GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Even in the down economy, some businesses are doing well.

Tuesday, some of those businesses will be honored at the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year Awards.

This year's winner is Mindscape at Hanon McKendry. Mindscape is an internet marketing firm that works with businesses to design and attract more visitors to company's websites.

Pete Brand and Paul Ferrier founded Mindscape eight years ago in Muskegon and moved to Grand Rapids a couple years ago. In 2008, Mindscape partnered with Hanon McKendry, a marketing firm.

Business at Mindscape is already up almost 40% so far this year. That is despite, or perhaps because of the economic downturn.

Co-Founder Paul Ferrier explains, "As far as the recession is concerned, we've actually benefited from it because companies can now look at the web and everything is so measurable. So, although a lot of companies cut back on their marketing budget, the budget in the web area specifically has expanded."

Fellow Co-Founder Pete Brand says, "We're actually being affected in almost a positive way. The results that we have produced for our clients, the word is starting to spread. So, lots of companies are coming to us because they know that if they work with us, they're going to get good positive results and impact to their bottom line."

Ferrier says Mindscape is often more successful in driving business to the web than if a company tried to do so itself.

"There's a lot of companies that try to do it in house and they obviously don't grasp it. They know their business really well. But when it comes to web marketing, you definitely want that expertise there to help you out. The investment that our clients make, and the return that we can give them is very, very significant."

Brand thinks the small size of Mindscape helps the company keep up with constantly changing trends in the technology field.

"When you're a small company, we can be more fluid. If all of the sudden we see an emerging trend that we believe is going to take off, we can shift our focus a little bit in order to take advantage of that a lot quicker."

For example, Brand says just a couple years ago, social networking was almost unheard of, but now it's a major driver on the internet.

Mindscape is succeeding and trying to create a friendly work environment. Employees work a four day work week. And one of those days, they work from home.

Mindscape was chosen as small business of the year from a field of 13 nominees.

The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce also named a Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the first time. That winner is Ryan Leestma of Information Systems Intelligence, a technology and communications company.

The Grand Rapids Area Chamber's Small Business Awards presentation will be held at lunchtime Tuesday at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.