creative briefing

My agency will be undergoing a number of changes over the next few months that are part of the natural evolution of the business. With faces, structures, models, and handful of other elements due to be changed, I see the process as an opportunity to hit the reboot button and rebuild certain aspects from the ground up. This got me thinking - what would I change?

It’s not very often that a business gets a chance to tear down everything and start again. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears go into developing the brand, reputation, networks, clients, PR (for the SEOers), and basically every other grain of what you call your business - so much that “starting over” is a concept that is usually quite foreign to most. But let’s entertain ourselves for a bit, shall we?

What if you had the opportunity to do it all again? Over the years, months, weeks, and days that you’ve been a business owner (yes, this applies to you freelancers as well), you’ve picked up an immense amount of new knowledge. Knowledge that sometimes helps you realize that some of the things you’ve done were not the right things to do. Knowledge that sometimes makes you think, if I could do it again, this is how I’d do it.

So what would you change? What would your business look like if you were to start it again today? What were your biggest mistakes and what have you learned?

To get the ball rolling, here’s a few of my biggest business mistakes:

• Not setting aside budgets for internal work: Budgets for client work are a no-brainer and are easy to justify. Why shouldn’t internal work have the same rationale? Your brand, website, and products are all important assets that, when properly invested in, will offer a [bigger] return.
• The ‘we can do that’ mentality: Every small agency’s tagline should be “we can do that” - not because it’s a good strategy, but because you end up saying it so much that you it might as well be a tagline. Trying to take on too many things outside your realm of expertise will thin out your business and leave you delivering less than mediocre results.
• Not having a hiring strategy: When you first start out, your business doesn’t need 30 sets of hands. It probably doesn’t even need 10. What’s more important to focus on is getting the right set of hands to work with you to build the business and more importantly, to run and execute the business and bring in the revenue. Partnering with a developer to match your design skills = great idea. Hiring a team of designers before you even have an established flow of work coming through = bad idea.
• Not having a growth strategy: Hiring is part of this, but a bigger part is having a plan for how your business will grow in 1, 5, or 10 years. If you’re a lemonade stand, you should have a plan on how you will grow your business into some kind of industry leader in lemonade production or distribution (for example). Without a growth strategy, you’ll always just be that same lemonade stand at the front of your house (or in my case, that lemonade stand with a really thirsty neighbor - thanks Satish).

These, and many more, are considerations that I’ll keep in mind as I begin to build the next instance of the agency.

What about you? Leave your biggest mistakes in the comments and share what you’d do differently if you could start over again (if anything).

PS - As further support that this is an important topic to consider, Naomi from the IttyBiz factory has also recently asked the same question to her readers. Check out her blog if you haven’t already - it’s one of the most entertaining and insightful small business blogs around.

As fresh entrepreneurs and freelancers we are often blessed with the consistent inconsistency of work flow from day to day. There are times when it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in a day to meet all the deadlines we’ve committed to. Yet still, amidst all of that work, we can sometimes get uneasy about the following week knowing very well that the work scale might just end up tipping the other direction.

This organic (for lack of a better term) lifestyle is what drives many down this path. And for the most part it’s fantastic; work hard when you need it, relax when you don’t. It’s the flexibility that a desk job, suit and tie, and a 9-to-5 schedule just doesn’t grant you the privilege of having.

On the other hand, it can catch many unsuspectingly, hitting the hardest with those who haven’t yet internalized the fundamental nature of the career they’ve chosen. There are bills to pay. Mouths to feed. Girlfriends to pamper. Friends to entertain. Parents to prove wrong.

Firstly - take a breather. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. (Say it a couple more times if you need to) Good? Good.

It’s time to see your downtime for what it really is - a blessing. When work dies, the world doesn’t stop turning. On the contrary, there are plenty of other useful things you can do to take advantage of these moments, some of which will also ensure you have less of these downtimes going forward (for those who are still uneasy). Here’s a small list of suggestions of things to do the next time clients give you a moment of rest.

Read the rest of this entry >

In the last 6 months, I’ve grown a new appreciation for office politics, 9-5’s, dress codes, and bad managers - at least to the extent that none of them apply to me. I have to admit, there is a pinch of joy in boasting about the flexible and autonomous lifestyle that has come with the entrepreneurial path I’ve chosen to follow. But like everything in this world, working from home has its downsides.

Here’s a list of caveats that I’ve come to discover and that you should expect to encounter if you’ve chosen to lead the work-at-home life as well.

1. You’re always at home

This may seem like an obvious observation but trust me, it’ll hit you after your first week of working at home. Consider this: your buddies wake up in the morning, get dressed, take a drive, get to the office, have some lunch, get back on the road, and then return home. Meanwhile, you’ve been there the whole time. This may seem like a sweet deal at first, but you may find yourself growing a bit tired of the environment - you are, after all, there 24/7.

No matter how great of a work environment you’ve set up for yourself, a static environment can sometimes suck the life out of you. This pain point hits home the hardest at the end of the day when you’re simply dying to get out. The problem is, your buddies are all relieved to finally be back home and don’t have the energy to head out to the bar with you. Suddenly a drive out to the gas station is a major treat.

2. You’re always at work

The opposite and often eviler side of the coin. From the moment you wake up to the moment you hit the sack, you’re at work. When you literally live at work, it makes it nearly impossible to ever escape it. Add on to it the fact that you’re a workaholic anyway, then you’ll find yourself doing a lot of overtime.

I vaguely remember the comfort of leaving the office and returning home to my personal computer and simply browsing the internet liesurely or chatting the night away on IM. Now when I’m bored, I make websites. Or I organize my finances. Or I work on some other projects. The truth is, there is always an infinite amount of things to do, and without being able to physically detach yourself from them, you’ll just keep on working. You never quite leave the office, so you never quite know when to call it quits. Great for productivity, crappy for your spirit.

3. Is anybody there?

The answer is no. Well, your mother could be home. As could your budgy named Snowy. But they’re not the people you were looking for or the people you may find you miss the most after working at home for some time. Who you’re looking for are the guys by the watercooler, the colleagues you pass in the hallways, the people you see in the cafeteria, and even the receptionist at the front desk. And unless your mother follows Lost as religiously as you do (or even if she does), you tend to miss out a bit on the personal interaction and comaraderie that comes with an office job.

4. Self-control sold separately

My guitar is always within arm’s reach. I have a collection of How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, and Lost episodes ready to be enjoyed. TVtropolis has made daytime television worth watching again (hoorah for reruns of classic sitcoms).

These are but a few distractions that make working from home slightly difficult sometimes. It can often be like working at a toy store (let’s ignore my action figures and pretend this is just a metaphor) - when you’re surrounded by toys, you can’t help but play with them a little. Counter-productive? Yes. But with nobody breathing down your neck, it makes it morally easy to write it off.

5. “While you’re home, can you…”

This winter, Toronto has seen 3 big snow falls already. What’s become apparent from this is that working from home does not exempt me from shoveling the snow. It also doesn’t excuse me from doing laundry, cleaning, or occasional drives out to the grocery store.

While not being able to escape household responsibilities is more likely a result of living with your parents, it is certainly magnified when you work from home. This can have a toll on your work, even if it means just taking a moment to explain that you’ll do it after you’re done work. If your parents are like mine, you’ll have to explain it again in 5 minutes. Then again, you probably don’t live with your parents.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working at home!

From this post alone, working at home probably seems like a torturous, painful, and tiresome form of entrepreneurial hell. To be honest, it can be sometimes. But these feelings are far and few in between, and there are definitely easy remedies to cure some of these blues. I just wanted to give those considering the work-at-home lifestyle the heads up that it’s not all fun and games (or that sometimes it is, and that’s not good either).

My next post will focus on how to fend off these downers and make the most of your freedom from the corporate world. Stay tuned!

Update!
Read the follow-up: 13 ways to liven up your work-at-home routine

My team and I have been hard at work building our agency’s new site (which explains my lack of posts lately). Just like the evolution of our business cards, the next evolution of our website is a reflection of the growth and maturity of our agency. It’s funny how much can change in a single year, but I think it’s absolutely critical to keep your company’s website up to date and always in line with what you’re trying to achieve. The ironic reality is that most agencies get so caught up in the work they’re doing, that they often neglect their #1 marketing vehicle. I’m guilty of this as well.

If you run an agency (or any company for that matter), you’ll know how commonly your potential clients or customers ask “where can I see some of your past work or learn more about your services?”. That question alone should be reason enough to keep the content on your site up to date. But the content isn’t the only thing to consider when it comes to your agency website. From design to tone to architecture, there’s quite a bit of thought that goes into building something that effectively represents your agency on the internet. Now engulfed by the magic and wonders of this process, I thought I would share with all of you my perspective on the anatomy of an agency website.

Design & Style

The face of your agency lies within the design and style of your website. More importantly, if you’re an interactive agency, this website represents your skill set and everything you’re trying to sell to your visitors. Hell, if you’re in the design industry at all, you can bet that your visitors will have greater expectations from the aesthetics that greet them. Not that visitors will be forgiving of an ugly website - and that’s the thing: sometimes the design and style of your website will say more than your content ever could. You may have the most intriguing and insightful copy in the world, but if it looks like crap, your visitors won’t buy it. Literally.

Consider this:

• Is the style of your website consistent with the style of work you produce?
• Is it easy for your visitors to find out information about your agency? Usability, usability, usability!
• Is your website branded consistently with the rest of your materials? Colors, fonts, look, feel, etc. (More importantly, do you have a brand?)

