The 2008 economic crunch made many small business owners anxious and pessimistic. But Jordan Hellyer saw opportunity. While entrepreneurs were tightening their belts, he opened his wallet and invested in his new start-up, Easy Email Solutions.

In September of '08, Jordan was working at a large advertising agency and only had dreams of starting his own business. When the economic crisis hit, he saw the future of traditional marketing as tight and email as the way for companies to get the most from their marketing dollars. He also saw that many ad agencies lacked real expertise in the area of email marketing. So he opened his own shop. Two years later his company has 130 clients, two full time employees and five part time people.

Easy Email Solutions specializes in newsletters, value added emails and retail promotions. Jordan works on business development and copywriting, his full time employee does design and HTML coding and his five part time people provide a variety of specialized services.

"I found our early clients through websites connecting businesses with freelance workers," says Jordan. "We stood out on these sites because we offered art direction, copywriting, coding, and email deployment. We were a one-stop shop at the price of a freelancer. A couple of good early wins got us going. We worked with a mortgage company and a real estate company. Both needed a lot of work. Since then, the business has grown through word of mouth combined with online marketing tactics."

Getting a business off the ground during a recession can be a challenge. Jordan used his VISA business card on the freelance sites to get things going. "Now I use it for almost everything I buy and to help with cashflow and bookkeeping. My VISA Venture Card keeps everything in one place."

Of course, as with all aspects of the online world, email marketing will not stay the same over time. While Jordan is finding that their clients' success rates are high and holding steady, he is prepared for changes in consumer habits due to online innovations. "As things online change, we'll adapt our strategies."

Given the return on investment that email marketing offers, the opportunities to deliver additional value to clients inexpensively, to target that value according to customer needs and to personalize every contact, Jordan anticipates a healthy future for Easy Email Solutions.