Advertising student founds firm

Isaac Schea launches digital marketing business, strives to establish strong online presence for companies

While some students spend their senior year trying to get their foot in the door of the fields they want to work in, Isaac Schea has essentially created a door for himself through starting a digital advertising agency while still attending school.

business — Schea hopes to start reaching clients outside of Lynchburg. Photo credit: Kyle Erikson

Business — Schea hopes to start reaching clients outside of Lynchburg. Photo credit: Kyle Erikson

Schea said he initially wanted to start up an agency on Liberty University’s campus, but was unable to get anything approved. After a professor suggested starting up a business instead of merely running the agency at the school, Schea decided to take the extra step.

“It was probably the scariest thing I’ve had to do so far,” Schea said. “Since I was a freshman in high school, I’ve been working on campaigns as a volunteer or as a staff member on the communications end of things, and I’ve seen the real need for someone who knows how to be able to run good digital advertising. Being able to have a good website that shows how good you are and engages your audience goes a long way.”

According to Schea, he announced his vision in August 2013 to a team of communication students. They agreed to make it a business by October and officially opened Schea Communications in December.

“I’ve got about 10 people who I have hired, and they work as contractors,” Schea said. “And so I’ll find the clients for us to partner with, and then my team will work with them as contractors for the duration. We work with clients for six months or so.”

Schea explained that one of the largest problems with failed companies is a poor web design. He notes how many people today check out companies online before they even bother looking inside the building. For this reason, Schea Communications places a heavy emphasis on establishing a strong digital presence.

“The first thing we usually do for them is make them a logo,” Schea said. “Most places in Lynchburg have terrible logos and identity work. We then find out if they need social media help and then get them started up with a Facebook page or Twitter to give them just ground level digital presence.”

According to Schea, his business also helps to promote other businesses online by building them a website.

“Most of the clients we are working with needed websites,” Schea said. “Whether they need a website or not though, that’s usually the one that’s difficult to get sold because that tends to be a little more expensive and time consuming for people.”

In addition to providing clients with the tools and tips to make their respective businesses as effective as possible, Schea said his company has also improved the skills of the team members.

“I tell my team, ‘My goal is to be able to make you as good at what you do as possible,’” Schea said. “I tell them, ‘You know how to do certain things, but I want you to get better at the things you don’t know how to do. I want you to push yourselves.’”

The charge for services depends on how much the clients have for a marketing budget. According to Schea, the business’ service is relatively inexpensive.

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *