Blog: News and Insight from Don Pratt and 16 Consulting Group — 16 Consulting Group | A Top Advertising Media Agency, South Carolina Community

The #1 Thing I learned Starting My Own Business

Two years ago, this month I started my own business.  I’ll never forget the call that started it all.  I was offered the opportunity to handle media placement for a well-known local attorney.  I remember asking, “what is the ramp-up time?”  His response, “how about tomorrow?”  I started my ad agency the next day.

 I thought about writing one of those top-ten lists about all the things someone who’s starting out on their own could learn from my experience.  I’m going to boil it down to the #1 thing I’ve learned, because I come back to it more than anything else: it is a tremendous responsibility when you take someone else’s money for work you say you will do.  I’d like to think I’ve done some really great work while employed at other companies, but there’s just something different about a client trusting your own company to get the ball across the finish line.  There’s just no buck to pass.  The crash in economic activity we’ve seen during the COVID19 crisis drives the point home.  Businesses depend on being connected to customers, and there is no formula for my success without my client’s success.

In the past two years, I’ve learned a host of things about advertising, and about myself.  I have taken on new projects, attacking each one as a new opportunity to learn and to grow.  As much as each new challenge brings new excitement, I never forget; Yes, I’m extremely proud to be making a living under the banner of my own company, but I’m taking someone else’s money, and they need this to this work. 

Nielsen: Traditional TV Still Tops

No doubt people are consuming video content in a more fragmented environment, but traditional TV is still driving viewership. That’s the finding from a recent Nielsen market survey; most viewing is still done on broadcast and cable. In my judgment, local news remains sticky. No one has devised a viable hometown news alternative. Substantive digital news on a local level would disappear if it was not subsidized by the resources of local television stations and (and newspapers). When the storm hits, a disaster strikes, or local government leaders are up to no good, local television is still the leader in alerting us. Broadcast and cable certainly owe a great deal of credit for viewing to their network partners, who deliver premium entertainment and sports content. That partnership is a powerful force, and in conjunction with a digital strategy, provides a powerful advertising option for growing local businesses.

To read the article from Nielsen, I’ve added the link for you.