our ideas


To be a startup or not to be…

20/11/2014
Michigan Creative

Now that is a fancy title.

We are no longer a start up??? (read like Ron Burgundy..”I’m Ron Burgundy?”)

To be a startup or not to be

Or are we? People have told me that if we make it past the first year, you are doing pretty good. People have also said that about the third year, and the fifth, and so on. 

I still consider us a start up. But I think we are on the tail end of it. Although, I am afraid to get rid of the word start up! Being called a start up makes you fun, exciting, and you get discounts sometimes. You drink beer at start ups!  People want to work for a start up. Start ups are run by fresh young guys and gals right out of college.  (and sometimes 41 year old guys with grey in his beard and 4 kids who has a cool hip young staff) 

But a marketing company. Who wants to work for a marketing company

What if we could always keep the startup mentality in our culture forever? We would then always innovate, always treat every client like it was our first big client, and have beer at work, and play games at work, have relaxed schedules and relaxed clothes and bring dogs and babies into work.

That is what we do now. Can it stay like this? I think so. I hope so. It requires hustling, and networking, and hiring people to make sure that the work you put out is your very best work. When people ask, “hows it going?” my normal reaction is, “good…busy!” 

Then they say, “thats good right?” 

I hate that. They are right, but that doesn’t mean that is not stressful being busy. I need to come up with a better response to get a better answer. I like, “We are getting there.” If I ever say,  “we are there” there is something wrong. Being a small business we need to always be busy, always be hustling, and always working. 

Steve Jobs said it best:

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

We have a great startup company. We have a great staff. We have great clients and we live in a great city. 

That’s all for now. To all you would be warrior entrepreneurs, keep at it, its worth it.

Brian