Mike is the CEO and Owner of Sperling Interactive with over 15 years of website design, photography, marketing, and e-commerce experience. He built Sperling Interactive with his wife from the ground up, starting as a small office in his home with only a few employees and clients to one that has 20+ employees and more than 600 clients served all from our headquarters in Salem’s Historic District.
Mike grew up in Baltimore, Maryland where he went to a magnet school for the arts and began his study of photography. From there he went on to Rochester Institute of Technology in New York where he got his degree in Photojournalism and Communications. Before founding Sperling Interactive, Mike worked his way up from staff photographer at the Eagle Tribune Publishing Company to the lead operator and manager of multiple websites for daily and weekly publications.
Mike has a deep commitment to community involvement and civic engagements. In the past few years he and members of our team have become involved in programs that assist the youth, homeless, food insecure, and families at risk through programs at Lifebridge, Paddle for Plummer, LEAP for Education, Harborlight, Bridgewell, and the Enterprise Center at Salem State.
Ever the optimist, Mike believes that there is never a problem that can’t be solved with a bit of ingenuity and perseverance. It’s this positive, can-do attitude and know-how that allowed Mike to be recognized as Small Business of the Year 2019, by the Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce.
Terminating an employee is not fun, no matter how you sugar-coat it. There are bound to be hard feelings and even potentially down-right hostilities upon terminating an employee. In fact, many employers become embroiled in expensive litigation because they make simple but avoidable errors when terminating an employee. Terminating an employee always brings the possibility of a lawsuit but here...
No one likes conflict. What’s more is that no one likes conflict at work. It makes for awkward situations, causes stress, and can be a legal nightmare. Mediation is a voluntary and confidential form of conflict resolution in which a neutral third party, called a mediator, helps disputing parties to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to their conflict. Business...
According to Chronus, corporate mentoring is on the rise with 71 percent of Fortune 500 companies offering professional mentoring programs to their employees. Successful companies, large and small, use mentoring to tackle complex human resource challenges such as increasing employee retention, enabling company succession plans, and improving workforce productivity. So, what is mentoring and how can it be successfully used...
One of the most stressful events in a person’s life is starting a new job. Why all the stress? A new job comes with anxiety regarding learning about the new position, new co-workers, possibly more responsibility and discovering the ins and outs of the inner workings of a new office. Yep, that is a lot of stress. One of the...
“Two heads are better than one.” The old adage is true. Entrepreneurs have known this to be a truth for years thus the reason why strategic partnerships are so commonly used in business today. Partnerships are a voluntary collaborative agreement between two or more parties in which all participants agree to work together to achieve a common purpose. Together...
Starting a business means a fairly large learning curve. While there may be many areas that you need to learn the “ins and outs,” understanding the concepts of cash flow is among the more complex and important in any business. Let’s examine the main concepts and terms associated with comprehending cash flow for your budding business. What is Cash Flow?...
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are among the top social media platforms used by businesses. LinkedIn has a reputation as a business-oriented social network, used for professional networking, job-hunting, industry content and news. When people log on to LinkedIn there is a complete mindshift from the more casual sites, like Twitter and Facebook, to the more professional types of conversations...
Many people are interested in pursuing a career path as a consultant for obvious reasons including: financial gain, flexibility, freedom and amazing business opportunities. Before beginning a venture in any field, however, read on to find out what the most common mistakes are for entrepreneurs just starting out in the consulting field. Financing Errors – Seek the advice...
Blogs have become an essential part of the content and social media marketing strategy for many small to medium sized businesses. It is no wonder, since some statistics now show, that 87% of visits to company websites make it there through blogs. But what strategies do successful companies use to make their blogs add to the credibility of the businesses,...
When hiring a member of your business team, there is probably some sort of onboarding process that involves a Human Resources component where an employee handbook is reviewed, or at least a job description is discussed. A job description is a document listing the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a specific job. Seems pretty straightforward right? This fairly simple...
