When Marty Kopmeyer, owner and CEO of Lumen CPA, Inc., decided that the ‘placeholder’ website his newly-launched accounting firm had been using since the beginning, needed an overhaul, he did what most of us do – he turned to Google. “I wanted a new website that had increased content but was different from many of the traditional accounting websites,” he recalls. “I chose BizInk because the content they provided was different than other places. I thought the automatic feeds of info from Xero would help differentiate me in the US market.”

Lumen CPA Inc., was launched in 2013. It was, as Marty recalls, the result of age and life circumstances triggering the need for change. “I was a veteran in public accounting but I wasn’t content,” he says. “I had considered starting my own firm for quite some time, but didn’t want to take the risk as a father of three kids and sole financial provider for my family. Then one day my wife gave me the ‘kick in the pants’ I needed. She told me that if I didn’t go out on my own now that I never would and she didn’t want to hear me talking about what could be anymore. She was right. I took her advice and launched Lumen in November 2013.”

Lumen prides itself on its use of cloud technology but still providing a personal service to their clients. Technology has grown in such a way that no matter where we are in the world, we can still communicate in real time. Lumen exploits this advantage, turning it into one of its main competitive advantages. “We used to struggle with obtaining and loading various versions of QuickBooks files,” Marty recalls. “Now we can do it live as they watch from their seat across the country. We see what they see. We now have real-time data. With online document storage we can see the source documents behind a transaction from anywhere. We don’t need someone to be in the office to pull it from a filing cabinet.”

Once the firm was established, Marty turned his attention to their digital marketing strategy, and realized that the first thing they would need to do was overhaul the website. “I knew what I wanted,” he says, “and that was a website that didn’t look like everyone else’s.”

Marty worked with BizInk’s Kamila Viskupova, who he credits with making the design and build process very smooth. “Kamila got me to really think through what I wanted to convey in a website,” he says. “She was great to work with.”

Working together, Marty and Kamila were able to achieve what Marty was looking for in a new website. “Kamila seemed to actually read through the copy that I had written as opposed to just ‘slapping it up’, Marty recalls. “She did a great job of capturing what I was looking to do.

I was especially touched when she suggested that I include pictures of grandfather and dad as part of the site. I could tell that even though we were across the world from each other – she understood me and what I wanted from my website. I wasn’t just another project to her.”

Lumen’s new site was launched on March 17, a date most of us recognize as St. Patrick’s day. For Marty, however, the date had added significance. “As an Irish Catholic the feast of St. Patrick is an important day to me,” he explains. “My dad, also a CPA and my inspiration for heading out on my own, had died about 7 years ago. “I thought of my dad often during the building of the site and even included a picture of him and my grandfather on one of the pages. I thought that it would be fitting to launch my new site on St. Patrick’s Day in memory of my dad, and other family members who have gone on to their ultimate home.”

Marty goes on to praise BizInk’s follow-up since the site went live. “Kamila has offered continued assistance,” he says. “The site went live in the heat of tax season so I haven’t had the opportunity to fully take advantage of the assistance and tweaking that I would like to do. But I’ve received some nice compliments from colleagues, clients and friends.”

As Marty looks forward to the future for Lumen CPA, he’s confident that BizInk and the work they’ve done will contribute to Lumen’s growth. “The BizInk experience was very good,” he enthuses. “They were great to work with and I am confident that going forward, as I spend more time building out my website, they will be a great resource.”