Benjamin Finch : Writings from The Killswitch Collective

The New Creative Economy?

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:54:07 -0700

I wrote earlier this year about the trials and tribulations Killswitch experienced as part of the downturn, and I also wrote about the good times ahead. There is no magic bullet or wise answer in this article, and it only begins to skim the surface. These are only my opinions on where things stand and what I see moving forward as a fellow small business owner here in Chicago.

How does everyone feel about the "The New Creative Economy" in our industry? Not sure yet whether you're seeing the bump that everyone has expected or if we're heading down for another dip? Join the club.

It's no illusion that the creative industry has been deeply impacted by the great recession. Any firm, large or small, that has not been impacted was probably out of business before it started.

But the message that has transcended the rest, is that the industry is changed, like so many others, in a permanent way. Actually, let me change that, the "prediction" is that it has changed in a permanent way. And it's a prediction, only because not nearly enough time has gone by yet for anyone to really know what the long term impact might be.

Business Practices, Client Acquisition and Carving Out Direction

There are three important topics to discuss when determining the potential impact of the great recession on the creative industry we call home.

-New business acquisition
-Existing business relationships
-The growth and direction of the company

These three focal points should be high on the list for anyone running a business in our industry. They drive new business, extend and strengthen existing business and determine the direction with which you steer your company out of the current and into the future. And each means something a little different to all the firms out there, but how these three come together will determine the success moving forward.

So have any of these truly changed? Well, here at Killswitch we acquire business now the same way we did before, by reputation and word-of-mouth. We have clients coming back to execute projects from before the recession who we haven't worked with in over a year and a half. And we see a more positive growth and direction now for the company than we have in quite some time.

5 to 10 years from now, my thinking is that we will all look back and we will realize that while everyone was impacted, we all have a slightly different perspective on how, and we will have each made slight changes and adjustments to strengthen each of the 3 focal topics I discuss above.

Now of course, I am speaking mostly about small companies, not the large agencies and marketing firms out there. Those firms will continue to do business the same way they always did, and that is fine. But for the small business owner, perspectives have changed, and while the core tenets may not have, we all have to strengthen our brands through new and improved practices within these tenets.

Hiring & Human Resources

What about things like hiring and human resources? Those are important topics as well to discuss when looking back on the great recession aren't they? The answer is a simple yes.

These topics mark the one area for small creative businesses that have been changed the most so far when looking at the impact of the times we do business in. They were important before, but the small business owner's perception of hiring, cash flow and all the other administrative things that help run a successful business will probably never be handled quite the same way again.

What is gone completely:

-A full ride for health benefits at smaller creative firms: gone. (Employees will have to pay at least 50% of their benefits now, and 100% of their spouse)

-401K programs, sure those are around, but a match from your employer: gone (This is something that will probably never come back amongst many smaller firms, and it's a shame because that match is one of the cheapest benefits for the employer and the employee, you can ever give out)

-Performance reviews more than once per year, with a raise included: gone (Performance reviews will certainly stay, but it has been and will continue to be made clear at small firms to not expect big or any raises at all at a review)

-Bonuses: gone (Because if an employer has extra money it will likely be going back into infrastructure, other than the employee)

What has changed but not disappeared completely:

-Full time employment versus freelance: Even less full time staff for smaller creative firms and more freelancers is going to be the norm for at least the next 5 years. At a firm where there may be 10 staff members, 3-4 will be full time and the rest, contracted.

-Small creative business owners are only going to bring on staff who are the best of the best, because right now, the market is their favor, not the favor of the job seeker. This will impact our industry more so than normal because those who use to be seen as worth the risk, will not be getting hired now at all, which has and will continue to impact creatives coming out of college and their ability to get a job...anywhere.

Cash Flow

I don't have to repeat the phrase "Cash is King", but that has never been more true for today's small creative business owner. When you get it, you need to try to hold onto it, and when you don't have it, you need to try to get it. We run businesses surrounding relationships and creative thinking, we are artists as much as we are client managers, but we are also still running a business, and that is something that you can't loose sight of now.

Before the recession, especially in our industry, everyone threw around a lot of money, whether it was to get fresh talent, or to sponsor that company Christmas party. In 2008 we spent almost $12,000 on that outing alone, and over $20,000 on bonuses we handed out at the party. That_is_a_lot_of_money now.

Granted this was for our most important asset, our employees, but I am using it as an example that smaller parties and smaller or non-existent bonuses will have to be good enough now at most of the smaller companies in our industry. There isn't a whole lot else for an employer to say other than, sorry, but the money is being spent other ways, and that is that.

I remember reading a survey at the end of last year that over 80% of small business owners who were polled by CNN said that they were not even having a Christmas party, guess what, Killswitch didn't have one either.

