By Hannah O’Neil, Summer Intern

We like to speak with clients about their businesses, what the ingredients are for success, and hopefully inspire more entrepreneurs to take the next step. We are very excited to be speaking with Tim Deschamps, Jr. from Northern Reach Web Services. Northern Reach Web Services builds websites for Northern, NH by aiming to improve a business’ online presence by building a website or helping improve an already existing one. He recently launched a business directory website for Coös County in early June that connects local businesses with customers in need of services. Some of these services include childcare, home improvement, and even local attractions. 

CEDC: Where are you from and when did you come to the North Country? What brought you to live and work here? 

Tim: I grew up in Massachusetts. My wife and I moved up here and have lived here for eight years. We have come to call the North Country our other home, although we are not natives. After she graduated from graduate school, she was looking for jobs and I was looking at New Hampshire and there was an opening. We were young and didn’t have any kids yet so we thought we would give it a go. We moved up here and have been here ever since. 

CEDC: How long has Northern Reach Web Services been in business, how many employees does it have, and what are their roles? 

Tim: I started this [project] about three years ago, so my full time job is a stay-at-home dad. My wife is a physical therapist at the hospital, and about four years ago, I started teaching myself web development (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.). Then, after I got pretty good at building websites, I started this venture. So, I am the only employee, and it is a one-man shop. I do have friends and people who consult on stuff, but it is just me.

CEDC: Can you share with us what made you decide to go into the web design industry, and why you decided to create Northern Reach Web Services? 

Tim: I guess that I have always used computers as a hobby (playing video games as a kid). I ended up being attracted to those kinds of things, and I guess I have an aptitude for that skill set. I took some online courses and built stuff to learn and was looking for a side-gig to supplement my stay-at-home dad time. With this project on the side, I noticed that a lot of businesses around here either don’t have websites or they are not utilizing them to their full potential. I wanted to be focused on the North Country, specifically, because obviously with the internet you can sell websites to people in other countries – you have access to the entire world. But it is nice to have clients that you can meet in person when you can impact their business or organization, you can impact your local community. It is not just something that is far removed where you just talk to them on the phone. I like being involved in the community and make that impact here at home. 

CEDC: What inspired you to develop the Coös Business Directory?

Tim: Well, I’d say the main inspiration came from being on Facebook and always seeing people posting, “I need a plumber,” or asking to be directed towards different services. I have experienced that myself, where something goes wrong with the plumbing in the house, and I maybe have one plumber on my phone that I could call…and, of course, they are really busy and can’t come by. I am always looking for different services, and having asked around, it is kind of tough to find. So, I figured it would be nice to have one central place built by someone in the North Country, who has a vested interest. You could go on Yellow Pages or Yelp – there are a million and one different websites where you can find listings for things – but a lot of them are trying to sell you different stuff and they bombard you. I wanted something that is easy to use and is a central place that is just for Coös County. It’s really helpful for us, being transplants and not being from here or growing up here, where we don’t know everyone in town. A lot of people that have all those contacts can find people easily. But, for us, it is harder. And there are also tourists: if you are up here as a tourist and are looking for listings for lodging, local attractions, and restaurants, [we have that]. So it is not just services but we have those things too. 

CEDC: How did you hear about Coös Economic Development Corporation and what made you want to reach out to us?

Tim: I met the CEDC Executive Director at one of the monthly small business mixers in Jefferson a couple of months ago. She saw the Coös Business Directory on Facebook and reached out to me and asked how CEDC could help.

CEDC: What advice can you give other small businesses particularly in Coös who are just starting up or looking for improvement and expansion?

Tim: That’s a good question. I will try to answer it by not selling my own services. Well, [you need to] build marketing to be everywhere: have a nice website. A lot of people might not like Facebook, but it helps to have a Facebook page. Put an advertisement in the local paper, [and] have business cards to hand out. [It’s about] getting the word out there, I know that a lot of it is word-of-mouth, too, so don’t be afraid to go to different people to get the word out there, but also just persevere. A lot of times, with any location but up here being rural and relatively sparsely populated, you can build things and do things but not really get any response. And that can be discouraging if you are trying to get them interested in your business or whatever service you are offering. So just keep persevering, keep building, keep trying new things and new ways of getting the word out there and different ways of offering your services. Definitely just don’t give up if you find that you are not getting the response that you are hoping for. 

CEDC: Where are you going next? Do you have future plans or ideas for change and expansion? 

Tim: My focus right now is to keep building on this Coös Business website: I have the business directory right now. Today I just launched a job board on coosbusiness.com so now you can go on there and post job openings for your business and people can go on the job board to see what’s out there. So, the focus right now is to keep going with these projects…they could never end with the tweaks or changes in functionality. I am hoping, by continuing with this, that I will keep getting my name out there and more people [will become] interested and aware of who I am and what I do. The main thing right now is the directory and the job board. I have some other ideas of ways that I could be a resource for local businesses to help them out and allow them to get their name out there and help them grow and succeed. 

CEDC: This has been very insightful! Myself and my coworkers at CEDC are very impressed by your ideas and innovations with Coös Business Directory and with Northern Reach Web Services. Do you have any last thoughts to add to our community or other business? Or any questions that you have for us.

Tim: I am excited for this Coös Business website, especially when I can get more feedback with businesses and learn more about the needs of our local business and local economy and just our community at large. I am hoping that it can be really helpful for people. I don’t want to build this just to say “hey, look what I can make,” I want to build it as something that provides value to our community. 

CEDC: Thank you for your time today! It was nice to meet you, and good luck with everything that you are doing. You know where to reach us if you have other thoughts or ideas. 

If you are looking to list your business for free, find services or search jobs in Coös County, head over to Coös Business Directory. Additionally, if you need help with building, launching, or improving your business’ website, Northern Reach Web Services is the place that will join you in your organization’s growth! 

If you would like to have your business featured in our Small Business Spotlight, email us at execdirector@coosedc.org