The Team

Gil Effron

Gil is an experienced business advisor and marketing strategist. As founder and CEO of New York City-based Strategies For Growth, he works with established businesses as well as startups to help them avoid critical mistakes and maximize opportunities.

Gil also heads Strategies For Growth’s 10-Day Marketing Makeover initiative. This program is designed to help owners of small to medium-sized businesses increase sales and profitability by streamlining and shortening their sales process and installing the most appropriate and effective marketing to support that sales process.

His recently published book titled How to Give Your Business an Extreme Marketing Makeover explains how his 10-Day Marketing Makeover approach can be utilized easily and effectively by both startups as well as established businesses. A 5-week Do-It-Yourself Marketing Makeover Mini-Course is available as an adjunct to the book for those who are serious about taking action on their own. In addition, Gil and his team also provide private consulting pertaining to extreme marketing makeovers.

Gil has more than 35 years of experience in business and marketing. Early in his career, he owned and operated an advertising agency. Later, he created a highly successful publishing business serving the marketing and promotional needs of over 100 companies that provide direct mail and fulfillment services. He continues to serve as an independent consultant and marketing advisor for businesses too small to have their own marketing director on staff. By blending his creative problem solving abilities with exacting implementation skills he guides business owners and professionals on how best to “ELIMINATE THE GAPs” that are inhibiting their growth, profitability, and success.

A highly skilled marketing strategist and proficient direct-response copywriter, Gil has written hundreds of articles on direct marketing including the book Direct Mail Success. Gil holds a bachelors degree from the University of Cincinnati, a masters from Michigan State University, and pursued post-graduate studies at Ohio State University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

Visit Gil’s personal blog at www.GilEffron.com

Will Rico

Will is CEO of CommonMind, a web-consulting firm that focuses on supporting the needs of small businesses.

Founded in 1998, CommonMind is different than most web service providers because of their practical approach. They always seek the simplest solutions to the most complicated problems. This is evidenced by their commitment to explain concepts in simple English, not technical jargon, and patience with clients who lack a technical background.

Will believes in giving back to the business community – most specifically through promoting ethics and business acumen within the computer consulting industry. He served on the board of directors for the ICCA, a national non-profit trade group for computer consultants, and taught a course on the Unix operating system at The New School. Will is co-author of Real Estate Internet Marketing, an e-book at AgentWebAudit.com

Will graduated from Harvard University in 1996 with a degree in Computer Science.

Plus a Team of Professionals with Specialized Expertise

As needed – and depending on the needs, challenges, and opportunities we see on a case-by-case basis – we pull from a stable of experts. These industry professionals understand the 10-Day Marketing Makeover process and they believe in the power of the process to yield exceptional results without humongous out-of-pocket expenses.

Departments include:

• Branding
• Copywriting
• Design
• Direct Marketing
• New Media
• Print Production
• Printing
• Public Relations
• Sales process
• Sales training
• And more, as needed