YAY! It’s Friday. Whassup?
Today I’m featuring one of my favorite friends in the virtual sphere – Lyn Franklin Hoyt (aka. Lover.of.Bacon) hailing from the great city of Nashville, TN. She does more than bacon, check it out >
I asked Lyn in her own words to describe for all of you what it is she actually does in her “Day Job” (we all know that owning your own business is more than a day job, but some people don’t get it). Here’s her response:
“I design for Human Resources and Training professionals. I design products that help them with their recognition goals. Real products. Framed products to be exact. Certificate framing is the historical methodology. It conjures up brush script, calligraphy, plaques and parchment paper. Some corporate cultures love that stuff. My company Berkeley Tandem, Inc. (Here’s our Facebook page) manufactures our designs and sells them on two stock websites – Award Certificate Frames and Fusion Frames. That is the framed recognition solution everybody thinks about. But, when they get to know my company they find a framed solution can be a lot more.”
Favorite Projects
“My favorite projects are the custom ones where the customer breaks away from “certificate” framing. It is not about the frame anymore. It is about building recognition relationships that make what is in the frame a meaningful solution. My job as a designer is to create a visual presentation that helps the recipient connect with their accomplishment in a way that gives them no doubt they are appreciated.”
What We Are NOT
“We are not an incentive company. We don’t consult or create recognition programs. We design framed objects that fit within branded programs. And we design our frames in a way that is fresh and compelling. Our products are more than just frames. They hold meaningful content with the potential to motivate and validate the human spirit.”
How We Evolved
“We started in 1996 as a wholesale catalog supplier. Moving to selling stock items online in 2005 helped us diversify. Now we serve and international customer base that provides products for training, education, healthcare tech certifications, sales awards, donor and volunteer recognition and military service recognition. Moving our niche between corporate, government and non-profit is about as diverse a business model as you can get.”
About Me
I personally work with custom projects. (Really, as a small business owner I wear way too many hats, from marketing to HR. This week it was also IT.) And I have my “pet” accounts. You know who you are. It is kinda like working as a hybrid between a custom frame shop and design firm. And I thoroughly enjoy my social media, happy that I can use work as an excuse to blog at the HRBACONHUT or be on Facebook and Twitter or now Pinterest. Neglected but needed – LinkedIn and Google+. And I continue to feed my social media addiction tweeting for my local SHRM chapter. I just do what I love with people I love to work within an industry I am passionate about. Oh, and I love bacon too.”