Recovery

So while it is clear that some things have already been impacted, an we are waiting to see the outcome on others, the one thing we can predict is that a recovery is already in motion. Recoveries are the outcome of depressions and recessions and have been for the past 120 years since economists have kept track.

It is my opinion that there will be no technical double dip, but it is also my opinion that we are still coming out of the recession that "officially" ended several quarters ago. Our industry is in the middle of the many that exist, in that, we are and will continue to feel the positive impacts of the uptick probably over the next 12-18 months and then level out somewhat.

But as far as 2007 and 2008 goes, I see at least 5 + years between now and when there is a consistency that puts the industry even close to where it was in the boom years, and even that is an aggressive prediction. We might never be back there again if some of the topics discussed in this article don't correct themselves naturally, and that is truly what we are waiting to see.

We shouldn't rush the need to understand the last 2 years and we shouldn't worry about the next 2. The most important thing in this industry is that if you do great creative work, and establish long lasting relationships, you will succeed and those clients will carry you through the downturns, just as they did for Killswitch and just as they will for those of you out there who are doing what you love to do every day.

This article is dedicated to,Jon Lewin from Sioux Printing, a close colleague and friend of ours here at Killswitch who closed his business this year. A 50+ year printing business that did not deserve to shutter it's doors. We did lots of work with them over the years, as did our colleagues and Jon always made things right and delivered great work.

Ten Years of Threadless

Mon, 24 May 2010 08:05:14 -0700

Ten Questions for Ten Years of Threadless : An Interview with Thomas V. Ryan, CEO of Threadless/skinnyCorp

As part of our ongoing Perspectives Interviews initiative here at Killswitch, we interview everyone from creatives to CEO's in hopes of taking the pulse in the creative business community.

Our latest interview is with Thomas V. Ryan, CEO at Threadless/skinnyCorp, a company that creates online communities and pioneered "crowdsourcing" through their popular art community and e-commerce site, Threadless. Thomas also currently serves on the Board of Directors for Smule, and in the past, has worked at the executive level for Virgin Mobile, EMI Music, and eMusic. Thomas' first company, Cductive, which he founded in 1996 was a pioneering digital music retailer which was among the first to sell mp3 downloads and custom CD compilations. Thomas was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to sit down and answer some questions I had. I asked questions that I thought could benefit a wide range of readers, and I also asked a few on topics that, as a small business owner, I struggle with as well.

Some of these were not easy questions to answer and will shed some light on the real challenges and triumphs of the Threadless brand over the years. This is definitely an organization that should be used as a model of excellent leadership, awesome employee morale and commitment, as well as a brand that achieves great results.

www.threadless.com
www.skinnycorp.com

As the CEO of Threadless/skinnyCorp since 2008, can you reflect back on what this 10 year anniversary means to you and your company?

This year is a huge milestone for our company. Our founder Jake Nickell started Threadless in his apartment in 2000 after winning a one-off t-shirt design contest on the now defunct online designer forum Dreamless. Over the years since then, and thanks to the support of our awesome community, Threadless has become not just a successful business but an important influence in the visual artist, Internet, and business worlds. For example: a Threadless win has become a respected piece in an artist's work portfolio; Threadless has become a posterchild for the web trend Jeff Howe of Wired calls "crowdsourcing"; and universities like MIT and Harvard teach courses based on learnings from Threadless. Having only been here for two of those ten years, I can't take much credit. In fact, when I started here, Inc. Magazine ran a cover story calling Threadless "the most innovative small company in America." I thought to myself "how am I going to help us top this?"

During this tenth anniversary year, we want to celebrate the accomplishments of our community and our company, but we also want to look forward to the next decade of Threadless. To celebrate, we're reprinting popular designs from all ten years, doing a lot of exciting events, releasing a book, and much more. We're also working hard on new initiatives that will drive Threadless forward. We're focusing heavily on international expansion and we're pursuing new opportunities for our artists, such as offering new products (like the iPhone cases we've done with Griffin and the premium tees we've done with Gilt Groupe). We'll have a lot more to announce soon.

As you know there are a lot of people out there that make t-shirts. It seems like the vehicle that has allowed the company to grow, has been the classic t-shirt, but upon further discussion, the design is the real product that Threadless sells to customers. Designers are rewarded by having their designs featured and also get a cut of good ole' hard cash. From your point of view though, what is it about the Threadless concept that set your company apart when it started, and more recently what has been done to make the company successful long term?

