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G U E S T E D I TO R I N C O N V E R S AT I O N

Its all about staying relevant to the current culture

Guest Editor JONATHAN NORI spoke with TREVOR ROBERTS of Cross and Crown, a Chambersburg, Pa., a web and graphic design company with a missions mind-set.

How an overriding sense of mission and a more-for-less mentality can make an impact for small businesses
it to build resources to help others. It excites us that C&C provides jobs to six people and is used to host events, ministries and even a church. C&C partners with Abednego Coffee, a local free trade provider, to provide the coffees for C&C. Ten percent of all the coffee purchases are donated directly to nonprofits and ministries all around the world. We were able to collect a significant amount of money for recent catastrophic events like the earthquakes in Haiti and tsunami in Japan. We get inspired by ministries and organizations doing excellent work worldwide. We strive to complete all projects we work on to the highest standard we can because we know our projects are enabling organizations to do their work even better.

What is Cross and Crown?

Cross and Crown was founded in 2002 by brothers Tyler and Trevor Roberts [myself ] to help ministries and nonprofits with design and marketing, something that is normally very expensive and not affordable for nonprofits. The company started with one employee, and now Cross and Crown has a staff of seven. Over the years, Cross and Crown has had the privilege of working with many top organizations nationwide and music festivals, including Prison Fellowship, the INCM (International Network of Childrens Ministry), CCDA (Christian Community Development Association), Destiny Image (shout out!), Youth Specialties, the Churches of God General Conference, Word Made Flesh, Creation and lots of others. One thing that really sets Cross and Crown apart is we aim to partner with the organizations and meet them where they are. If someone has an in-house design team, we can come alongside and them and offer our skill set to fill holes. If an organization doesnt have a team, we can handle projects from start to finish.

What is the why of Cross and Crown? Why another design firm in a field where theres already a million people doing this?
I think we really wanted to have a focus on missions organizations and nonprofits and really filling a void of the quality artwork or quality marketing at affordable prices. Theres a Venn diagram that you can see floating around that has speed, quality and price, and they dont often intersect where the client wants them to. What we try to do is really look for an opportunity to come across a nonprofit or an organization and offer them the highest quality of design and marketing that we can at affordable pricesnot agency-level pricesthat many organizations and companies are paying worldwide.

TOP: Cross and Crowns coffee shop, acquired in 2008, is used to host events, ministries and a church. LEFT: Trevor Roberts, co-founder of Cross and Crown, a design company. ing mission that gets you up?
In 2008 we were given the opportunity to buy a local coffeehouse, and we jumped at the opportunity and opened C&C Coffee in July of 2008. Its mission can be summed up very easily. Just around the corner, serving the world. Since its inception, the goal was never to make C&C a profit center, but to use

Chambersburg is a small town, so what is it that keeps Cross and Crown there? Why not D.C. or New York or somewhere more known for its design studios?

Where did the original idea for Cross and Crown come from?
Tyler and I grew up at a Christian camp, where our father was the director, so we knew about the limitations that they often faced with budgets and operations. We had always grown up with the mentality of, How do we get the best deal for the money thats available? That was just the mentality that we were raised with, so when it came time for us to start a business, which we also consider a ministry, we wanted to be able to offer that to other peopleto allow
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Youre more than just a design firm. In fact, your offices are located one floor above the Cross and Crown Coffee Company shop that helps to fund your African missions. Youre involved in a lot of things, but whats the overrid-

One of the things thats great about where we are is the low cost of living and expenses. This allows us to keep our cost as low as possible to help as many organizations as we can. Its very easy to collaborate with our clients and other creative professionals online.

Who is it that inspires you to do what you do?

G U E S T E D I TO R R E TA I L E S S E N T I A L S

Engaging customers in an always-on digital world

Using social media to promote your store is easierand less time-consumingthan you may think By Jonathan Nori

ouve heard the phrase social networking a thousand times, but maybe it seems so big, and so complicated. Heres an inside scoop: Its not hard, complicated or confusing. Here are two step-by-step ways to do it and a third meth-

od that I guarantee leads to direct salesall using the people and equipment and money you already have.

MAKE A FACEBOOK PAGE

If your store doesnt have a Facebook page yet, it should. It is the most popular so-

cial network, and your store simply should have a presence there. Dont worry if Facebooks supremacy changes in the future; something is bound to come along and replace it eventually. Building a Facebook page is easy. First, make sure you have a Facebook account

at www.facebook.com (dont worry, youre name wont be attached to the page anywhere public). Second, scroll to the bottom of the page and in the row of very small links, click Create a Page. There you should click Local
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G U E S T E D I TO R R E C O M M E N D E D R E S O U R C E S

