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Kudos to... Yours truly
WaterMark Group is a small business that just received a big honor. Inc. Magazine selected the Louisville, Ky., company as one of the 20 best small business Web sites in its first annual "Best Of The Small Business Web" competition. The "Best Of The Small Business Web," appears in Inc. Magazine's special Nov. 15 Technology issue. According to Inc., the report offers "proof-positive that you don't have to be a dot.com to be successful on the Web." WaterMark Group's ATMmagazine.com started as a way to promote the company's ATM supply line, and has evolved into an online industry publication. The company also sells banner ads, which make up 40 percent of its revenue. WaterMark Group also hosts ATMsupplystore.com, an online ATM product catalog, and helped found the ATM Industry Association. Currently at nine employees, WaterMark is seeking funding for online expansion and new staff. "We're amazed at how the Web has changed us just over the past year," said Alan Fryrear, president of WaterMark. "There is a wealth of opportunity right now on the Internet. It can magnify even the smallest niche and allow you to turn what looks like a small opportunity into a viable market." Inc. selected 20 winners from over 400 entries, most of which were submitted over Inc.'s Web site last June and July. All entrants were privately-owned, brick-and mortar companies with $50 million or less in revenues. Since high-tech companies enjoy a number of advantages in such a competition, Inc. discouraged those businesses from participating. Among Inc.'s criteria: Return on investment -- sites that contribute significantly to a company's bottom line; utility -- sites that perform extraordinary feats of service; innovation -- sites that offer novel services or reinvent their host companies' businesses; design -- sites that are visually appealing; and local interest -- sites that serve customers in a circumscribed geographic area. "What really impressed us about many of the submissions was how extraordinarily useful they are, " said Inc. magazine editor-in-chief George Gendron. "Two years ago it was difficult to find a small-company Web site that was anything more than a good-looking picture postcard. Today, these businesses are transforming their Web sites into real operational workhorses." Other winners include Daddy's Junky Music, Inc., a Manchester, N.H. company that conducts online auctions of musical instruments and Prairie Frontier, a Waukesha, Wis. wildflower seed merchant. Inc. bills itself as "the leading magazine written for men and women who own and manage small-to mid-sized, fast growing companies." It's published 18 times a year.
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