It's true that t-shirts are an ideal product for many reasons and that customers come to Threadless first and foremost for the designs. However, lots of companies sell well designed t-shirts. What has always set Threadless apart is the community. From the early days through today, our community members have always been very supportive of one another. Real relationships are formed on Threadless and lots of members are actually friends with one another. Having an authentic community with these types of bonds isn't something that can be forced on people or rushed, so I think it's no surprise that it's been a decade in the making.

As a business owner in the creative space, I find one of the biggest challenges is working within the scope of a client's expectations for a project. In your industry, how do you manage the expectations of both your customers and your content providers, i.e. the designers?

There's a few key things we do that stand out in my opinion.

First, we always try to surprise and delight the community. Another way of saying this, and this is our mission statement, is to "inspire awesomeness." We're always trying to come up with ideas and projects that will inspire awesomeness in each other, in our community, and in the world. Examples are charitable campaigns like our Tee for Haiti which raised over $100K for Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti; partnerships like the ones we've done with RISD; and design challenges with prestigious museums like The Tate Modern or New Museum. These things capture the imagination of artists and customers alike.

Second, we listen to our community and we make decisions and changes to our business based on the things they tell us. An example is our retail strategy. We were getting approached by brick and mortar retailers of all shapes and sizes who wanted to distribute our tees in their stores. Some were really big and we had internal debates as to whether or not we should be selling our tees through them. Ultimately, we felt that the community would be best able to guide us, so we asked them what they thought and got great, immediate feedback from them. That's been informing our retail plans since.

Third, we are always trying to make Threadless valuable to the community. An example is offering a new product that artists can design and that customers will want to buy. Sometimes these decisions can be difficult, since the interests of artists and customers are not always aligned. However, we're making progress and so far the reaction to our new products has been great on both sides.

Last, but not least, we're authentic. We speak openly, we inject our personalities into how we speak to our community, and we try to have fun wherever possible.

It's been a challenging year for the majority of creative businesses. Whether you are a large agency or a small shop like Killswitch, I know no one likes to talk about this subject, but has the recession impacted Threadless? If so, how? And what are you doing to keep morale up and the t-shirts leaving the loading dock?

It's certainly been a challenging time for creative businesses. Fortunately, we have been growing rapidly through the turmoil, but it hasn't been for lack of effort! When I joined, we decided that we should focus on our core business of Threadless and related ventures instead of launching new projects or concentrating on some of the other businesses SkinnyCorp had launched in the past. Since then, we've gotten even more disciplined, and Threadless is our primary focus. It's tough to balance the desire to launch new creative ventures with focusing on the core business, but over the past couple of years we have channeled our creativity into making Threadless better and that focus has paid off.

Threadless has opened 2 retail locations in the last 2 years. Can you talk a little bit about why Threadless decided to enter the retail space? There has been both praise and criticism for this move, and I'd be interested in your thoughts.

The first retail store, located in the Lakeview section of Chicago, was intended to extend the Threadless community and business into the real world. It's a physical manifestation of the online community - we only have two weeks worth of releases at any one time (like the homepage of our website); we invite visitors to take a picture of themselves so their face appears on the TV which sits atop the shoulders of the mannequins in the shop (mirroring our community-approach to product models on the website); and we reserve a large amount of the space as an art gallery (just as Threadless is largely about showing off art, rather than solely selling products). The second store, in the Wicker Park section of Chicago, was started as a Threadless Kids store, but now serves both kids and adults. We feel the stores are a great extension of our online business, excellent marketing vehicles, and allow people to step inside Threadless in a physical way. We don't see a brick and mortar retail rollout as the best or fastest way to grow the business, but the stores made sense for us to open here in Chicago.

As the CEO and with the help of other advisors, you make a lot of critical decisions for the organization. If you could do one thing over again as the CEO, in any of the sectors you work in on a regular basis (i.e. Management, Thought Leadership, Employee Communication, etc) what would it be and how would it affect the Threadless/skinnyCorp brand?

I haven't been active enough in the community. I'm certainly a part of it: I score designs, submit slogans to Type Tees, I read and comment in the blogs, and I attend our meet ups and events. However, I need to become more active. Most Threadless employees are so active in our community that I defer to them and take a less prominent role than I should. Given how critical the community is to our business, I should stop lurking and get out there more! In doing so, I would get to know our community even better, hear all of their great ideas or criticisms directly, and be better able to help make Threadless even better. I'm not an artist, but maybe to feed my masochistic side I'll even submit my first design under a pseudonym!

There are a lot of tips for designers that want to submit for Threadless on the site and elsewhere. What would be your best advice be to a new designer out there looking to submit a design and win a challenge on the site?

Spend time on the site, see what's working, and go for it. You can only benefit from submitting, even if you don't win, so once you feel your design is worthy, go ahead and submit. Lots of community members give valuable feedback and try to help new members improve their art and improve their chances of winning.

