Ever formed a micro agency?
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- inteliboy0
If you need to meet talented people with different skills as your own - go to a few of those weekend startup workshops. There's heaps of them. They are normally filled with both mediocre and great people, so very quickly you can pick out in the crowd who actually walks the talk.
A while back I went to one called Launch 48 and the amount of useful contacts and work that sprang up from that was huge -- and a lot of talk of forming to start our own studio/agency.
- dijitaq0
along with a close friend, i started an agency about six years ago. it lasted about two years.
about six months into our venture, we finally felt secure enough to hire full-time designer and developer. we also felt out projects were shifting into a certain direction. at the time, we thought to hire an expert in that industry was not financially feasible, so we decided to bring on an acquaintance of hers. bad mistake. though he brought on his knowledge; also came along his baggage.
the worst came after a year, as we found out he and our accountant had been collaborating in skimming our income. the whole ordeal took away my spirit and eventually i sold my share to my friend. and we kind of drifted apart after since.
in my opinion, if you can do it on your own, do it. but if you have to have a partner, i think it would be better to find a financial partner instead.
- monNom0
If you don't have a partner in mind, don't let that stop you. Start as a 'micro-agency of one', subcontract work you can't do. By doing that, eventually you'll find another person or group that makes a good fit and you can think of partnering.
- monNom0
If you don't have a partner in mind, don't let that stop you. Start as a 'micro-agency of one', subcontract work you can't do. By doing that, eventually you'll find another person or group that makes a good fit and you can think of partnering.
- SteveJobs0
seems like you could get around that issue with a lead finder by offering incentives proportionate to the size of the clients they land, no? At first it might be a little slow-going, but once you have established yourself as a legitimate and capable agency, they'll have to bring you better leads.
- SteveJobs0
Well, I have two businesses already, both of which I bootstrapped, the most recent just a soft-launch until I can raise money for advertising, so I'm pretty diversified.
I think the biggest problem for me is, of course finding that other person that shares my passion, but how the two of us will wrangle in clients at the beginning. That is the part of the business where I have a lot to learn.
Are there lead-finders in this industry who take cuts for found leads?
- monNom0
'Lead Finders' are going to give you the bottom of the barrel clients, and are going to skim-off a good portion of the project budget, meaning you'll be in a struggle to produce your best work. IMO It's a bad way to open a relationship, paying a finders fee. As the client is often not aware that 20% of their budget just got skimmed off by the guy who was supposed to be helping them (and they probably paid him for consulting too).
In general it's best to earn your relationships yourself. Sell them on your capabilities, impress them with the work you do for them, and make it easy to work with you again. That's how you build a long-term business. Not buying projects from some slimeball.
(just my opinion, there may well be cases that this is okay and or common)
- toodee0
I've heard a lot of people start up with a:
designer
developer
accounts/businessy type personThat way you don't have the quality of work suffer dealing with clients too much.
- SteveJobs0
Also, what kind of rates do full-service shops charge these days for their services?
- SteveJobs0
^ again, this isn't two people just taking a few jobs together. It would likely be an S or C corp business structure - whichever provided the best protection for the Corp to Corp type work we would do. Not even there yet though. Plus we'd have an attorney on retainer.
- fyoucher10
Always have been thinking about that. Hard to find the right folks tho.
- vaxorcist0
I think the "expectations management" and "sales-skills" are more important than most of us think.... keeping track of good account people at agencies we used to work at can pay off... (they're not all evil)
One difference to keep in mind... account staff from huge agencies may be used to a "process" you can't possibly replicate.... so you'll have to re-invent this part carefully. Some account people have the attitude that "whatever the client wants, I get the creatives to do" attitude.... but put yourself in their shoes too, not everyone can do CP+B style crazy creative and get clients to pay for it...
- monospaced0
SteveJobs, that is exactly the scenario that would get me out of my current position. I'm just waiting for the right moment, and the right person, to partner up with and start our own show. The trick is, like you said, to have someone equally as talented at what they do, and that you're both equally adaptable and ambitious enough to make it work. I feel like I'll be ready to make that move in a couple of years.
- monospaced0
I also believe this is exactly how many studios form in the first place.