Why is Creative-13 so successfully unique?
Creative-13 has grown throughout the years, starting up from a small company named InSyst on December 29, 1995. We then sold Insyst in 2009 and started Byzantium. Byzantium's name was difficult and made no sense for a telecom company, so our brand evolved to Creative-13. Creative-13 has been working as a DBA of Byzantium LLC since 2010.
Creative-13 has worked with small to medium businesses, helping them navigate successful Information Technology solutions. We design and implement converged network solutions using current technology, including SIP and VoIP.
Unlike most services, we take ownership of all aspects of the development and deployment of the client's recommended solution – from design and installation to liaison between the client and their local phone or other service providers, including contractors. This ownership assures and expedites resolutions to any problems. We allow our customers to focus more fully on their business and clients, removing the time-consuming and stressful element of dealing with other trades.
Creative-13 has been in business for over 26 years and is built upon a foundation of more than three decades of professional experience. Based on the success in resolving issues, Creative-13 has become highly sought out by our clients. Taking the time to solve technical, cabling, cloud, and communication issues has led to high customer satisfaction. A large portion of our business is based on the high recommendations of our existing clients. We dare to take on the concerns other companies walk away from and pride ourselves on our "WE CAN!" attitude. We have always creatively and successfully resolved the unique problems of our clients. We provide resolutions, not excuses!
How is Creative-13 involved with the community?
Creative-13 is actively involved in serving our community by donating money and time in the following ways:
Youth Mentoring
Creative-13 has mentored several local young people, helping them understand the small business process and its value to our community. We developed an internship program that allows young men and women to gain valuable working knowledge in a field that is in high demand. The students perform tasks alongside our team members, allowing them to see first-hand how a business operates. We feel this opportunity assists the intern and, in return, enables us to learn from the creativity and youthful trends that help us enhance future business development.
School Sports and Clubs
Creative-13 has donated time and financial assistance to a local school's football & volleyball programs, along with providing tennis shoes for a local high school's basketball teams. Recently, we had the opportunity to sponsor a youth Culture Club in Gilbert, Arizona. The club was challenged to investigate raising tax-deductible funds, allowing them to travel to different parts of the world to experience different cultures.
Faith-Based Work
As President and CEO of Byzantium, I am involved in faith-based initiatives, meeting with local leaders of various faiths to unite through our shared purpose while honoring our differences. These groups can work together for the common good of our communities.
365 Days of Grace
Finally, I have started a foundation that I am very proud of. 365 Days of Grace is an organization that provides meals for the homeless and less fortunate during the holidays.
We are expanding our mission to include the issues of today, such as "Why Not America first?" Our mission is to shape young minds into savvy, successful, and innovative thinkers of the future. We educate them on the day's issues and open dialog to come up with solutions that work and don't waste time or money.
365 Days of Grace is evolving, and 100% of the funds we raise are given to those in need. None of the board members or volunteers take a salary, and they donate their time. Which I believe is returned to them 10-fold.
What are the Creative-13 long-term plans, and how do we utilize our funds to ensure long-term growth and stability?
Creative-13 believes that its employees are the backbone of success. We have a winning team that always goes above and beyond to get the job done. We are constantly looking at future trends and updating our marketing and business partnerships to provide customers the support and tools they need to run smoothly. We are far from perfect, but we empower our employees to "get 'er done." As the President, I have a quote that I tell every new employee, "Don't be afraid to break anything because I can always fix it." That statement alone gives our employees the desire to learn from their mistakes, and believe me, I have made a few over the last 30 years. I never make the same mistake twice, however.
As we grow, we will roll out additional services, such as our Cloud-based phone system. This unique system allows our clients to use their current SIP phones or phones we can provide them. It provides ease of use on auto-attendants, which in the past, you practically had to have a computer science degree to get working. And only then, it worked most of the time. However, as time and technology have progressed, so has the ease of use for corporate phone system features.
Now you can answer your business phone from anywhere in the world provided there is an internet connection. You can do video calls from your computer with our UC client. You can chat and even text to other users on our system using our mobile app. We have a bright future ahead and look forward to earning your business. So, call us today so you can see the difference an employee-empowered company can make.
I will leave you with one final thought that has served me well over my years in business. I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with Ross Perot (of Perot Systems at the time). I met him in 1985 when I was working at America West. I found myself alone with him while Chairman Ed Beauvais stepped out of the room for a moment.
I said to Mr. Perot, "Sir, I am thinking of starting my own business someday. Is there any advice you can give me"
He looked at me, and with that Texas drawl, and said, "Son, you always have to be forward-thinking; for instance, if Santa Fe Railroad would have been forward-thinking, they would be Santa Fe Airlines today?"
That statement alone has kept me constantly thinking of the next big thing to come. When I started this company, it took 25 wires to make one phone work. And by "work," I mean the phone would only ring, you could answer the phone, place the caller on hold, and if you were lucky, you had a separate paging system that you could get on and let a department know they had a call. We have come a long way since those days today.
Today, it only takes two wires to make an office phone work and eight wires for SIP/VoIP. If you are only using a cell phone for business, it takes zero wires. So always think "forward," and never be afraid of change. It's what will get you to where you need to be. Also, timing is essential as well. The Pet Rock was a good thing at its height of sales. Today you would get laughed at if you tried to sell a Pet Rock.