As a business model that clearly has a deep footing within the design community, both from a content as well as customer standpoint, what can companies, including skinnyCorp, do to support art and design in their communities, beyond the monetary rewards offered to designers of Threadless merchandise?

Money is certainly a part of it, but there is certainly more. Artists submitting to Threadless today already get a good amount of constructive feedback on their designs. Those who win a design challenge also make progress in their careers by creating a valuable portfolio piece and gaining notoriety. Additionally, we are expanding the number of products we sell and the places in which we sell them, so that our artists have more and more opportunities to sell their work. Aside from that, we are actively trying to do more for the arts. We introduced a program called Threadless 101 that aims to bring Threadless to schools, and we are working on a charitable strategy for the arts. We'll have more to share on that soon!

I read on your blog you are in the process of making a 10th Anniversary book. Can you tell us a little about it? I'm sure the readers are giddy with excitement on this one!

Sure. This is an exciting project Jake has been spearheading. It's a retrospective of the past ten years of Threadless. The art, the artists, and the community that makes us who we are. It showcases the 400 best designs that we've printed over the years and also includes "think pieces" about Threadless by luminaries like John Maeda, Jeff Howe of Wired, and Seth Godin.

And finally, now that you are in the midst of celebrating your 10 year anniversary, after Threadless, which of the skinnyCorp brands do you see the most potential for growth over the next 10 years and why?

Threadless. Community-driven design is a universally appealing proposition - to the artists who submit, to the members who score, blog and give feedback on designs, to the customers who want to buy an awesome design with a unique story and real person behind it. As we continue to grow Threadless by growing internationally, adding new community-design products, and distributing our products more broadly, we hope to increase our impact on the arts and the world.

Scaling a Creative Business :: Part 2

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:52:26 -0700

How do you scale your business, from 2 to 20 and beyond? A creative company's approach: Part 2

For those of you who have not read my first article on this topic, please do so before reading Part 2. It sets the tone for some specifics I am going to talk about in this next article.

So now that we have our groundwork in place--the right thought leadership, positive revenue growth, the right clients, and a reason to expand--we can begin to scale up. It is important to note that the topics below are not in any specific order of execution.

1. Hiring Strategy: It's not as easy as just hiring a designer or support staff at your company. You must weigh each decision to hire a new team member with equal importance to your company. Let's say your goal is to be big enough to support 20 staff members. Each member will play a role in the success of your business, whether they answer the phones and cut payroll or manage a project.

You must, even early on, develop a hiring strategy that you and the other leaders at the company can agree on. How do you interview? What questions do you ask? What type of potential team member is the right fit for your vision? And will you base decisions on past performance and references, or will you base them on your gut instinct and what potential you think the person might have? Perhaps it is a little bit of both. Whatever the need is for hiring, having a strategy in place first will save you and your potential staff members a lot of headaches and will ensure interviews are focused to complement a streamlined process.

2. Firm Capabilities: Once you're established and ready to grow, you must revisit the capabilities you offer to your clients. As a creative shop starts out, it usually takes on a lot of projects it is not always qualified to complete. A newer shop is going to get hit with a lot of requests that will span the spectrum, and while building a base from these types of projects is OK, eventually you have to look in the mirror and concentrate on your very best offerings.

Also, as you hire new people, each team member will contribute to the capabilities offering, and so focusing on what the firm is good at and what made you successful in the first place, is a critical step in the growth process.

For a creative firm, capabilities are essential. You are only as good as the work you push out the door to many potential clients. And for those clients that come through a referral, don't assume that you won't have to demonstrate your capabilities to them.

-Take a look at that last 12-18 months, categorize your work, and rate the successes versus the failures. You should end up with a nice list of projects that demonstrate your strong points and should represent your "bread and butter" client work.

-Once you have honed in on your true strong points, sit down with the other leaders at your company and make decisions on how these strong offerings can be managed internally.

-For the weak offerings, brainstorm ways to increase success for those capabilities you wish to continue to offer to new and existing clientele. You should answer internal questions like, why do we want to improve these capabilities, what does the market look like for these moving forward, are we going to be able to hire staff to support these capabilities, and so on.

-Develop a capabilities report outlining your findings from the above discussion, and make sure that for each service offering, you have a plan for acquisition, execution and evolution.

Once you have your final capabilities in check, and you have a plan to support them, your small firm will be on a good track to continue to move forward. What happens if you don't go through this exercise? Well, it's pretty easy to understand that as part of a proactive growth program at any company, you must know in your gut what offerings are appropriate for the market, what will grow your company, what offerings will generate positive revenue and what capabilities your staff can support.

