Hey guys, this is David at Best of Gwinnett and I wanted to take a minute and just wish you guys a happy new year.

I mean it seems like it's a long time coming. You know, we had the holidays, we had the national Football championship, MLK Day. I started losing track of where are the kids in school, when are they home, when are they not?

I haven't felt like we had turned the corner to start this brand new year yet and I am so ready for it.

So now it's mid January, and I kind of feel like it's time to start, it's time to work on making this year, the best year ever. 

It's also like a favorite time of year for me because we are right in the throes of tabulating and validating Best of Gwinnett votes and every year,

I mean honestly, Best of Gwinnett is just a labor of love because it's such a great little slice of history.  It's like a time capsule of all the active businesses of the previous year. I enjoy it so much because you know at heart, I'm an entrepreneur, kind of a business junkie if you will and it's just so inspiring to see so many businesses start up and thrive.

Each year it's kind of a mix. There are businesses on the ballot that have literally been there for over 15 years and I keep seeing them come back time and time and time again, which is really fulfilling. You couple that with a lot of new business launches and I think, you know when you have the entrepreneurial spirit, You just look out and see your kindred souls trying to pursue the American dream too.  And, we're  just here rooting them on and cheering and just hoping they do well.

And that's really the spirit that's embodied in Best of Gwinnett and why I think we love it so much.

Right now,  we're tabulating and validating votes.  

The results will come out public on February 14, that's Valentine's day. 

And it's just because Best of Gwinnett contains everything we love and that's just a fitting day I think to release the results. So right now we're working on the keepsake annual, which is a full color beautiful gloss printed publication that really is like a chronicle capturing of history of Gwinnett business for that particular year. We're working on that now.

You have a couple of weeks to get your marketing package secured if you want to be in that. it's both print and digital, That part I'm really excited about.

You know, what's new for this year is we just, starting a new partnership with the Gwinnett County Library system. So all 15 branches are gonna be distribution points for the publications this year and you know, it's a pretty cool thing because you can stop by the library and pick up an extra copy if you want.

And it's also distributed digitally and you know, I just looked last week and our subscriber base on the email newsletter program is over 60,000. So 2 to 3 times a week, were emailing 60,000 people, your audience, your market, messaging from Gwinnett magazine and Best of Gwinnett. And we don't have a lot of unsubscribers. It's just a tight knit, continually growing audience that you know, you can have access to with a Best of Gwinnett marketing package. So I'm pretty excited about that.

And I'll tell you, what is also an interesting observation this year, now in this post Covid world, if you go into doctor's offices and dentist's and salons and, you know, nail salons, hair care places, you see magazines and collateral back in the waiting rooms.

That's a really cool thing because the magazine is a tangible piece of marketing. We like to refer to it as proactive pr and anytime you can put communications into an environment for people that are captive like in a waiting room, you get a chance to expose and engage your brand to them. Whether we put the magazine in the waiting rooms or into the businesses themselves or into consumer's homes, we get reach.

The combination of print and digital is just a really powerful marketing platform. So take a look at the Best of Gwinnett marketing packages at the link, I'm gonna provide you.  There are like six packages. They are bundled with email, marketing, social media, print, digital, even podcast and video options.

And there's literally a package that fits all size businesses. And if that's not enough, we also offer some payment plans because sometimes it's important to match your expenses to your cash flow, your business so that you don't feel the hurt so bad when you make an investment.

So there's payment plans that you can use to spread out your marketing investment. Six great packages. The Best of Gwinnett credential, you know, it's, it is a great thing to have as a business because your peers, your fans, your customers voted for you and it's just like a third party endorsement.

And that badge is something that gets displayed all around the county and people do take notice of it. So we would love for you to be a part of it.

Also just want to encourage you to be part of the digital and print keepsake annual because those annuals, like I said, they're just like a time capsule, you know, after doing this for like 25 years. It's really cool just to look back in history and see what was happening in, in the business community and Gwinnett at large and each year we get to add to it.

And you know, still today, we have advertisers in the publication that were with us 25 years ago. So hats off to those businesses for hanging around and sustaining their business and continuing to succeed and coming back, you know, every, every year and then also just a big welcome to any new business out there. Glad to have you, we celebrate your journey, we want you to succeed.

If there's anything myself, my team can do for you please reach out and let us know but take a look at the best internet packages. The deadline is coming up in a couple of weeks. If you have any questions you need any help just reach out. We'll be glad to help you and join me in making this year the best year ever.

Now. One more thing I want to say, join me in, just working to set aside the negativity. You know, I get really tired of politics, all the shenanigans up in D.C. And you know one thing that's tried and true is through high interest rates, low interest rates, recessions, no recessions, republicans, democrats, it matters not our economy, our country is built on the backs of business people doing what they do and it doesn't matter, you know what's happening in the world at a given time.

Business people just keep on keeping on, they keep working, they keep succeeding, they keep striving to be the best and I just want us to turn off all that noise and get back to focusing on our businesses, Taking care of our family, take care of our business and that takes care of our community.

if we do That everybody wins and that to me is gonna be the key to making 2023, the best year ever.

So check out those Best of Gwinnett packages, let us know if you have any questions, if you need any help.

We are here for you glad to do it and thank you for everything you've done in the past. And let's be thankful for everything we are all about to achieve in the future.

Y'all have a good one.

David

Email David