BizTopia often takes unique approach to helping promote businesses

Before she got into marketing, Jill Laffoon Rose owned a couple of cellphone stores.

She still remembers wishing she could “duplicate” herself.

“I’ve had that issue of you’re so busy running the business that you can’t grow the business,” she said.

That feeling was a big motivator in Rose and Michelle Parker starting BizTopia Partners, which offers marketing and consulting services.

“We’ve both had extensive backgrounds in marketing and advertising and realized that there was a need with independent business to really have someone sit down and do some consulting,” Rose said.

“People who start their own businesses are creative by nature, but a lot of times they need someone to handle marketing. They haven’t planned for it and don’t really know how to get their message out.”

Rose said she and Parker met about 20 years ago while working at Associated Advertising. The two also worked together when Rose was head of marketing for the Kansas Masonic Home and hired Parker.

Parker’s specialty is graphic design, while Rose focuses on consulting and writing for clients.

“It’s kind of nice to have known someone for a long time,” Rose said. “You can bounce things back and forth. We make each other better.”

BizTopia tries to differentiate itself from other firms by offering more than a single product – say, a TV commercial or website. Instead, the partners strategize with clients about the best way to use marketing to grow their business.

“We want to know what their big crazy goal is and what it takes to get them there,” Rose said.

And to figure that out, they’re willing to get out of the office. Speaking of two clients in the retail and restaurant industries, Rose said, “We have literally served in those places. We want to know what their customers are like, what they’re hearing, help them enable staff. It’s just a different approach.”

Rose says BizTopia offers “all the same tools” as most advertising agencies – from direct mail and public relations to social media and video producing – using “strategic partners” for any services they aren’t experts in.

Rose said the partners’ focus is local small businesses, although they have picked up three out-of-state clients since opening.

Larger marketing firms sometimes suggest that employees not become friends with their clients, Rose said, but that approach doesn’t work with her.

“For me, that’s really the best part, being friends with my clients,” she said. “I feel responsible for how things turn out for them.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "BizTopia often takes unique approach to helping promote businesses."