3. Thought Leadership: Are you a designer or a business person? Or both? If you start a firm with a partner, and you divide the "Creative" and "Business" responsibilities from the get-go, you will likely see success much earlier. This is how Killswitch has grown so rapidly over the past 6-7 years and why we have been successful. Seems simple right? Well it is, and it isn't. Not only do these two people need to respect each other and their "halves" of the business, but they have to be able to bring to two parts together as a whole. The creative has to match the business offering and promises, and the business offerings should not sell the creative short. In other words, if you are a higher-end shop creatively, you don't want your "business" side of the firm making cold calls and selling web design door-to-door right? The business market model has to match the creative approach to accelerate success and to build a brand with not only the perception of high-end, but also one that can deliver the goods. The business offering that goes out can only be successful on its own if the creative matches.

But for those of you who do not have the 50/50 split I describe above, than you have an even bigger challenge. You must identify what your are best at. If it is design, you will need business guidance, and if it is business, you will need design guidance.

What I am really getting at here, is figuring out what you are best at and how you fit within the thought leadership as you begin to scale your firm up is a critical exercise to go through. If you haven't done an audit on yourself, and you think your hiring strategy and firm capabilities are in check, you need to look in the mirror and make sure that your business, the hiring strategy and the offerings can be supported by your thought leadership alone, when you are singularly in-charge of a creative firm.

Knowing this helps you hire the right people, and it helps you find the right clients which I will talk about next.

4. Client Acquisition Strategy: I know this sounds rather technical for an element within a creative firm, but it is so important. When you are starting out, you take on any client you can find, especially if you start younger and without a reputation or past firm experience like we did here at Killswitch. You learn the hard way which is sometimes the best way to learn. You get knocked down, time and time again, but as long as you get back up, there will be a reward.

If your small firm is about to embark on a growth phase, you must develop a client acquisition strategy. This can be a plan that outlines the type of clients you will go after, based on the capabilities we discussed earlier. How will you approach cold clients? How will you approach referral based clients? How will you approach clients who invite you to bid on an RFP? And the list goes on.

There are 6 major client categories Killswitch has identified, and they apply to all the industries out there.

1. Cold Clients: Clients who you engage on your own when there is no work on the table at that time.
2. Cold RFP Clients: Clients who you engage to bid on an RFP that was not sent to you as an invitation only.
3. Cold Referral Clients: A client who is referred to your firm through someone who recommends you who has not necessarily worked with you.
4. Referral Clients: A client who has been referred to you by a client you have worked with and have a relationship with.
5. Existing Bid Clients: A client who you have worked with, who comes back to you to do more work through a bid process.
6. Existing Clients: A client who you have worked with, who comes back to you to do more work, without a bid process in place.

As you go through the list above, the clients get riper and riper. Obviously each category has its plus and minuses, and I won't go into each now, but the bottom line is that as part of your strategy you must make some decisions about which of these categories you will contend in. You should have an acquisition plan in place for each, because each demands a different type of engagement.

In addition to determining the client categories in which your firm will work, you must also think about industry. Which industries fit the firm the best? This is another question easily answered from your capabilities exercise. If you can hit a few industries and make them your sweet spot, you will grow quicker than you imagined. Just make sure you have enough in the tank in the event you lose clients. Some industries, as just exhibited in the recent recession, can stop sending money all at once, and that is something that you want to protect your firm from.

5. Internal Structure: Once all the strategy and discussion is in place, the bare-bones structure of your firm must be addressed. This problem is probably the single biggest issue I hear from small business owners, both in and out of the creative industry. How do I structure my business? Well, if you go through the above exercises, you should have an idea of the positions you need to create at your firm and the type of people that will best fill those positions.

Each business has a model that hopefully works for them, whether they have 20 people or 2,000. And the size doesn't matter that much actually. As the company gets bigger, there are just more tiers and layers of accountability. Some creative firms choose to be heavy on the account manager/designer position, while other firms like Killswitch that are more evenly split between creative and web development have two over arching structures in place: one for managing the creative side of the business, and one that manages the web development/sofware side of the business.

Development:
-Principals oversee development managers, development managers oversee developers, developers execute development.

Creative:
-Principals oversee designers, designers execute their projects.

Projects:
-Principals oversee project managers, project managers oversee clients and projects.

Admin:
-Principals oversee human resource staff, human resource staff oversee employee needs.

Client Acquisition:
Principals oversee new client acquisition.

Hiring Strategy:
Principals oversee new hiring strategy, human resource staff supports hiring strategy.

Obviously the above descriptions over simplify things a bit. Within each are additional layers of description which define how each role is executed, but the important thing to take away is that all tiers have equal importance and equal input on all stages of a project depending on what capability area they are working in, and that is essential for a small firm like Killswitch.

