By Lindsey Keilty – The Daily News: Nova Scotia Business Review

Websites have become the first impression of the 21st century.

In searching of a new job, a store, a service, or just researching a company, what’s one of the first things you do? Look them up online.

Michelle Kempton and Janet Murphy understand this trend well.

They are the brilliant talents behind Cre8ive Minds, an online web and graphic design company based out of both Nova Scotia and Alberta.

Kempton lives in Nova Scotia, Murphy calls Alberta home. They rarely have the opportunity to work face-to-face.

But business is booming. By working on the Internet, they’re helping others to do the same.

“We’re really busy and it’s all client referrals,” Kempton said. “People call and say, ‘I know one of your clients and they love their site and they don’t stop praising you; I want you.’”

Since August 2005, when Kempton and Murphy (who both have young children at home) started working together, their individual businesses have thrived as one.

“A lot of moms, after maternity leave, are coming up with business concepts to put online,” Kempton said. “It’s really changing the way we live.”

Kempton says working via the Internet means less over head cost and a much wider customer base.

“We can basically do business with the whole world, whereas if we didn’t work online, we would probably only have clients in Halifax,” Kempton said. “And actually, Janet and I probably wouldn’t be partners.”

Living away from the east coast, Murphy sees the benefits of the web in a variety of ways.

“I’m so very pro-Internet and a big part of that is because I live away from home,” said Murphy, who’s originally from Dartmouth. “In a lot of ways, living in Alberta, I would’ve been severed from the daily life of my family, but the Internet allows me to share stories and pictures and videos.

“In the same way, the Internet provides the same utilities for business people to make connections.”

By designing e-commerce sites for clients, Cre8ive Minds sees the impact of online communication.

“If you look at e-stores the tractions are all day; it’s 24-hour access that regular retail outlets don’t have,” Kempton said. “Our clients are surprised, when they’re looking at their transactions, to see that people are buying during the day when they’re at work; there’s also a flurry of sales at 9p.m. or 10p.m. after people put their kids to bed.

Rob Begg is vice-president of marketing for Sports Direct, one of the first local companies to embrace the Internet as a platform to do business.

“Internet businesses, not just businesses using Internet, but those that are based online, have an advantage in the sense that their marketplace is definitely infinite,” he said. “Every time you get your site in front of somebody, that’s an opportunity to get a customer, or reader, or partner. Even with street-front businesses or companies in office buildings, the Internet is an extension of their marketing. I think it’s pretty intertwined with all businesses nowadays.”

The Bayers Lake sports coverage website was founded in 1995, when most people had little knowledge of the Internet and its vast capabilities.

“People start businesses for lots of reasons, but for the most part, people start businesses because of the need in the marketplace. The need we saw in the marketplace was being able to get the sports stats that you would regularly get in a daily newspaper or monthly magazine, up-to-the-minute and when you wanted them. And the only way to do that was online.

“We often take websites for granted, that people know how to go on the Internet and know how to click a mouse and know what a URL is. In the beginning, you had to get that in front of people so they knew they had the option.”

Now, more than 10 years later, the business competes with a global marketplace for sports sites that offer similar services.

“Internet businesses aren’t different from bricks and mortar business in the sense that your customers respond to a good quality product no matter what. Our content has to be as good or better than anyone else out there.

“You have to adapt and make sure your product stays fresh. People often think Internet companies have mysterious complicated business models, but it’s really no different than owning a store franchise.