Getting our way rather than yours, building lessons past and future
By Jonathan Nori /// Recommended resources for your business and personal life
The Art of Persuasion: Winning Without Intimidation by Bob Burg (Sound Wisdom) I generally dont like to plug books that people I know have been involved in, but this is phenomenal. Its about the art of negotiation without being overbearing and manipulative. In a world where the next big sale is all that seems to matter and steamrolling everyone in your way to get you want is considered standard career advancement, The Art of Persuasion stands out as a guide to inspiring win-win scenarios in every area of your life. I like to argue, and this book helps me to redirect my argumentative side into creating consensus and inspiration among my employees and business partners. The Art of Steampunk: Extraordinary Devices and Ingenious Contraptions From the Leading Artists of the Steampunk Movement by Art Donovan (Fox Chapel Publishing) Im on my second read-through of this photo gallery book. Ive been fascinated by Victorian science fiction for years, and at a conference last year I attended my first art discussion panel on the subject. I was really inspired to try and build some gadgetry myself, and The Art of Steampunk has been a real go-to guide for me. One of the beautiful things about this book is that almost all the creations in it are more than just decorative, theyre actually functional, lighting up or turning a crank or spinning a gear to cause something else to happen. Its a beautiful study of the industrial age. HTML5 and EPUB 3 Like most publishers, e-books and related technologies like HTML5 and EPUB 3 are an integral part of our planning and execution. Ive been spending a lot of time immersing myself in these technologies, and really digging into what they do and dont mean for literature. Questions like, Does an author really need a publisher anymore? and How many niches can the reader market support? keep coming to mind. Oreilly.coms webinar series on the changing face of e-book technologies has been very entertaining, as have the writings of Chris Brogan and Cory Doctorow on the future of content and how publishers (and perhaps even bookstores) need to change how they think about what it means to sell a book.

a great contact manager and access to Google Voice, which allows you to incorporate text messaging (SMS) into your Business or Place. Third, fill in your details communications. and click Get Started. As your employees add people to the list, they should add notes to the Contacts about CREATE FACEBOOK ADS what they like and what theyre interested Once you have a Facebook page for your in. As new products arrive that they might store, use it by creating inexpensive ads. be interested in, grab a picture with a cell How do you create an ad? You can find phone and send it extensive video to the customer training coverage (or use a webon this on Youcam attached to Tube.com, but a computer with also from social Gmail/G oogle media training Voice and send sites like christhe pics straight brogan.com or from there). courtneyengle. One of the com. guys at a store I Youll spend Create a page for your store on Facebook. purchase from less money on does that, and a full 90% of my purchases Facebook ads than you will on newspaper come directly from employee recommendaor coupon book ads, and youre guaranteed tions via text and pics to my mobile phone. that your target audience is going to see He even holds things for me if I ask him to. your ad. In addition to Facebook ads, Google Adwords and Yahoos ad system can also be MEASURABLE RETURNS used to target your specific town and region. These arent big company technoloYou dont need to advertise to people in Los giestheyre actually easier for a small store Angeles if your store is in Spokane. rather than a big chain to implement. Most importantly, these tips have an immediate, measurable return. If nobody clicks on your USE TEXT AND PHOTO Facebook ad, it doesnt cost you money. MESSAGING Create different ads and experiment to One final easy way to take advantage of find out what works. Your employeesor social technologies is to have the people you, if you do it personallywill know in your store actually get to know your cuspretty quickly if sending Mrs. Jacobson a tomers. You probably already have a mailing pic of the latest Karen Kingsbury or Max list, but maybe its time to upgrade it with Lucado book results in a sale. email addresses and cell phone numbers. The market is changing; dont be afraid I suggest signing up for a free Gmail to experiment! CR account for your store. It comes with

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them to find a place where they could get really quality products or services, but also at an affordable level to fit within their budget.

point of their prospective customer and ask themselves, What would you want to find on your website and how would you want to find it?

So this is really more than just business for you? This is the ministry that you felt called to?
Definitely. I mean, if I was just selling widgets all day long, or designing packaging to sell widgets, I definitely would not feel the need to get up in the morning and I wouldnt have the energy to do what I do every day and all the hours I put in. Knowing that what we do really helps organizations do their missions better is what makes us tick on a day-to-day basis.

Are there any principles youve learned from your big impact for a little investment philosophy?
Your brand and image is the foundation to your business. If you are going to only spend some money, make sure it is on your brand. It will be the best investment you can make.

When youre not throwing all of your energy and every waking moment into Cross and Crown, what is it that helps you recharge or gets you excited?
Thats probably friendships. Having a core base of friends around us that are our age, doing things together, from mission trips to cruises to vacations, is really what keeps us going if its not work-related. Its types of relationships that support you when you get frustrated or things arent going quite your way. So, I think friends and friendships are really the driving force beyond the normal work-related things.

As a young, creative, missionsminded Christian, what do you think Christian stores need to do to attract customers like you?
I think Christian stores need to think about how they can stay relevant to the current culture. In an age where I can download various media content in just clicks, what would make me want to visit a store? Its a changing environment, and answers most likely vary for each store.

What do you view as the essentials in a small business website?

When thinking about a website for any business, the important thing to remember is content is king. Users come to your website for the content, not the design. We try to encourage clients to approach their website from the view-

What do you see in the future for Cross and Crown? What else is on your heart that you have yet to accomplish?
We never have a shortage of ideas. The key is validating which ones are worth bringing to life. For the near future, we are really focusing on Cross and Crown and getting its name out nationwide but all that could change overnight. CR