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.