Owners: David and Teresa Towe
Location: Lebanon, Mo.
History: While David and Teresa Towe were both working full-time jobs, they began a small business in video production, creating marketing videos for other companies. They also began learning the art of internet marketing and website design. It was not long before they were providing video services for concerts playing in the area and were also asked to take over the company websites of some of their video clients.
Products and Services: Today, Castlewood Studios builds and manages websites for 150 clients, including a variety of agricultural businesses, including livestock producers, feed and fertilizer companies, portable and metal building construction firms, stockyards, farm equipment suppliers, fencing companies and meat processors.
“We have been helping small businesses market their companies for over 20 years,” David said. “We strive to keep our prices low for our customers, and keeping the lowest overhead possible is one more way we do that.
“As a part of that philosophy, we have also developed a large clientele amongst the Mennonite and Amish agricultural communities, searching out and ordering security systems and contacting business clients for them through email. In the last year, we have made a significant financial investment in systems that have allowed us to create a completely secure work station for our Mennonite clients. It does not connect to the internet, display video or play audio. It does, however, allow those in the Mennonite community to use word processors, accounting, photo editing, spread sheets, CAD and drawing programs to run their businesses, without compromising their beliefs.”
Castlewood Studios’ website business has continued to grow to the point that David and Teresa have hired another full-time employee, Eric Streeter. He began work with them on a part-time basis and has now been a full-time employee for the past four years, helping them to design and maintain their clients’ websites.
David said online marketing changes make it difficult for the average business person to keep up with the newest developments, if they are not working within that marketing arena every day.
“We do our best to protect our clients. We test almost everything on our own website first before implementing something new for our clients and that allows us to offer knowledgeable advice to our clients and help them to grow their businesses,” he said.
