Experienced Small Business Web Site Designer
Looking for an experienced, professional small business Web site designer and Internet marketing specialist? Consider Acorn Internet Services for quality hosting, site design, and marketing services.
Acorn Internet Services has grown to more than 25 team members in just a few years. We carefully select and groom our team members to understand our unique niche and often hire with “Innkeeper” skills in mind. We have a variety of Innkeepers, both active and retired, on our team. Who better to understand your business than someone who knows your business personally?
We have created our organizational structure with flow and efficiency in mind. Our writing team members who handle our SEO preparation are not programmers. And our programmers are not technical writers. But, with the “best of the best” on each team, working together seamlessly not only provides a great design, but also the very best opportunity that your awesome new design will be found in the search engines.
We liken our process to Henry Ford’s genius. Have the right people doing the right jobs so when the end product is released, it is the best it can possibly be!
Mark and Lisa KolbFrom working in a top 10 banking software company in Atlanta, Georgia, doing software development, installation, customer support and quality assurance to working for MCI/WCOM in Colorado Springs, Colorado, together Mark and Lisa have over 40 years of combined experience that can be put to work for you. In 1996, after almost a decade of solely working in the corporate world of software development and design, Mark and Lisa moved to Colorado Springs to open a Bed and Breakfast. While doing software support and development for their bed and breakfast and a local bed and breakfast organization’s Web site, the need for a low-cost quality solution for the online marketing needs of other small businesses became glaringly apparent. In January of 2002, Mark and Lisa formed Acorn Internet Services, Inc. Acorn IS is currently providing service for hundreds of satisfied Web site clients, and we are proud to say our customer base is growing daily.Currently, Mark provides support for the Acorn Webserver maintenance, database design for large customers, Webserver security and technology research, and Lisa oversees the day-to-day operations including weekly Webinars, Acorn University and On-Site Guest Speaking.
- Mark has his BS in Computer Science from Appalachian State in NC, 1989
- Lisa has her BS in Computer Science from Slippery Rock University in PA, 1988
Annie Buck
Annie joined Acorn in 2008 as a Pre-Development Manager and moved into the Sales and Information position in May of 2011. Annie has been employed in retail and wholesale businesses, as well as a stint as a church secretary, all of which honed her people skills, customer service talents and organizational skills – preparing her for almost anything! Annie lives in Colorado with her family and pets, including two demanding Shiba Inu. Annie will be the first person you talk to when you contact Acorn IS. She will answer your initial questions and see that your inquiry gets to the appropriate staff member.
Marcy Talbert (Team Lead)
Marcy joined the Acorn IS marketing team in 2003. As our Senior Technical Writer, she helps develop your site’s content according to Acorn’s guidelines for achieving the best possible search engine optimization (SEO). Marcy graduated summa cum laude from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania with a B.S. in English Writing and a minor in Communication. She has written for a number of corporate, non-profit, and academic publications. In her spare time, she enjoys stamping, scrapbooking, blogging, reading, and volunteering at her church and daughter’s school. Marcy lives in Grove City, Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, and their Labrador retriever.
Crish Fuhrer (Marketing and Promotions Specialist)
Crish has been with Acorn part time since September 2008 and at the current time, she does the research and assembly of the Benchmark Reports. In addition, she has been in the retail business for 13+ years. Her start was with a local Montgomery Wards store, where she worked for 7 1/2 years. Crish has two years of experience as the receptionist at a chiropractic office and her love of sewing took her into clothing manufacturing for two years. Since then, she has been working at a candy manufacturing and retail store in Butler, PA for 6 years where her most recent promotion was to become the Bookkeeper/Office Manager. For fun and personal enjoyment, Crish now does small stained glass pieces for family and friends.
Janina Goodwin (Marketing and Promotions Specialist)
Janina joined the Acorn Team in May 2011 and works part-time generating meta tags, technical editing and content writing. She graduated from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a BA in English, and a certificate in Professional Writing. Janina is a full-time librarian and graduated from Emporia State University with a Master’s in Library and Information Science. She has worked in public libraries for six years and is a currently the Circulation Manager at the Pueblo City-County Library District in Pueblo, CO. Janina is a lifelong resident of Colorado Springs, CO where she currently lives with her best friend and their 8-year-old rescued dachshund, Loki.