Voice & Tone

Your website is a communication tool. And when it comes to communicating, it’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Imagine your website as if it were the front desk receptionist in your office. What does she sound like? How does she greet your visitors? This same concept applies to the voice and tone you choose to use to communicate your message to your audience.

Consider this:

• Are you a “we” company? Decide whether you will communicate from first person or third person. The perspective you choose dictates how personal you want to get with your visitors.
• Is your tone corporate, business casual, casual, or flat-out web 2.0? The fashion in which your content is written speaks again to the relationship you’re offering. A very corporate tone will allude to a more transactional relationship. A casual tone says screw the corporate BS, let’s be pals. You may find your agency’s tone somewhere in between.

Content & Architecture

Okay, now we’re talking about what you’re saying. For the most part, new visitors to an agency site follow a simple pattern when attempting to learn about your agency. Here’s a ranking of the must-haves on your website that also reflects the typical order in which a new visitor browses your agency’s content.

1. Portfolio
   It’s no surprise that visitors looking to see what you can offer will first check out what you have already offered to others. Plus, for the visual learners, a portfolio will say more about your capabilities than the copy of your services section will. Which brings me to…
    
2. Services
   A portfolio is a great way to wet the lips of your visitors. Typically, after seeing what you’ve done for others, they’ll be on the look out for what you actually offer to do. As such, your services page should be prepared to clearly outline everything you can do.
    
3. About your company
   You may have convinced your visitors that you’ve done great work and that you offer the services they’re looking for, but if you’re a crazy group of axe murderers (as some agencies may be…), then chances are the sales cycle stops there. Tell them a bit about your agency and reassure them that you’re not that crazy group of axe murderers. Or if you are, then try not to mention the murderers part. Or the crazy part.
    
4. Contact
   If your visitor has made it this far, you’re in good shape. It means they’ve been convinced enough of your agency’s abilities that they’re even considering speaking with you. Make sure the contact options are clearly laid out and as easy as possible for your visitors. The harder it is to contact you, the more reluctant they’ll be to actually do it.
    
5. News/Blog
   Here are the rules for this section, as I see it: if you have a lot of great news, share it in a news section. If you don’t have news worth mentioning, use a blog instead. If you don’t plan on updating the blog that often, don’t include this section! The use and importance of this section varies across different agencies of different sizes.

These are the basic sections to cover when it comes to the content on your agency website. Many agencies opt to offer extra features as well in hopes of adding value to the user’s visit. Remember folks, value is the keyword.

Consider this:

• Does the content you’re offering provide the answer to the questions your visitors would be asking?
• What do you want your visitors to do after interacting with the content on your site (i.e. what’s the call-to-action)?
• Does your content offer reason for your visitors to come back?

* * *

Remember, I’ve only discussed the main areas of an agency website here. There’s clearly much more to consider when it comes to building out your site. But, if you don’t know where to start, this should give you a nice blueprint for your first few steps. If you’ve already started, I think it’s still important to review some of these points as a checklist just to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

As I write this, my team is still working hard at building the next instance of our online face. Looking back at the current site, I can’t help but see how many things need changing. It suited us a year ago, but so much has changed since then.

Is your agency site up to date?

I’ve been trying my best to keep up with my RSS reading lately, and I have to admit, my recent switch to Google Reader has made the process a bit more productive. Ironically, RSS reading can be anything but productive sometimes (thank you/curse you Satish). What Google Reader has done though, is let me “star” posts that are interesting so that I can reference them later. Brilliant. It’s like my Outlook inbox for RSS feeds (because who doesn’t need another Outlook inbox to live by?).

Anyway, here are a few posts that really stuck out this past week.

• Who remembers the periodic table of elements? Well for all those who thought you left it behind for a career in marketing, think again! The folks at Kolbrener have put together this awesome table of brand evolution terms. It’s time to love chemistry again. (Courtesy of Mish’s Playground and Satish, the RSS monster)
   
• For those racking up consultancy hours, Freelance Switch has posted a list of 6 cool online tools to track your time and help you figure out how many hours to bill. Shweeet.
   
• Starting your own design agency? Here are 20 questions to ask yourself first to ensure you’re ready. Hell, even if you already have a design agency, you should answer these questions. It’s never too late to change!
   
• Your pipeline is your business’ lifeline. How healthy is yours? Shane & Peter get intimate with math and show you how you can measure your sales pipeline in 15 minutes… or it’s free. Their blog post, that is.
   
• If you run a virtual office, check out the Notes from the virtual office series over at #comments. There are only 3 posts in the category, but they’re all worth a read!

I don’t plan on making this a regular thing, I just thought these links in particular were useful to share. Enjoy!