Teamwork. It’s not just for school projects or football teams (go Dolphins, BTW – we’re from Miami). It’s what makes Optuno, well, Optuno.

Is it OK with you if I start with a little history? I started as a programmer about 15 years ago. Did a TON of freelance work. Made websites from start to finish, performed updates, posted articles, made images, tried my hand at SEO, did social media – you name it. Guess what? It sucked. I hated it. Don’t get me wrong – I loved the feeling of a project coming to completion and how awesome it came out - makes ya proud! What sucked is the constant evolution and changes after the fact. The constant battle to keep up. With EVERYTHING. I can barely keep up with different coding styles nowadays – let alone how the latest Google search algorithm changes your rankings. And social media? Forget about it. I probably wasted so much time on social stuff that didn’t amount to anything that its downright scary.

I’m a lone wolf. I like things my way. Its what, I thought, made me a great developer. But, even a lone wolf learns something sometimes. I learned that I just can’t do everything myself and get that perfect result. Easy lesson I should have learned in 2nd grade, right? Wrong. When you’re a kid you think you can do it all. You’re invincible. No one can stop you. But when you’re an adult and trying to make a living you quickly realize you have to deliver real results to make customers satisfied. And “satisfied” is not enough in today’s world. Welcome to life, lone wolf.

That reality hit hard one day a few years ago before I joined Optuno. I created an amazing website for a customer I was really trying to impress (they were a huge company that could potentially send me an insane amount of referrals). They loved it, I loved it, everyone was happy. Thrilled, they asked me for help with their social media and search engine optimization. I figured, sure – I know what I’m doing. It’s just Facebook and Google, right? I can read expert’s blogs and figure it out. Wrong. After a month of trying my best, I was out. I delivered absolutely zero results. That customer who loved my work is now upset they wasted time and money. And I had nothing – I repeat, NOTHING – quantifiable to their business to show them. Reputation. Down. The. Drain.

I told you all that to tell you this – Optuno has the puzzle that is the modern website mastered. And that’s thanks to the amazing team that Optuno has in place working on customer’s websites day in and day out.

Lone wolfs don’t get the job done – plain and simple. I’ve come to the realization that I’m best sticking to programming PHP and doing database management. And that you aren’t going to learn everything you need to learn by reading blogs on how social media works. Point is – leave it to the pros!

Since joining Optuno, I’ve seen first-hand companies go from zero to hero. These clients are booming! And why is that? It’s because I’m one of the programmers, duh! But it’s also because of Jose V and Mike F who head up search engine optimization. It’s because of John B and Bill J who write those engaging articles about your industry. It’s because of Jal D and Lisa W who lead up social media for our clients that actually produce real results. And don’t forget about Todd F - who, wait – I don’t really know what Todd actually does here but I do know he’s the man and is always there to pick me up when I feel I’m failing.

Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day (or, well, this blog). Number one – Optuno rocks. And number two – you can’t produce a website in this modern day by yourself and expect it to perform off the charts. You might be content making your website on Wordpress, Squarespace, or Wix, but do you really know (or even want to invest the time in) how to do social media marketing? Or how to get your site on page 1 on Google? Are you willing to spend that time and money to potentially fail and fall on your face like I did? No one is an expert at everything and really – you have your business to run. Let me and my amazing co-workers who do this every day and get amazing results for thousands of small businesses handle it.

Lone wolf. Out.