SOUTHWEST TRIBUNE
cover photo:(left) Brandon Beard, (right) Latrell Liptrot
Phu Concepts, an interactive full-advertising agency specializing in online marketing, website development and design, has provided advanced technological services to small businesses, big corporations, non-profit organizations, you name it.
The emerging collaboration of Phu’s founder Latrell Liptrot and his executive counterpart Brandon Beard is taking the company to the next level, since its inception in 2006.
The duo’s emerging collaboration has demonstrated timeless ingenuity and cutting-edge innovation, which are requisite requirements to sustain a successful business in the current technological driven world.
Along with their talented and creative team, the duo uses web and graphic design, photography and video that outlines how Phu Concepts will tell your brand’s story.
Looking back, the perfect analogy with a story to describe the inception of the duo’s relationship and the current partnership shared between the two today, is like being able to experience the process of planting a flower from a seed and watching it grow.
At the age of 17, Liptrot was an aspiring actor and model. The digital world didn’t apply to his life as a demand, until he realized as an actor and a model for different agencies, he needed an online portfolio.
He couldn’t be in all places, at all times and having an online portfolio will allow him to take advantage of more opportunities without being tangibly present.
“Before I engaged into building a website, I went to different marketing agencies and at the time it was about $4,000 for a website of my interest and I didn’t have the resources,” Liptrot said. “So, with the help of an associate, I did it myself.”
His ability to produce a digital portfolio garnered instant popularity and created a demand among his peers, who were also aspiring actors and models.
“When I got back to the states, we came up with a name and a concept and started to focus on moms and pops shops in the inner-city, because many of them didn’t have websites,” Liptrot noted. “We started knocking on doors and paying our dues and our first break came with a business located in downtown Rochester and housed in the old Midtown Mall.”
“The owner name was Rita,” he continues. “She gave us an opportunity and we did it for a discounted price, but it brought us a business relationship, an established name and some money,” Liptrot recalls. “After we got that first client, in 6-months everything took off, it wasn’t nothing like us in the city.”
Insert Beard:
Beard started as a youth internship student at Action for a Better Community (ABC), a Community Action Agency that promotes and provides opportunities for low-income individuals and families to become self-sufficient.
At ABC, Beard had the opportunity to do engineering or web design. And qualify for an internship through a collaboration with Phu Concepts.
“I’ve known Phu Concepts since I was 14,” Beard said. “My mom said you’re 14, you can get a work permit and get a job. She made that decision for me and it changed my life.” “I’d already done engineering at 8 years old, but web design was something new,” Beard recalls. “When I got into the program, I was hooked immediately.”
After the internship ended with Phu Concepts, Brandon felt he was good enough to go out on his own.
He applied for a D.B.A and started his own company at 14 years old and modeled the business after Phu Concepts, who he admired for investing their time, when he was a youth.
When Latrell called, Brandon was running a successful business, but the possibility of working with his mentor was worth listening too.
“He called me, we met and when the meeting was over, we walked out as partners,” said Brandon.
Today, the certified minority-owned enterprise has an A+ Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating and has provided services for a plethora of local organizations, businesses and institutions including Nothangle, Rochester Colonial, Rochester Lyric Opera, Jordan Health, UR Center for Entrepreneurship and UR MS Technology, just to name a few.
Phu has also expanded their reach to include a satellite office in Buffalo, NY and is currently developing plans to open another office on the West Coast.
Alongside those endeavors, Phu Concepts has created a non-profit called “People Helping People Internationally,” that does micro loans to single moms in Africa and Germany, allowing them a chance to sustain themselves.
Phu currently has internship openings for emerging graphic designers and an open position for a web developer.
To learn more about Phu Concepts visit them at 263 Central Avenue, Suite 2, Rochester, NY 14605 or visit phuconcepts.com or call 585.232.5952
cover photo:(left) Brandon Beard, (right) Latrell Liptrot
Phu Concepts, an interactive full-advertising agency specializing in online marketing, website development and design, has provided advanced technological services to small businesses, big corporations, non-profit organizations, you name it.
The emerging collaboration of Phu’s founder Latrell Liptrot and his executive counterpart Brandon Beard is taking the company to the next level, since its inception in 2006.
The duo’s emerging collaboration has demonstrated timeless ingenuity and cutting-edge innovation, which are requisite requirements to sustain a successful business in the current technological driven world.
Along with their talented and creative team, the duo uses web and graphic design, photography and video that outlines how Phu Concepts will tell your brand’s story.
Looking back, the perfect analogy with a story to describe the inception of the duo’s relationship and the current partnership shared between the two today, is like being able to experience the process of planting a flower from a seed and watching it grow.
At the age of 17, Liptrot was an aspiring actor and model. The digital world didn’t apply to his life as a demand, until he realized as an actor and a model for different agencies, he needed an online portfolio.
He couldn’t be in all places, at all times and having an online portfolio will allow him to take advantage of more opportunities without being tangibly present.
“Before I engaged into building a website, I went to different marketing agencies and at the time it was about $4,000 for a website of my interest and I didn’t have the resources,” Liptrot said. “So, with the help of an associate, I did it myself.”
His ability to produce a digital portfolio garnered instant popularity and created a demand among his peers, who were also aspiring actors and models.
“When I got back to the states, we came up with a name and a concept and started to focus on moms and pops shops in the inner-city, because many of them didn’t have websites,” Liptrot noted. “We started knocking on doors and paying our dues and our first break came with a business located in downtown Rochester and housed in the old Midtown Mall.”
“The owner name was Rita,” he continues. “She gave us an opportunity and we did it for a discounted price, but it brought us a business relationship, an established name and some money,” Liptrot recalls. “After we got that first client, in 6-months everything took off, it wasn’t nothing like us in the city.”
Insert Beard:
Beard started as a youth internship student at Action for a Better Community (ABC), a Community Action Agency that promotes and provides opportunities for low-income individuals and families to become self-sufficient.
At ABC, Beard had the opportunity to do engineering or web design. And qualify for an internship through a collaboration with Phu Concepts.
“I’ve known Phu Concepts since I was 14,” Beard said. “My mom said you’re 14, you can get a work permit and get a job. She made that decision for me and it changed my life.” “I’d already done engineering at 8 years old, but web design was something new,” Beard recalls. “When I got into the program, I was hooked immediately.”
After the internship ended with Phu Concepts, Brandon felt he was good enough to go out on his own.
He applied for a D.B.A and started his own company at 14 years old and modeled the business after Phu Concepts, who he admired for investing their time, when he was a youth.
When Latrell called, Brandon was running a successful business, but the possibility of working with his mentor was worth listening too.
“He called me, we met and when the meeting was over, we walked out as partners,” said Brandon.
Today, the certified minority-owned enterprise has an A+ Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating and has provided services for a plethora of local organizations, businesses and institutions including Nothangle, Rochester Colonial, Rochester Lyric Opera, Jordan Health, UR Center for Entrepreneurship and UR MS Technology, just to name a few.
Phu has also expanded their reach to include a satellite office in Buffalo, NY and is currently developing plans to open another office on the West Coast.
Alongside those endeavors, Phu Concepts has created a non-profit called “People Helping People Internationally,” that does micro loans to single moms in Africa and Germany, allowing them a chance to sustain themselves.
Phu currently has internship openings for emerging graphic designers and an open position for a web developer.
To learn more about Phu Concepts visit them at 263 Central Avenue, Suite 2, Rochester, NY 14605 or visit phuconcepts.com or call 585.232.5952
