South Walton Business Spotlight: Aaron Sutton - Pure White Design

Give us your elevator pitch - tell us all about your biz.

"Basically I offer full service website design, graphic design and online marketing to small businesses. I design and manage the sites from the ground up and I personally deal with each client myself. No call center waiting or last minute "deals", just a mom and pop web design shop. I am not a sales person, just a guy that loves to help people out.

My pitch is just the honest-to-goodness truth... "You don't want to mess with that stuff! Just let me take care of it for you." The reason I say that, so many people try to design and manage their own websites, email, domain names, etc, and they end up with mediocre results AND they wait around for an hour on hold with someone who they don't even know at a corporate office in who knows where.... just for a technical support problem that would have taken me 5 minutes to solve. A lot of times I get hired to clean up someone's attempts to get online. Yes, it's true that you can get online cheap and easy with a corporate giant, but it just does not present you or your business in the professional manner in which it needs to be presented. You don't get the personal attention and client friendship."

Tell us a little about yourself.

"I have a degree in Design Communications (Graphic Design) from Texas Tech University... the home of Bobby Night and Buddy Holly :)

After graduating in 2003, I was immediately immersed in website design at a Texas agency. Website design was so new, they didn't really offer much education for it at Tech, so I learned by on the job experience. I've been designing websites professionally since 2003, with several Addy Awards under my belt.

I started Pure White Design less than 1 year ago when my wife, Emily, and I moved to 30A from Texas. We moved here for fun basically. We got engaged here and we love the beach! We do a little surfing, but I am not as good as I was at snowboarding... yet. I am also a fine art artist. My paintings are at The Blue Giraffe in WaterColor and at www.AaronSutton.com.

What was your inspiration to start your biz in South Walton?

"Honestly, I had to turn my web design/graphic design skill into a business because people kept asking me to do it for them. I figured I might as well make it official. Hah! I always thought this would be a great area to start a business. I really love the low key vibe and the friendly people here. Business needs to be fun, creative... something you look forward to doing. I really do enjoy meeting the small business owners here. Everyone has really been great."

What is your best selling item/service?

"Right now I have really sweet deal for a small business website. It is a full custom web design with 5 pages for $500.00. Several local businesses have jumped on board with this. I have had good response and everyone really appreciates the affordable price. Additional pages are $50.00 a piece. Hosting and full email support is $25.00/mo."

Care to share your experience about starting a new business in South Walton?

"It has been great, seriously. I have found that people are very friendly and enjoy doing business here. Since I am new to the area, the new business has really helped me to not only get some great clients, but make some great friends as well. That's one of the benefits of opening up shop in a small town atmosphere with beautiful scenery and big dreams."

What else do we need to know about your business?

"Identity is an important thing. Quite often people want me to design a website for them, but they don't have a logo yet. I love to help people conceptualize a logo as well. If you design a logo and website with me, I give a great rate for that. I won't share that price. It's a little too good. :)

Getting a good online presence is important as well. What most people don't know is that you don't have to be #1 on Google to get great traffic to your website and create business leads. I have a nice bag of tricks that I am constantly tweaking to help small businesses get the most out of an online presence without spending a dime on search engines."

How do we contact/find you?

"My website is www.PureWhiteDesign.com. I am available for consultations any time. My personal cell is 850.687.1341. My hours are... anytime you need help :)"