
Owner, Pelland Advertising
Springfield, Massachusetts Area

Owner, Pelland Advertising
Springfield, Massachusetts Area
I was born and brought up in a small business environment, and the needs and interests of small businesses have been in my blood for a lifetime. My first entrepreneurial ventures developed when still in grade school and expanded into profitable freelance ventures in high school and college. After stints working in various advertising and marketing capacities (including newspapers, a city magazine, and radio), I founded my current company in 1980. From Day 1, Pelland Advertising has been committed to serving the needs of small businesses, a determination which has grown all the more essential in this age of increasing threats to the health and survival of small firms in the shadow of Wal-Mart. If you are determined to see your business succeed in today's competitive environment, I am determined to be an essential ingredient that will help to insure that success.
Web development, website relaunches, search engine optimization, online commerce. Specializes in working with small businesses, with a concentration in working with companies in the travel, tourism, and food-related industries. Highly skilled in the use of Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and related publishing software.
(Recreational Facilities and Services industry)
May 2009 — Present (3 months)
Campground Success presents an ongoing series of online mini-seminars, covering both traditional and cutting-edge marketing strategies that specifically relate to the needs of family campground owners. Each session is authored and presented by one of the leading experts from within the camping industry.
(Privately Held; Printing industry)
February 2009 — Present (6 months)
Xpertcolor.com provides online four-color printing services for businesses with the in-house capability to produce and preflight their own press-quality PDF files that are ready to print. Offering some of the industry's lowest prices on green-friendly printing (printing on stocks with 30% recycled content, 10% post-consumer, with vegetable-based inks), without compromising quality or service. Super-fast print turnaround time.
(Business Supplies and Equipment industry)
April 1998 — Present (11 years 4 months)
Pelland Displays is a division of Pelland Advertising, specializing in high quality acrylic literature display units. We are online distributors for the complete product lines of the country’s leading manufacturers of quality display products. Available products include:
• Single pocket displays
• Multi-pocket displays
• Free standing displays
• Wall-mounted displays
• Upright and angled configurations
(Internet industry)
November 1980 — Present (28 years 9 months)
Pelland Advertising was founded in 1980, producing four-color process collateral advertising for the New England ski industry. As the company grew, it diversified into other segments of the broader travel and tourism industries, with a concentration in meeting the needs of the family camping industry. Our client base is now quite diverse, representing small business from a wide range of industries and from across the United States. Maintaining our skills in four-color collateral advertising production and the brokering of four-color printing services, we now provide a full range of Web development services to the same broad base of clients. Pelland Advertising specializes in website relaunches, search engine optimization, custom database development, graphic design, and online commerce for small and emerging businesses.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Wholesale industry)
1979 — 1980 (1 year)
I was hired as the first Marketing Director at Camfour Inc., a wholesale distributor of firearms and sporting goods, located in Westfield, Massachusetts. At the time of my hiring, the privately-held company had just laid off two thirds of its work force after losing the distributorship of a major product line. My job was to play an integral role in the company's turnaround and transition into a leaner product line, with the primary responsibility of producing the company's first print catalogs, fully designed (and even printed) in-house. My tenure at Camfour Inc. was a successful and rewarding experience.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Broadcast Media industry)
1980 — 1980 (less than a year)
Sold and produced radio advertising at a low-power station at the high end of the AM radio dial. The all-news format radio station (WNUS) had just changed ownership and management when I was hired. Within a very short time, the station changed its format to Top 40 and its call letters to WQXQ, and I was one of a handful of employees who was retained. The change in format was a disaster, coming at a time when the public would only listen to music on FM stereo frequencies and the consolidation of media ownership was well underway. As the station was on its way to being sold (and yet another change in format to time-brokered foreign language broadcasting), I received the break of my life when I was fired, providing an accelerated impetus for the founding of my own business. Thank you, WNUS!
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Newspapers industry)
1975 — 1975 (less than a year)
My first job out of college (and a premature graduation) was with this fledgling alternative, controlled circulation, weekly newspaper. I was hired to expand the publication's advertising base into new markets (beyond the immediate environs of its editorial offices in Amherst, Massachusetts) and a broader base of businesses (beyond local bars and nightclubs). I was successful in orchestrating the publication's successful expansion into a broader regional market, bringing in many "first time" advertisers who, in themselves, increased the stature of the newspaper through association.
BS , Natural Resource Economics , 1971 — 1975
Dwight House
BS , Recreation Area Management , 1973 — 1974
Hedges South
skiing, travel, vegetarianism, environmental activism, social activism, social investing