the clients, the scheduling, books and records, etc. We could never do it without her.
This year we had the benefit of hiring three interns, each of whom has added greatly to InKnowVision’s success. May is a web design student at one of our local community colleges. She has been instrumental in cleaning up the code on our web site, creating new features and working with Kim and Jessy to tie more of the web site to our paper based collateral material.
Chelsea came on board towards the end of last year. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Chelsea works directly with Kim and Jessy in the marketing area. She is helping us to scrub our database and will be instrumental in supporting our new RIA Advanced Planning initiative.
Zach is a student at Illinois State and an excel wizard who helped us to freshen up our planning output. New design elements and a new vertical look have really given the design book a new look.
I cannot say strongly enough how invigorating it is to have talented young people in the office questioning why and how we do the things we do. If you are not hiring interns, give some thought to how you could take advantage of the talent available. Not only will you benefit, but you will help prepare someone for a real career once college is over or in today’s job market you could help a graduate gain experience while they are job hunting.
As for me, I am enjoying more time traveling with Kim and working face to face with our referral sources and their clients. We are off to a great start in 2012 and we hope you are too.
Scott
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