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Four Sea to Sky companies are finalists for Small Business BC awards

Successful You Awards celebrate provincial business talent
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Custom Fit Communications is having a very good December.

The web analytics, branding and website-building company based in Pemberton has just found out it is one of the Top 10 Best Online Marketers in Small Business BC's Successful You Awards.

The small business and entrepreneurship support organization, which is funded by Western Economic Diversification Canada and the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, has six business categories for their awards competition, including Best Green Business and Best Concept.

Other local finalists include Guestfolio of Whistler and Pemberton Valley Lodge, who are among the 10 finalists for Best Employer, and Lighthouse Visionary Strategies and Pemberton Valley Lodge, competing for Best Community Impact.

Custom Fit's owner, Roy McClean, said he was "very happy" to be nominated.

"We call ourselves a web consultancy, so we do online work on everything from building websites to marketing online, to consulting," he said.

"We're getting some attention and that has been very satisfying. In the last while in terms of recognition, it's starting to happen now. We're small and we've been working away and it's really cool to see our work being noticed."

Custom Fit was also this month named as one of the "Top 10 Canadian Web Companies" by international online magazine Which Web Design Company (WWDC), and another recent win was for best tourism website in a regional Ontario competition for a website they constructed for Snow Valley Resort near Barrie, Ont.

"We built them a website and content management system with e-commerce integration, as well. Snow Valley is doing huge numbers. They now book millions of dollars in this tiny, little ski area with about 300 vertical feet, but they've positioned themselves well."

Custom Fit was founded in 1995, morphing several times over the years to meet the needs of the market in terms of website construction and management needs. Eight staff and a pool of contractors are set up in a virtual office, with staff located around Pemberton and Whistler, and as far away as Ontario and Portland.

McClean said he retrained in order to help the company, studying web analytics at UBC and University of Southern California, Irvine in 2004.

"This means we try to focus on being data driven in everything we do," he said. "We put a lot of emphasis on measuring the results of our work... trying to continually look for small, continuous updates. We look at how people are reacting to things and make continuous changes, which can create very positive results."

This attention to detail has led to work over the years with clients in the U.S. and Ontario, as well as with Tourism Pemberton, Lodge Innovations, Aava Whistler Hotel, Pemberton Valley Lodge and Tourism Whistler.

Part of the company's policy, McClean added, was to do between five and ten per cent of their work pro bono for non-profits like Whistler Animals Galore and the Pemberton Seniors.

The Top 5 finalists in all categories for the Successful You Awards will be announced on Jan. 30, 2013.