It is important to not over complicate your structure. Even for smaller shops, it's important to have these tiers defined so that everyone has a clear understanding of responsibilities.

6. Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork: Do you have an employee handbook? Do you require any legal documents like an NDA or Non-Compete for your employees? Do you have a sick-leave policy? Are you even sure you are following the laws of the state with which your firm resides?

One of the most overlooked things by creatives who scale their business up is the legality of hiring and firing. If you are scaling up, you should have things in place to cover the interests of your business, and you should meet with a human resources consultant to ensure all laws are being followed. Having these documents is for the benefit of everyone involved.

7. Finances: Uncle Sam is in control when it comes to scaling any business up. Your business is likely taking risks when hiring people, especially in this climate. Having enough funds in the bank to back up these risks is essential.

Creative businesses, like many others, have one major form of traditional revenue.

- Client Receivables: The money that is on its way to your doorstep from those projects you just completed can be most easily broken down into "per-project income" and "retainer income." Both will support just about 100% of the revenue at your firm, and for many, I am only speaking the obvious. For some firms who offer additional products or other services for sale, there may be a 3rd called "recurring customer income," but for purposes of this article I am not going into that.

So while these are obvious, there is one area that time and time again business owners fail to realize (especially those in the design industry) and that is good ole' cash in the bank. Savings, savings and more savings is the best alternative strategy to ensure your scaling up doesn't bite back. There is no magic number here, but most businesses should try to save up to 3 months of monthly costs and have that in the bank at all times, and if you're scaling up from your current monthly expenses, I would recommend having at least another 2 months saved at the new budgeted monthly amount. That means if you operate on $100,000 per month and you are expanding 20% you should have $300,000 in the bank plus another $240,000. This could be in the form of saved client receivables, a line of credit, or even a loan. Whatever the form, if you are going to scale up, make sure you have money to back it up. In this climate, it may not seem reasonable to require this type of rainy day fund but it is a discussion that must be had during the process of expanding your firm.

8. Expansion Plan: All of the points thus far should be articulate in a singular document, a plan that outlines your expansion and everything that comes with it. There may be things as you draft this plan that you will see are unique to your specific scenario that need to be addressed. Issues such as office space and presence or other issues like planing out how you will set up interviews. You may also find that you have already addressed everything. No matter what happens, bringing this all together will help streamline execution, and will allow you to communicate more easily to those in the company as to how the strategy is rolled out.

Obviously for certain people, there will be areas that I have not covered. The points above are simply meant to be a guide and are not all inclusive.

Feel free to email me through our general email address if you have any questions or need help figuring out how to get things off the ground with your new venture.

Scaling a Creative Business :: Part 1

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:35:11 -0800

How do you scale your business, from 2 to 20 and beyond? A creative company's approach: Part 1

The question of scalability in the business space, especially the start-up environment is a daunting task for creatives. Whether you are a start-up that has 5 people or 500, business structures must be in place, and you must be committed to trying things and failing early on.

In our industry, there are so many talented designers and web programmers out there, each with his or her dream of being their own boss. And while the freelance community supports this methodology well, building your business from being a designer in the living room, to becoming a business owner that manages multiple facets of the service offerings, client requests, budgets, payroll and so on, is not an easy task.

One of the most critical facets of building a creative shop that can scale is ensuring that no matter what structure is in place, the staff can be flexible within their job descriptions. In other words, team members must wear many hats at a small firm, and so having a team backing you up that can not only serve many roles, but also can take on new responsibilities through promotion and other benefits, is absolutely critical for scalability's success. As a small business, if you cannot promote those from within, you can never scale up with any certainty that as the owner you won't be micromanaging everyone, every day.

In addition to the ingredients of the structure, i.e. the employees, business operations and thought leadership, the structure itself must scale or be flexible enough to allow for new positions to be adopted as the firm grows from a smaller shop into a more mature creative machine.

Over the years here at Killswitch we have tried different structures. Some have included managers, some have not. Some give employees equal input on many facets of a project, or an operational problem. Some include project managers or in other scenarios, development managers that manage different aspects of the operational and development portions of a project. And over the years we have grown into a model that works for our level of firm and clientele.

But there is still always a lot of room for improvement.

And there should be with any small business, not just a creative firm. The most important thing to remember if you are a new creative starting out, and looking to build your shop up, is not to worry about the things that are not going to be with you tomorrow. Concentrate on the big picture items, and that should serve you well to ensure the details of your client's project are being taken care of.

For the back story on how Killswitch grew, I would recommend reading this article first, and then coming back to this one, as it offers a more clear back-drop for what I am talking about here.

Below I have outlined the most important things I have learned over the years in scaling a creative business, from getting it off the ground to maintaining it, and everything in between.

