How a 32-year-old AbbygaleRitualo turned a wishful idea into a successful business

How a 32-year-old AbbygaleRitualo turned a wishful idea into a successful business.

It’s one thing to start a company. It’s quite another to start one that competes with tech titans like Godaddy and Wix.

But that’s exactly what Asian entrepreneur Abby Ritualo did when she built a one-stop marketing site to rival the tech giants.

“Our goal was to take the entire marketing ecosystem, integrate it into one page, and then make it accessible to the whole nation,” said Abby Ritualo.

Abby Ritualo is the 30-year-old founder and CEO of OC Marketing Solutions one-stop online shop, for both online and print marketing.

The young founder started the company in 2013 in a bid to make design accessible to all — be it for websites, posters, flyers, postcards, business cards, press releases,s or social media marketing. Within five years, she made headlines as one of tech’s youngest female CEOs, at just 30.

Two years on, the Orange County-headquartered company is now still on the tech radar adding a few more services to keep up with online trends and competitive marketing. And to think, it all started with a wishful business.

Always a dream

Abby Ritualo was just 21 when she was first struck by the idea. It was 2010 and she was the president of the college student council at St. Joseph’s College of Quezon City- Philippines.

Abby would do posters and banners for the campus’ events and announcements and one of her platforms as a president was to take her school to the next level by making announcements online and unitizing communications across all the students.

“Students would always think that making all these will be complicated and not doable because being creative and imaginative is not everyone’s cup of tea. I thought that in the future it was all going to be online and collaborative and much, much simpler than what most people think.”

So she set to work making that vision a reality.

Starting small

With few resources and little business experience behind them, Abby Ritualo started small and created an online business. By posting her services to different outlet media to test out their ideas such as craigslist and yelp.

She launched a website for everyone to see. She would often attend business-to-business networking events in different cities in Orange County, then hand over her contact details to business owners.

“My room became my office, and I started enabling everyone to envision what they wanted for their business really. Really simple and not complicated by showing my samples and portfolio” explained Abby.

The business was a success and remains active today. But for Abby,  it was just the first step in what she called her “crazy, big dream” for a one-stop-shop marketing site — so she began chasing bigger companies.

Pitching to Los Angeles

A few years later in 2019, while at a conference in Los Angeles, Abby Ritual Received her first big break.

A chance encounter with the co-owner of Jiffy Lube saw him invite Abby to their headquarters in LA to pitch her idea. Just hours later, the legendary venture capitalist, clearly impressed, was connecting her with his contacts.

“I thought that he didn’t really like what I had to say. He was on his phone, and I thought that meant he wasn’t really engaged in what I had to say about the future of publishing,” Abby recalled.

“But then I got home and realized that he was actually introducing me to a few people.”

Making waves

Building new relationships with companies was far from plain networking, Abby soon discovered.

From one client after another, that’s how it works for her and her business.

“Every time I finish one website or service. I will always receive another one and little did I know they’re all connected. Companies are for some reason connected with each other, one way or another” Abby recalled.

“Sometimes they requested overboard and some are not even included in the services I offered. But yeah, I decided to give it a go because when you don’t do other things, they might go to another marketing company, so yeah. Even if I don’t have any idea what they want, I will still say yes and figure it out after. From there, I have many connections, so I  don’t have to do any networking anymore, and the referral just keeps on coming, you just kind of have to wedge your foot in the door and wiggle it all the way through.”

Growing the team

The new skill served her well. Before long, the young entrepreneur was winning over major companies and building out the OC Marketing Solutions platform with a fast-growing team of designers.

But it was in 2018 that the business began in earnest. With the help of her friends and tech advisor, she began to add more services. Started from just website designing to mobile apps, graphic designing for both print and online marketing, and SEO.

Months later, at the close of their first funding round, the company was oversubscribed. That she needs to hire another web designer just to keep up with the demand.

The following year, her site kept growing, from just a plain website design service to all online graphic design, press releases, 1-minute commercial videos. Social media boost mobile apps, and many more.

A design for the future

Today, OC MARKETING SOLUTIONS has helped create hundreds of designs all over California and won some famous backing from the likes of Senator Janet Nguyen and City Council Tom Nguyen.

Abby said she plans to add additional services allowing her clients to choose a package that can include all of the Marketing services or make a recurring one. Nowadays, Marketing has to be consistent and should keep up with the trends.

That strategy will bring Abby the closest she’s come yet to competing directly with the professional design tools created by tech giants like Godaddy, Wix, and Vistaprint.

“I think I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself. And I think that sort of internal locus of control has been pretty strong,” said Abby.

“So while the expectations around our company and what we’re expected to do is sort of increasing. That’s nothing on what I’ve got on myself!”

Big income from providing the best affordable web design and marketing

OC Marketing Solutions offer a variety of web services to increase customer exposure and acquire new online marketing trends and skills. Combining web design with development and digital marketing techniques allows you to focus on your brand. Communicate with your customers at an intimate level. 

Our professional web designers use WordPress and Joomla, the ultimate web development platform. With customizable content using WordPress, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and connect with existing and potential customers. You can use competitive information and data to maximize your potential and improve your SEO. After all, we only use responsive websites.

Responsive websites adjust the screen to what the user is using when accessing the website. Also, Google currently claims that your website is “mobile-friendly”, and responsive websites meet your mobile needs.

Typical small businesses must be local. Some users use mobile devices for 5% of surveys using Google before buying anything. When your website addresses the needs of your customers, they first meet you with a local marketing strategy. Local marketing database websites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, Facebook. And Google can give your customers visibility when searching for a business. Our web design also includes other local marketing methods.

For more information about Abby and OC Marketing Solutions, please visit:

Website: https://www.ocmarketingsolutions.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/abbyr-webpro

Instagram: abbyyy128

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