Julie Lutz (Marketing and Promotions Specialist)Julie Lutz joined the Acorn Marketing team in 2006 and enjoys the new challenges and learning experience Acorn provides. She has 27 years of experience in student service related offices at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Julie works on search engine submissions for our Acorn customers.
Traci Hacker (Marketing and Promotions Specialist)
Traci received her bachelor’s degree in IT in 1994, and has several years experience in data modeling and technical writing. She has over 10 years experience in amateur graphic design and publication production for non-profit organizations. In her spare time, Traci is active in her local caving grotto, scours antique stores with her husband, reading, and enjoys a variety of crafting activities. Traci joined the Acorn staffing in July of 2010 as a content writer. She also assists with the Professional Client Services Team with their Blog Creation activities. She and her husband reside in the Cincinnati, Ohio area with their two feline prodigies.
Mark Hall (Developer/Minor Development and Marketing Project Manager)
Mark joined Acorn’s development team in April of 2010. For the past 22 years, Mark has literally grown up in the bed and breakfast industry while working in the family owned Arcadian Inn bed & breakfast. During this time, learning the importance of internet marketing and web presence, Mark began to study web design and code to help with the family business. Mark was awarded the Over-All Best Work Award as a Freshman at OCCC while working for his Associate in Applied Science, Technology, and definitely found his passion in life. Mark continues to work for his family Inn in Edmond, Oklahoma where he lives with his wife, Danyell and two children, Allie and Christian.
Pam Prentice (Project Manager / Marketing and Promotions Specialist)
Pam joined the Acorn staff in August of 2006 and serves as a Project Manager for New Development. She also provides support to our Web site Development and Marketing departments including technical editing and content writing, as well as working with Acorn clients in reviewing, setting up, and maintaining their Pay Per Click campaigns in Google and MS adCenter. She graduated from Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, GA in 2003 with a BS in Psychology. While in college, she worked as an assistant in the PR department helping to schedule and book tours for their music groups. Upon graduation, she toured the eastern US and Ecuador for three months with a music group sent out from the college. After touring, she relocated to PA and began working as a crisis counselor for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health system. Shortly after that, she became a stay at home mom. Now living in Florida, she enjoys spending time with her family and exploring the south.
Brandi Neely (Pre-Development Project Manager)
Brandi joined the Acorn staff in March of 2011. Brandi has been involved in office administration since 1991 with intermittent stints in retail and management. She has also worked alongside her husband as the Secretary/Treasurer of their construction business since 1996 for which she handles the bookkeeping, website design, advertising, as well as blueprint and home design. She and her husband live in Northern Indiana with their two children. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing piano, camping and hiking, as well as spending time with her family.
Willie Louthen-Brown (Development Team Lead)Willie Louthen Brown began working in the bed and breakfast industry in 2001 – helping a friend in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio remodel his former home and create a unique lodging property. This led to a position with American Dreams Inc. (creator of the Webervations system), working as lead support technician and primary conference representative for the Webervations program. Moving to the Acorn team in 2008 as Project Manager for New Development, he now works with clients and development staff to match our new site designs with the design concept of each client.
Krista Connor (Designer / Developer)
Krista joined Acorn’s design and development team in February 2007 and brings with her a working knowledge of Web site design and development as well as database and information system management. She graduated from Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ) in 1992 with a BA in Communications and today has over 19 years experience in a variety of skills including Web design and development, marketing, and communications. Prior to joining the Acorn team, Krista worked for almost three years as the Marketing Manager for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII). At PAII, Krista was responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications related to membership acquisition, retention, and satisfaction. Krista lives in Marlton, NJ with her husband Dennis and daughter, Kayla.
Tracy Howard (Designer / Developer)
Tracy joined the Acorn design and development team in 2006 with a background in Graphic Design and Public Relations. She has her BS degree from Davenport University (Holland, MI) in Marketing and spent the first several years of her career in marketing and design for Neiman Marcus luxury travel service. Later she left the corporate world to pursue her goal of freelancing and has provided design, branding and marketing support for numerous clients including: restaurants, mortgage firms, design/build contractors, bridal boutiques, commercial realtors, commercial contractors, churches, and retail stores. She is particularly fond of the B&B industry as her parents own a bed and breakfast in Holland, MI, and she has spent many weekends inn-sitting for them!
