Today we’d like to introduce you to Josef.
Josef, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My wife Nina has a marketing and PR background. Both of us came from families that were involved in their own businesses to some extent or another. I grew up in a family whose businesses were the sole source of income, so starting a business was nothing new to either of us. Nina saw a need for a marketing business that worked well with small business owners and could work with them without hurting their budgets. We both know too well that when starting off you don’t want to allocate too much of your capital to your advertising budget as there are generally more trade-specific tools and systems to invest in, so you can “Do the work”. So together we started Knauf Media Group. We found a program through Tech Town Detroit that helps businesses start the discovery and product-building phase for apps or programs. Knowing the need for tools that business owners could use intuitively and still achieve agency-type results at a low cost, we decided to start our venture into Amplify. Amplify is our current project, and we are very close to releasing the full version of the software thanks to the coaching and help through TechTown and our incredible developer, Alex Vaughn.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a tough road. Nina and I work full-time currently in corporate environments, so we have had many early mornings and late nights trying to keep up with it all. There have been weekends when we wish we could just relax, but it turns into Saturday sprints on projects and after church collaboration sessions on Sundays. Financially, it has been difficult at times as well. There have been many choices made to sustain and keep the cash in the business flowing, as opposed to being free to take trips and go out for fun.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Knauf Media Group was created as a marketing firm in the Detroit area that gives options to local businesses in both how they want to be represented as well as costs. Too many firms have strict retainer fees and minimum-sized projects that gate keeps small businesses from being able to have the professional services they would benefit from. I think what sets us apart is how we start our client relationships. We schedule a meeting to sit down and have a collaborative session with the owner to talk about who they are, what they want, and what the vision they have is for the business. After that, we put together a package of our recommendations and schedule another meeting. If a client is not interested in the packages or the costs are too high, we can tailor it down or up to whatever works best for the client. At the end of the day, for us, we are serving your business, and we want to see you thrive; we don’t want to be another headwind on your journey of growth. Because of this, we created Amplify to help small businesses with maybe only a few hundred dollars a month to spare. With it, they will be able to craft social media copy and posts that conform to the best practices in digital marketing for a fraction of the cost of traditional agencies, using our trained AI model that is updated regularly. This tool, which is in its final stages right now, will eventually be a hub for all of your marketing and allow you to post from the platform to multiple social media sites as well as track your metrics in layman’s terms. No fancy jargon, no degree in marketing needed. If at any point someone decides they need a larger campaign or just some expert advice, we will be a click away to schedule a meeting to work through your next steps in growth. We won an award on March 5th at the Techtown MVP presentation and contest for our first version. We cannot wait to show the world our final product.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice is to take the wins as they come. There will be many failures, frustrations, and disappointments. I don’t have any fancy advice as to how beautiful the journey is in those moments because it can be hard, and looking back at some of those setbacks, they are still hard. But the hope and goal is that the end is worth it, and maybe you can help others with your work along the way. I often looked back on some of the stories my grandfather told about his years building his businesses. He would talk about failures and how ” That wasn’t a good time,” but he would equally remember the wins and the people he was able to help, and that brought him joy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://knaufmediagroup.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/knaufmediagroup/posts/?feedView=all
