Pay close attention. This is that reliable inner voice telling you to take note of something. The same reliable voice that, 20 years ago, beat your broker to the punch and told you to look into a little firm with a funny name, called Microsoft.

Just over the drawbridge, at Cross Point Plaza, there's a young business poised to supernova. For amid the bamboo and island décor, there exists a phenomenon of talent and work ethic that exceeds the imagination. You may not have noticed them yet, but NASA has.

The phenomenon is Sage Island, a rapidly ascending star that provides Web design, hosting, and marketing. Without hesitation, it must be said that, when it comes to what Sage does best, you must see it to believe it. Look deep. Art and function of this caliber defy description. Tallying full-time resources, Sage Island appears to be a small fish in a very big pond. Only by headcount do they support this assumption (currently there are fewer than a dozen people in the office on any given day). For the pond ---- the bottomless web ---- is quickly becoming their's.

To fully appreciate the firm's accomplishments and potential, you first have to meet one of its founders.

Enter one Michael Allen Duncan, 33, president and creative director of Sage Island. A Wilmington native, Duncan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and along with three other partners (one left to pursue a job with the feds), Duncan established Sage in 1997. His first office was in the Landing at Wrightsville Beach. It took three years before Duncan knew he had a winner.

In the beginning, the firm dabbled in a variety of offerings, including training and custom software development. Among other things, Sage Island developed ConductorTM, a custom training/tracking administration software package used to build career pathways and generate tracking reports. It has turned out to be one of those sleeper success stories (NASA is but one of its users).

"By 2000, we streamlined the business model and I said, 'This is what we're going to do,'" explained Duncan.

Today, Web design and marketing represent the firm's biggest guns. "Our marketing work has just exploded," Duncan said. Robust revenues from the firm's marketing ventures have surprised even its founders, given the economy.

"But we do more than just market a business," Duncan said. According to him, a marketing partnership with Sage Island includes, among other things, a strategic, multi-dimensional marketing campaign, complete with business analysis, customer base ID, promotion, Web development, user assessment, and ROI analysis. This ensures that a site is functional, visible, and reflects the kind of business-to-business relationships other firms dream of, to say nothing of the astounding way Sage Island Web sites look.

Duncan insulates himself with the best ---- from programmers, to illustrators, to marketing professionals. These he lovingly refers to as "the chosen ones."

Witness, for example, the firm's Web marketing department, where specialist Roy Turner (yes, the same one) maintains his reputation as both a business icon and an ambassador to e-commerce, product recognition, and search engine optimization (Turner, too, you should probably know, is no stranger to revenue.).

The technical side of the business is headed largely by programming powerhouse Mike Kujawski, also a founding partner. A refugee of Vision Software (now VisionAir) and Training Systems, Inc., (now The Avenue Group) Kujawski has, for years, quietly crafted the custom software that Sage sells domestically and internationally ---- in serious volume. I'm told he works best while listening to old-school rock'n'roll.

In this economy, it's particularly refreshing to talk to someone who not only has a backlog of work, but who has to turn down contracts because his work ethic won't allow him to create anything less than perfection. Duncan reluctantly admits that success has caught up with him ---- there's a waiting list for his services. The wait will continue.

"There's no question I'll grow revenues, but I'm not planning to grow resources right now," he said (this from a man who, 5 years ago, worried about making payroll). Comfortable with the employee-owned profile of the firm, Duncan doesn't want to clutter his already-full calendar with cart-before-the-horse considerations like buyouts or divisional IPOs. At least not right away.

The personal side of Duncan is no less compelling. If he weren't so well-liked, he might just be the perfect person to despise. To say he is technically and mechanically inclined is an appalling understatement. He can build virtually anything from the ground up, including award winning automobiles (he's partial to vintage Porsches). And if something breaks, he can usually fix it right, the first time. Think daVinci meets McGyver.

To be perfectly fair, Duncan has an endearing, almost comic side that, simply put, attracts people ---- OK, not the least of which are clients. In his professional attire, he carefully blends that personable nature with astounding good taste in graphics and an ample share of earned business savvy. He is the first to admit, however, that he made a few mistakes along the way.

"I had to learn the hard way, dealing with things I should have expected all along, like personalities, creative financing, and so forth," Duncan said.
"Let's just say I know a whole lot more (about running a business) than I used to."