Caroline Sasaki (Developer)
Caroline joined Acorn at the end of 2008. She has a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Education. In addition, she has a certificate in Object Oriented development. Her software development career of 16 years is focused in client-server and Internet-based solutions. Six of these years include design and development of call center automation solutions. Her most recent work prior to Acorn involved an Internet-based customer service application for Microsoft IE using JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, and XML. This application integrated voice, voicemail, and email. She is efficient in the following technologies: C++, C#, NT, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript.
Scott Thomas (Developer)Scott joined Acorn in the fall of 2010 and is a retired attorney who has been designing web sites, and doing web development, since 1994. From 1999 – 2006 Scott worked with billing and customer management software for a publicly traded company. He and his wife have owned a seven room bed and breakfast in Freeport, Maine since 2006. Scott serves on the PAII Advisory Council, the Board of Directors of Maine Innkeepers Association and the Maine Innkeepers Associaition Education Foundation. Scott is also a regular conference speaker on guest management and booking software, social media and web analytics.
Duane Ford (Support Specialist)
Duane came to Acorn in 2008 as a technical support manager. He is the first contact regarding any technical issues you may experience and is responsible for tier 1 fixes and/or changes you may request regarding your Web site. Duane has been working intermittently with computer systems and related technologies beginning in 1980 and has received credentials in IBM mainframe applications programming, operations and system management, and he has most recently received Comp TIA A+ certification from Colorado Technical University. Prior to his work with Acorn, he was a senior member of the technical staff at a software development company located here in Colorado Springs, CO.
Sharon Rowe (Manager)
Sharon Rowe has been a member of the Acorn Internet Services consulting team since January 2005. As Professional Client Services Manager, she collaborates with clients on Web site enhancement, newsletter design & distribution, Pay-Per-Click campaign strategies, blog creation, Intell-a-Keeper training & data review, MarketWatch recommendation execution, Snippetmaster support, and customized marketing consultation.
Prior to joining Acorn, Sharon owned and operated a profitable B&B in Salida, Colorado (1997-2006) with her husband, Jeff. During that time, she served on the Board of Directors for the Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers of Colorado and was an avid volunteer and advocate in the Salida tourism & arts community. Before becoming an innkeeper, Sharon managed a commercial title insurance office in Denver (1984-1997), coordinating nationwide commercial real estate transactions for national developers and lenders. She attended the University of Colorado/Denver. Her background in the hospitality and real estate industries provide her with a blend of experiences and perspectives that are beneficial in working with her clients to insure that the best marketing practices are in place to move their businesses forward.
Allison Daniell (Lead Photographer)
Allison earned a degree in Graphic Design from Austin Peay State University (“Let’s Go Peay!”) in Tennessee. She spent lots of time in the darkroom playing with photo chemicals and her Canon AE-1, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She went on to move to Colorado and work in a professional photo printing shop, where she built upon her Photoshop skills and began craving to work on her own photography instead of other peoples! She went solo in 2006 and started shooting on her own for Acorn Internet Services, Inc. In addition to her favorite thing to shoot – Bed & Breakfasts, Allison also enjoys doing photography for weddings, high school seniors’ photos to high profile events! One of her favorite parts of shooting for Acorn Internet Services is getting to travel and to actually meet the faces behind the inns and to hear the stories of why they do what they do. She still does freelance graphic design and enjoys all that Colorado has to offer… the skiing, the mountain biking, the microbrews, and the wonderful people!
Marian Talbert
Marian joined Acorn IS in 2002 with more than 30 years of office management experience. Retired from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, Marian worked in many different offices including Dean of Academic Services, Admissions, Financial Aid, and the Computer Science Department– just to name a few! Before joining Acorn IS, she also worked for 4 years in the call center at Wendell August Forge, America’s longest operating aluminum forge. Marian’s love of travel has taken her to 45 states and at least 25 countries. She enjoys experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, reading, and spending time with her family—which includes 3 grown sons and 5 grandchildren.