Ever formed a micro agency?
- Started
- Last post
- 35 Responses
- bjladams0
a friend and i both quit our day jobs and started an agency 2 years ago. between us we had $300 in cash, 1 week worth of projects, and 10 pages of contacts we wanted to work for. we've never taken a lone, never missed a payment, and are about to turn a part-time freelancer we use into a full time employee.
i design, he does copywriting and deals with all our clients. before i even see a job, he's got everything prepared for me.
the 2 best things we've done so far have been getting an office, as it has given people confidence that we are real, and using an accountant.
you can be successful. it's not an easy road - we both have families. our wives work part time jobs. our kids get our full attention when we get home. we've turned $300 into our livelihood and feed 8 mouths with it. soon to be 10. (not counting our animals)
we both have the same regret, that we waited so long before striking out. if we had started a year or 2 earlier, we'd be ever further down the trail now.
- respect.nocomply
- $300 before or after you have acquired a computer and softwares?pango
- trying to do the same for me self but i do know what i have no idea what i'm doing.pango
- i had an 3 yr old mini. and illustrator 8 at the time.bjladams
- was a few months before i could afford a new computer, then new software.bjladams
- <3gramme
- proud of you dude...well done!exador1
- yes, well done.alicetheblue
- Fuck yes.Gucci
- SteveJobs0
Early-morning bump.
I talked to a friend recently who works in sales in the advertising industry and she thinks she that with her contact list she could churn up some serious business.. hmmm..
- nocomply0
I think about this sometimes, but I'm afraid that finding the right 1-2 people to partner with is very difficult.
Ideally I'd like to partner with a designer and a project manager, and perhaps a part-time server-side developer.
I have worked at a very small agency before. The energy was good, but it wasn't an equal partnership kind of deal. It was headed by 1 single person and I was just an employee.
- ideaist0
My girl (an artist) and I (a designer) opened an art & design shop a year and a half ago; no business person and thus we have become more resourceful and learnt it out of necessity.
It's hard work, so if that's not for you then turn away now. It involves pushing yourself daily in any direction needed and once again if that's not for you then stick to your agency job.
The benefits are free time, independence and elimination of middle men in the creative process allowing for more organic, natural solutions to design problems.
; )
- popovich0
As I see it, acquisition is the most important part of this business. As I understand it, you want to get into advertising/design business? Contacts. Leads. People, who will trust your skills and give you jobs. If you can't land jobs, you don't need an accountant, an office space and partners. If you have someone, who can bring you clients – get together and go for it.
After almost 2 years in this business now, I would give up a stake in it to someone, who can land me jobs. Everything else (incl. accounting, designing, etc.) can be bought from outside.
- SteveJobs0
@toodee/pango
she's open to both. she's very aggressive, and self-motivated and i have faith in her abilities just going on how much effort she puts into her current job.
still curious what kind of rates full-service shops charge out (range or on average). would be nice to attract talent with some non-arbitrary figures. anyone have any data on this? I know a lot of these agencies make a killing
- spendogg0
I had a similar experience as dijitaq had. Partnered with the wrong people, was lied to for nearly 8 mos. ended up holding all the baggage. I thought i had aligned with people who had the same passion and drive for excellence - i guess on the surface it was true, but greed and bullshit trumped being human.
- how would you have approached it differently with that experience behind you?SteveJobs
- I would have had a much more detailed partnership contract and an exit strategy.spendogg
- oh and have a private investigator do background checks on everybodyspendogg
- and no matter how much $$ you have - get an accountantspendogg
- SteveJobs0
@popovich, my interest is more as a full-service shop. I know a lot of agencies primarily do heavy front-end with them or the client outsourcing the backend work to another 3rd party (correct me if that's not true).
Since the talent for my group would be more dense, we'd be able to undercut other agencies on bids for contracts - which among other benefits would include higher salaries than most agencies pay out. I mean, that's the idea anyway - pie in the sky.
- popovich0
a mature full-service shop might charge here, in Germany, somewhere between 150 to 250 euros/hour or 1200 to 2000 euros/day. however, they don't do this shit with numbers and just say: "this will cost you xx.xxx." 'cause they are mature and full-service. and small shops normally try to figure it out with per hour/per day thing...
also here: http://www.alistapart.com/articl…
- popovich0
and here: http://www.jessicahische.is/obse…
- gramme0
You're never truly ready to make the move to self-employment, whether it's alone or with a partner(s). I was thrown into it, have made copious mistakes, and will still make more. But I'm feeding the mouths I have to feed, got my first office space this year, and business is slowly but surely growing.
- popovich0
also think about your target clients. if you are going for the same big names which normally work with full-service agencies be aware, that they care less about how clean your code is or how beautiful the design is – they need to be sure that you exist tomorrow, that you can handle their job on time and on budget and that they can sue you, if something goes wrong. it makes no sense to sue a person - corporations don't need your used car or hi-fi audio. they need cash, which means that they will probably want you to be incorporated or something.
at some level it is not about how good your skills are, but how good you are at bargaining and politics... (all this referring to big names; small to mid-size businesses are less restrictive in this respect)
- gramme0
About starting a micro-agency, the guy who owns my office building has a small web development business. They also work in the office space. It's a big open space with lots of room to spare. He's sharp as tacks at business development. Great with people. We've been talking about collaborating (in an ongoing sense, not just the odd project) for a couple months now.
- dMullins0
Browsing around for threads related to this topic. Good read, thanks for everyone who contributed. I'm a partner now in someone else's start-up agency, and thinking about doing the same from scratch here soon. Trying to get the kick in the pants I need to pull the ripcord.
- duckseason0
Know a couple people that did this.
http://un-scene.com/
- ideaist0
1. Power is always found in numbers.
2. Fortune favours the bold.
Excellent words, wisdom and thoughts in this thread gang!
- zoozoo0
I would do it. 2 heads is better than 1.
- Amicus0
1 + 1 = shitloads more than 2 (if you do it well)
- hektor9110
Not sure about micro really means in this case. But, these guys are doing great. Started really small not about now.