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Julie Marie Irvin, owner and founder of Keystone Resources, thinks great brands are strategically sound, creatively excellent, and much bigger than an ad campaign or a website – they represent the collective effort of an entire company. Julie says her firm’s sweet recipe for success is a mix of a strong desire to listen, a lot of creative synergism, and a boundless commitment to achieving customized marketing solutions.
Julie joined the University of Houston Procurement Technical Assistance Center family in June of 2009 with a mission to build the firm’s presence and grow with the Houston business community. The firm had been the creative force behind many other firms’ successes, providing design strategy, marketing analysis, branding, logos, website design, proposal and presentation development to obtain government and corporate contracts. With seven years of experience securing government contracts for her clients, Julie now wanted to secure contracts for her own company.
The PTAC first helped her with her CCR registration so she was eligible for federal contracting. Julie then began working with consultant Deidra Sutton, PTAC’s certification specialist, who helped her with the Federal HubZone certification, as well as with her City of Houston MBE/DBE application. She also began to utilize PTAC’s bid match program for finding contract leads. She then moved on to work with PTAC consultant Ronald Marta, who specializes in government accounting procedures. Ron assisted the firm with government pricing and proposal review. Julie and several of her staff members also participated in various small business workshops sponsored by the PTAC’s host, the University of Houston Small Business Development Center.
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Keystone Resources has been working hard to become Houston’s marketing and design agency of choice. Their efforts are being noticed and the firm has won many awards and recognitions over the years, including:
- 2011 WBEA Advocate of the Year
- 2010 & 2011 WBEA Supplier of the Year (under $1 Million)
- HBJ Top 50 Fastest Growing Woman Owned Businesses
- HBJ Largest Houston-Area Graphic Design Firms
Julie believes in continued education to better her agency and her team. She recently completed two programs exclusively for entrepreneurs:
- Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth: The Tuck-WBENC Executive Program
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
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