The Hyacinth Group Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary
Perry, Keri and Lauren at The Hyacinth Group launch party
The Hyacinth Group started one year ago, on September 27, 2019. I began building a website and brand identity with the help of my friends, Perry and Keri. As a solo entrepreneur, I quickly learned that growing my team is a great way to meet the needs of my clients. So I asked them to join the team. Perry became our Creative Director, and Keri, our Lead Copywriter.
In February, Mohamed Kadry, our Lead Front-End Developer, joined the team. He provides expertise in web development for client-facing web applications. Then in April, we brought on Johan Green. He has drafted all our contracts since the start, so we finally made it official! Johan is the Lead Attorney at The Hyacinth Group. He ensures registration and licensing compliance, drafts contracts and provides legal support and advocacy in negotiating commercial agreements.
Our team at The Hyacinth Group works remotely, giving us the opportunity to easily expand.
Not only has my team grown, but we also changed locations due to COVID-19. We moved our headquarters from NYC to Beacon, NY in March — which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Beacon has brought so much opportunity to our digital company.
After doing some financial projections and mapping out the year’s goals, we created a promo video with help from Beacon’s local artist community. The video helped explain THG’s business model to potential investors and clients. Shortly after, we officially launched the brand with a socially distant launch party in my backyard.
In June, the Black Lives Matter movement swept the country. In light of this, companies are giving back to the black community. As a black-owned business, we capitalized on those opportunities and met with some top VC firms. Although that didn’t lead to immediate funding, it provided valuable knowledge and feedback from mentors that are successful in the digital space.
A Little Beacon Blog’s Black Owned Business Directory Logo, Designed By Perry Crosson
Another exciting opportunity that resulted from BLM was our company getting commissioned to design a logo for A Little Beacon Blog’s Black Owned Businesses Directory. It was an honor to represent the Black and Brown businesses in our community.
Later this summer, we really stepped up our marketing campaigns. We developed a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook, along with content creation for B2B hotspots like Linkedin and Google Business. We even hopped on the Instagram Live bandwagon, hosting several IG Live events in collaboration with Black Business Legit and Non-Corporate Girls. And In July, we celebrated our first published media clip in Hudson Valley Ventures.
IG Live flyer from this summer’s weekly show, designed by Courtney Maurin
To keep up with growing social media demands, Nia Burnley joined us as the Social Media Lead at The Hyacinth Group. A student at Howard University, Nia is an expert at creating engaging social media content with hashtag and highlights expertise that keep it both interesting and informative. She also helps brands gain followers on social media with her savvy social ways!
Most recently, Courtney Maurin joined the team as our Lead Graphic Designer. A recent graduate of SUNY Cortland, she is proficient in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create online graphics for digital platforms. With our Creative Director’s guidance, she specializes in logo design and branded materials for a company’s every need.
For our 1-year anniversary, our CEO Lauren Johnson was nominated for National American Business Women’s Day by A Little Beacon Blog. We toasted in person September 27th with our local members, Lauren, Perry and Courtney, with the rest of the team dialing in via Zoom.
In the past year, we gained ten new clients — half of which have become repeat customers. And now we are a team of seven! We have created an impressive presence online with multiple channels such as videos, graphic content and articles. There have been so many exciting accomplishments to celebrate, with many more to come. I’m excited to see where the second year takes us. With our passion and talented team, the sky's the limit!