When elementary school teacher turned entrepreneur Brian Forth started his Tacoma Web site design company 10 years ago, he envisioned creating a company where people would want to have a career – not just a job.

Sitecrafting focuses on its people – from paying 100 percent of employee benefits to accommodating flexible schedules to empowering staff to make decisions when it comes to the company’s clients.

The result: Forth – with the help of his fantastically loyal staff – has grown Sitecrafting from a one-man show to a 22-employee operation that gets rave reviews from customers and has plans to expand at a time when many companies are letting people go.

“I think we sell a service, and it’s trust,” Forth said. “We are selling problem-solving and a relationship. The way to sustain that is to have a staff that is consistent – customers depend on that continuity.”

Forth is being recognized this month as the Small Business Leader of the Year by the University of Washington Tacoma Milgard School of Business.

FIRST PROGRAMS

Forth recalled the first computers he had as a kid: a Timex Sinclair 1000 – a simple machine that he had to plug into a tape cassette recorder to save his work – followed by a Commodore 64.

He and his cousin were interested in more than just games. They started writing programs and putting the computers to work.

“We used to get in trouble in class and we had to write sentences as punishment,” Forth said. “We asked if we could type them, the teacher agreed and I wrote a simple program that printed out the line 150 times on a printer paper.”

Forth considered computers a hobby. When it came time to choose a profession, the theology and philosophy major decided on teaching, landing his first job as fifth-grade teacher at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Tacoma.

His love of technology crept into his classroom. He became the school’s computer teacher and started a program called “Techperts” – teaching students computer basics in the early days of the Internet so that they could help their peers and teachers.

Students’ parents starting asking Forth for help on computer issues. He and his wife, Julie, also a teacher, starting creating Web sites as a side business, many of them for parents of Forth’s students. The potential the Internet held for businesses and organizations captivated him.

“Once I saw that you create content that was usable by lots of people fast – I became really enthusiastic,” Forth said.

A COMPANY IS BORN

The tech industry exploded and Forth left teaching for a job with Knowledge Universe, a San-Francisco-based company that provides education programs and services, including many online.

Then the bubble burst in 2001. Forth faced either having to move back East or overseas to keep his job or be laid off. He chose the latter and decided to make developing Web sites his full-time business.

“It was kind of a leap of faith – it’s always scary to put all your eggs in one basket. … But I think he felt like it was a better gamble to put everything into his own business,” Julie Forth said. The two have known each other since they were teenagers growing up in Southern California.

Sitecrafting’s first big project was for APS, a Tacoma-based company that made handheld movie players for airplane passengers. APS called one afternoon asking if Sitecrafting could build it an online reservations system. The first company APS hired to do the job abandoned it, and company officials needed the site done in less than two weeks.

Forth and his first employee, Mike Ash, worked for 10 days, including several late nights, to get the project done. It was a turning point for Sitecrafting.

“I felt like we could take on anything,” said Ash, who still works at Sitecrafting as a Web production manager. “If we could do this in 10 days, what could we do with more time?”

NORDSTROM SERVICE

Forth glimpsed superior customer service working as a “lead cast member” at the Disney Store in Century City, Calif., during a college summer. It was the type of place, Forth says, where if you were sweeping a corner and someone asked for directions, you’d abandon your post and take them there yourself.

That ethic sounds familiar to Sitecrafting’s clients, which include MultiCare, AirStream, Tacoma Public Utilities and Mountain Mist.

Denise Ploof first met Forth 10 years ago when she worked with him to create a Web site for Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma.

Forth gave Ploof his home number to call in case of emergencies.

“We would call it in the wee hours of the morning when we needed (Brian) or Julie to post that Bellarmine would open late or cancel school” due to the weather, Ploof wrote in part of her nomination of Forth for the UWT business award.

Ploof has worked on several projects with Sitecrafting since. She calls the company the “Nordstrom of Web developers.”

“I’ve been thrilled at not only the quality and timeliness of work Sitecrafting staff continues to provide to both me and my clients, but also for the honesty, integrity and service-focus that exudes from Brian and his staff,” Ploof said.

CREATIVE CULTURE

Sitecrafting has had only one employee choose to leave in the company’s nine years. The company’s positive culture that accounts for almost zero turnover goes beyond the foosball in the office.

The company pays for not only its staff’s benefits, but also for the those of the staff’s dependents. Forth, who had heart surgery as a child, said he’s always needed great health care and wants his staff to have access to it.

Forth hauls everyone out of the office each year for a four-day retreat to review the previous year’s successes and challenges and to strategize for the future. Video games, poker and general relaxing are also on the agenda.

There’s also a focus on employee development. The staff is organized into teams with leaders, called Web production managers, who coach their employees. Staff regularly present their work to each other – as a teaching opportunity and also to cash in on the company’s collective knowledge to help solve problems. Forth strives to promote from within.

The atmosphere encourages staff to try new things and pipe up when they have an idea.

“We want you to feel like you can still affect the direction of the company,” Ash said.

The company’s happy band of developers and designers regularly use their skills for a greater good. Sitecrafting runs a “gear grant” program, doing pro bono work for nonprofits, and the company has created Web sites, free of charge, for more than two dozen local elementary schools.

STILL GROWING

Sitecrafting continues to grow. The company is considering opening a second location in Washington this year, has plans for new hires and recently released a new content management system aimed at providing affordable, less-complex Web sites for small businesses.

Forth has learned a few lessons in his decade of entrepreneurship. He’s letting others take charge more often, and he cherishes the partnerships that have made his company a success.

“I think it boils down to the fact that relationships matter, whether with staff, partners or customers,” he said.

Kelly Kearsley: 253-597-8573

blogs.thenewstribune.com/business

Brian Forth

Who: Founder and president of Sitecrafting Inc.

Honor: University of Washington Tacoma’s Milgard School of Business Small Business Leader of the Year

Age: 38

Company: A Tacoma-based Web site design and Web application company. The company specializes in custom Web sites and content management systems.

Revenue: $1.5 million

Employees: 22

Residence: Olympia

Family: Forth is married to Julie Forth. They have three children, ages 2, 5 and 8.

Education: Forth majored in theology and philosophy at Gonzaga University.

One more: He’s won the poker tournament at the staff retreat two years in a row.