1. When you first start out, you have to understand that you will make mistakes. If you are a creative person, you probably do not have a business background, so from the start, be comfortable with the fact that you're probably not going to just step on your own toes, but you may at times, step on a few clients' toes as well. The most important thing you can know when you first start is that you must learn from these mistakes the very first time you make them.

2. Your business never gets big enough, and you never get busy enough to ignore the work that is being sent out. Even at a firm of 10 or 15 people, work can squeak out that the owner or managing partner never sees, especially when there is more than one owner. Control the flow of outbound information, design, and anything else that will impact your brand. This point is especially important in an early growth stage company. Work that is not up to par early on can have a worse impact than many think. Some of those early client connections will be the ones that bridge you to your next project and next tier of success.

3. Work, work, work. If you expect only to do good design work and be successful, you've got another thing coming. Designers are a dime-a-dozen these days. At Killswitch, we receive between 3 and 4 resumes per day from creatives. Clients have so many options for their projects, and so it is important that the design strategy and execution not only be good, but that you distinguish yourself from the rest. This could be a service that you offer, in addition to design. It could be the way you manage a client, or it could even be the thought leadership you employ if you are a slightly larger company. The bottom line is that your work is never enough in the small business space. You should always have to offer more.

4. As your business grows, your bank account should too. Just because you are a designer, and you now have a studio with employees, payroll, deadlines, and all the other things that come along with this, doesn't mean you should be living like you were in college. Quality of life, when you are a small business owner, comes with a lot of stress, but should also come with plenty of rewards if you are doing things right. This is a topic that is overlooked a lot in this industry. The saying goes that if you do something you love, the income and quality of life that you desire will follow. Well, that is just not true. You must decide where you want to be, and how you want to live and work towards those goals, whether they are financial, or a mix, it doesn't matter. Just don't forget to think about this as you grow your business and client base.

5. Think about your employees first and your clients second. This statement might sound a bit off, but in many circumstances, you must consider the impact a project has on your talent, especially in this industry. Cultivating a small business is as much about building a talent pool as it is building a client base. Killswitch was fortunate early on to land some big accounts, and while those have lead us to where we stand today in many regards, there are things that would be done differently now when it comes to employee impact and so on. Creative firms will lose some great talent no matter how well you manage your employee morale, but you should try to make sure it is never because they are burnt out on a project or a client. Staffing and other strategies can be used to ensure that employees don't get burnt out on one client or project, and I would recommend using everything in your arsenal to ensure this does not happen

6. When your company is more established, and you have operating income and the freedom to make a great hire, do it, and do not hesitate. More importantly, when you hire someone, make sure they are not just qualified for your position, but are better at what they do than you are. While being a small business owner and creative professional can make it hard to hire someone more talented or experienced than you are, this strategy will never let you down. By surrounding yourself with great talent, you will see your business grow quickly.

7. Secondary to the point above, and my concluding point... put the power in the hands of your staff. Allowing your staff to make the recommendations and to have a voice is a very critical practice, especially at a smaller, more collaborative studio. At the end of the day you might be surprised at how much better the outcome is for your client. The real power here, is that as your staff become more active in the business and critical decisions, the easier it will be for you to scale up and hire more team members.

Many of these points help contribute to the base that allows you to scale. Once the base is in place, read Part 2 for specific strategies to execute that will help you succeed in scaling up

Feel free to email me through our general email address if you have any questions or need help figuring out how to get things off the ground with your new venture.

Employee Culture & Social Media

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:18:39 -0800

Have the Changes in Employee Culture Predicted and/or Contributed to the Rise of Social Media?

It may not be an obvious exercise to connect the changes in employee culture over the past 30 years and the current rise of social media, however when you look at the general patterns and focal points for both, you begin to see that the changes that began to take place some 30 years ago, may have played a key role in developing the environment we find ourselves in today.

Back when our parents grew up, the culture supported the idea that your "career" would be only with a handful of employers. People went to college or a technical school, graduated and then became part of the American culture, where it was not uncommon for people to spend 15, 20 or even 30 years with a single company. Some earned a living wage at first, and worked their way up, while others worked in the same job for their entire 30+ year career.

It's not hard to understand why that culture was different. They had pensions, employee loyalty incentives, retirement programs that were calculated based on their life-long commitment to the company and so on. People worked 9-5 jobs, with very little technological interference, and the majority of their 8 hour day was behind a desk or out on service or sales calls. Communication with clients and with your colleagues in the company was face-to-face just about all the time, and that was the way the culture accepted these types of professional positions.

