About

I’m an entrepreneur currently running two businesses:

  1. “ShoutHaus” (www.shouthaus.com) — a digital marketing agency focused on the niche of training companies and vocational schools
  2. “Prompt Yes” (www.promptyes.com) — a tech training company offering hands-on, instructor-led classes in generative AI: ChatGPT, MS Copilot, Midjourney, Vibe Coding, etc.

I have a broad range of hands-on skills in management, operations, web development, and digital marketing. I developed these skills over many years while building a small software training business, “AcademyX” (www.academyx.com). In 2020 I sold the assets of the company.

Stephen Fraga headshot
Hello — I look forward to connecting.

Executive Experience

As CEO, I was ultimately responsible for the growth and future direction of the company. At its peak, AcademyX reached $3.9M in annual sales and employed 10 full-time and 30+ part-time staff. My duties included:

  • Negotiating contracts for leases, master service agreements, and asset purchase agreements
  • Building partnerships
  • Finding marketing channels
  • Launching new products and services

Management

One of my most important roles was building our team and their job functions. This involved:

  • hiring over 85 employees during my time at the company
  • defining job duties for each role
  • setting up workflows for job roles
  • conducting branch and all-staff meetings
  • defining compensation plans and territorial rules for salespeople
  • defining profit-sharing plans for branch managers
  • conducting employee reviews

Operations

In a company where we did not have an office manager, and were sometimes missing an accountant, I handled a myriad of operational tasks.

  • business filings: federal, state, and for the 5 California cities and counties in which we operated
  • regulatory compliance: filings for the agency that regulates our industry, the BPPE; maintenance of local, state, and federal bidder registrations and qualifications
  • accounting: payroll, accrual accounting, month-end and annual closings and financial audits
  • vendor management: landlords, insurance companies, trainers, courseware vendors, attorneys
  • negotiations: customers, RFPs/bids, partners, employees, suppliers

Technical

I originally set up the company’s website and coded its various features, including a custom shopping cart. Over time, I became familiar with web development and systems administration.

Coding

Back-End:

  • PHP
  • Python
  • ColdFusion
  • Perl and RegEx

Front-End:

  • JavaScript/jQuery
  • CSS/Bootstrap
  • WordPress
  • Webflow
  • Chrome Dev Tools

Systems Administration

Servers:

  • Apache, NGINX and IIS
  • MySQL and SQL Server
  • Postfix, Sendmail, BIND and WU-FTP

Services:

  • Git and GitHub
  • Amazon Web Services
  • CentOS Web Panel
  • Cloudflare DNS, Zaraz, and Page Rules
  • Zapier, Make, N8N

Marketing

My company derived a large part of its revenue through successful SEO strategies I implemented early on. I set up Google Ads, LinkedIn and Facebook Ads. Beyond word of mouth and repeat business, I brought in steady revenue streams via:

  • SEO, which brought in up to 40% of our revenue
  • Google/Bing Paid Ads, with about $5k/month in spend. I recently renewed my certifications for Google Search Ads and Google Analytics.
  • Constant Contact promotional email blasts to our 40k subscribers

Contact Me