We’re delighted to continue introducing our finalists for this year's Small Business of the Year Awards, to be presented on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at The Newnan Centre and sponsored by SouthTowne Motors and UBS Financial Services. Meet Ellie White-Stevens of Dirt1x!

Chamber membership philosophy and involvement: As a business owner in Coweta County, I believe we network together to make this community a better place to live and work. I have built my business, marketing agency Dirt1x, on the kind of networking opportunities that the Newnan-Coweta Chamber provides. As a member since July 2015, I attend the Women in Business lunches, some after hours including Ladies’ Night Out, and I send my Account Executive Tammy Lanier to additional events including Young Professionals. I’ve also spoken on marketing at the Six Figure Success Club hosted by Maria Hall. 

Community involvement: When Dirt1x started it was with a commitment that we would tithe at least 10% of time and resources to nonprofit work. And we have exceeded that. Right as I launched my agency, I also launched O Christmas Tea, a fundraising gala for Community Welcome House that has generated over $113,000 in donations in the last eight years. We are gearing up for our ninth year for this same cause. Additionally this year we have donated marketing services for events to the Southern Conservation Trust, Real Life Center, Pathway Home for Women, TEAM Alliance (children in the slums of Nairobi) and Southside Support for Special Needs Families. This last year we made a major donation to the eWomen Network Foundation to start an online video educational portal to serve nonprofits nationwide and recorded a video, Good Gala: How to Supercharge Business Giving, on how to run a fundraiser, to be included in the archives. Dirt1x Creative Director Ellie White-Stevens has served with the board of the 501c3 Business Women of Fayette and Coweta for the last 7 years, including two years as president. She won their Business Woman of the Year designation five years ago, and is currently Marketing Chair of this organization. Account Executive Tammy Lanier serves on the board of the Fayette Care Clinic, and Assistant Raissa Chandler is on the board for Southside Support.

How Dirt1x differs from competitors: I typically tell my clients that the risk isn’t that they’ll work with my competition instead of Dirt1x, it’s that they’ll do nothing. Inertia is the enemy of the small business. As an agency that serves primarily small businesses, and a small business ourselves, we understand the struggles and complexity of running a small business. Dirt1x has changed our model within the last several years to focusing on marketing strategy rather than just implementing projects like websites, sales materials and branding. It’s been more successful for our clients, and also helped Dirt1x create sustainable revenue for the business. The wisdom and work of Creative Director Ellie White-Stevens is what really differentiates the agency. Through the Dirt1x Sustainable Marketing System, our retainer-based agreement, small businesses create the plan and have access to a full marketing agency team for implementation. The hard part of being an entrepreneur is the isolation in making plans and decisions. We solve that by getting in front of our Sustainable Marketing System clients every single month and making sure the marketing and business have a positive trajectory.

If you haven't yet registered for the Small Business Awards and Celebration, click here to do so now!