Butler County Connection - Butler County, Kansas

		Meet the Creators of Butler County Connection

In 1997, Steve and Jaime Simpson began Print Necessities while they finished their college educations from Wichita State University. Initially, Steve, a business major, and Jaime, a Spanish and Journalism major, utilized their communication, advertising and design skills to offer custom-made newsletters to businesses with a database of customers. They soon realized that many area businesses could not afford effective advertising and print materials through bigger advertising agencies and thus began to offer more services and products to meet their clients' needs. After graduation, the two continued their advertising business and in 2000, Jaime left the teaching profession to run Print Necessities on a full-time business. Since then, the company's name has been changed to Necessities Media Group to emcompass all services and products offered. Necessities Media Group has grown and has helped many small area businesses grow. Now in its eleventh year, Steve and Jaime continue to focus on small businesses and helping bring vitality back to downtown areas and those businesses within.

		Meet the Crew

Len Hudson, former publisher of The Augusta Gazette and The El Dorado Times, is the head Media Consultant for Butler County Connection. To contact Len about advertising, click here.

		About Butler County Connection

Butler County residents have a new online option for finding businesses, attractions and entertainment. ButlerCountyConnection.com is a website designed by Jaime Simpson, owner of Necessities Media Group, and was officially launched on April 1, 2007. The site offers visitors business listings, links to business sites, online coupons, upcoming events, local sports results and general information on Butler County.

"Growing up, I spent a lot of time in Downtown Augusta at my grandparents' gift store. I think now what a powerful tool the Internet would have been for them and for the growth of their business. Powerful and effective for all of Downtown Augusta," Simpson explains. "Decades later, we have that option - to connect with customers via the Internet. And it is a proven way to help one's business grow!"

Jaime saw the effect of the Internet when she designed a website for the Augusta Historic Theatre. "We started the Augusta Historic Theatre's website in April 2006. To date, the site has had over 20,000 visitors. We were amazed by the results and hope that other area businesses will experience similar results."

Existing websites like ButlerCountyConnection.com have had tremendous results. The concept is simple: Use one website to give businesses a custom-made promotional page that shares more information about their business, products and services with customers. It serves as a website for businesses not yet ready to launch their own website. For businesses with an existing website, ButlerCountyConnection.com also shares a promotional page with relevant information and then links visitors to the business owners' websites.

"It's not a 'if you build it, they will come' website. We are marketing it to consumers so that they will visit the site and find what they are looking for in Butler County," Jaime states. "We will listen to visitors and try to meet their needs. And we hope that visitors and business owners will submit newsworthy material, photos, local sports results and upcoming events. Ultimately, we want to help our clients' businesses grow while keeping visitors entertained and informed."