Life was good, and people felt stable at one job. They felt stable having only maybe a handful of different bosses over their entire service at the company, and they accepted the fact that the American Dream was to own a home and raise a family where people conversed around the dinner table. They didn't just accept it, but the majority of Americans defined their life by their career and company choice. They were who they worked for, and the culture of their friends and family usually surrounded a single or only a handful of brand names.

Oh my, how times have changed, right? Just about everything from the past has been completely rewritten for today. And while we have not rewritten history, in many cases we have rewritten culture's acceptance of many of the points I make above.

We live no longer in a culture where someone will spend their entire career at a single company. In fact, our leaders now encourage us to work for different companies. We do not accept a destiny where we have one or two professional experiences and then retire.

Why? Well the answers are both simple and complex. The simplest, pensions, at least those that were once intact in some of the strongest industries are no longer. Thanks to Social Security and company views on retirement, the retirement card has been leveraged on the employee. No longer does the employer have to worry about taking care of their staff after they retire. The American dream of owning a house and staying in it, is well, gone. Not just because of the recent economic climate, but because people don't stay in one place due mostly to their employment choices. The use of newer technologies simply does not allow us to benefit from the previous generation's single career lifestyle nor does technology support that model. And one of the simplest reasons of all: people just want to do new things.

And so, over the years people began to change their outlook on what a career is defined as. Some argue that it was the academic community who pushed new professionals into a mindset of "many jobs = more experience = better rounded candidate for the next job," while others argue that the companies themselves, as times changed, in fact thrived on turn-over in the company, because turn-over allows for fresh thinkers. When you lay people off, or help people move on to other opportunities, many have argued that you actually create more opportunity for a hiring company to bring in fresh talent and that outweighs the talent you are losing. Whatever your opinion on this, it is clear that most professionals these days will not spend more than 5 years in a single position or in many positions in a single company.

And so the need for social media was born.

As people shifted to a more mobile mindset, and as career advisors, coaches and other industry leaders have pushed professionals to seek multiple opportunities over the course of their career, what has happened is that our career culture has become one where people are driven to do reach new heights professionally, but most importantly they want to reach those new heights for new companies which are within new networks of people.

And with this new mindset in place, there was a need for connectivity like never before. No longer could you see the same people in an office for 30 years and go home and see the same neighbors. It was becoming crystal clear that the days of living within a single network were over. And so people began to move, their career titles changed, their networks of colleagues changed, and the house that they went home to every night changed, sometimes over and over and over again.

As people's networks began to change, our drive to stay connected to people played a critical role in the rise of social media and the supporting networks. LinkedIn, Facebook and many others have been proving this notion for several years now. Not only do we want to stay connected to those we already know, we want to build new networks. We want to not only tweet, but we want to now rank twitter users so that we can see who has the best reliability in giving us reliable and trustworthy data. The social networks have now turned into networks that not only allow people to stay connected, but connect people to places, and that validates those people in our networks by allowing the community to decide who has the best opinions and information to share. These types of services are providing us with the ability to do things that previously were only done face-to-face.

Clearly this new way of staying in touch with our friends, colleagues, business associates and family members is not going to change anytime soon. For a moment though, think about what it would be like to stay in the same job for 30 years, to connect with the same people every day, and to see the same neighbors when you arrive at your driveway every night. The world seemed so much smaller back then, and now, it would seem that there is no limit to how we connect, or who we connect with.

The changing of a professional culture may not have predicted the rise of Social Media, but it surely is one of the major factors in contributing to the need for it. While we wait for that next opportunity to arise, and we get excited about adding yet another position title to our LinkedIn page, or another colleague or friend on Facebook, remember that it didn't always use to be this way.

The days of someone living and working within a single network are almost completely gone, and I hope that for the next generation, connectivity does not completely cancel out the need for a friendly face-to-face meeting or chat at the office water cooler.

Making It to the Summit

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:09:35 -0800

Lessons Learned About Starting a Small Business and the Possibilities and Pitfalls You Must Be Prepared For

With the AIGA Small Talk series quickly approaching, I wanted to take some time to reflect upon my journey of how I have gotten to where I am. In doing that, I wrote the story below in hopes that it serves as a background for those who know me and maybe don't know the story and for those who have yet to hear my story. And maybe for those young students, it'll help you determine your path, like many before me helped determine mine.

The Vision

I remember when I first set out to start a creative firm, I was in college and I thought to myself, "Why not, right?" It'd be better to work for myself than for someone else. I had entrepreneurial spirits in my blood, and I wasn't going to fail. And so, those many years ago, I set out to do just that, to "Change the World" so to speak with design, my art school awesomeness, and something that I thought I could do better than others: design and communication.

So I started to build a base of small clients. We're talking mom-and-pop shops, family member businesses, and so on. I was 22. Fresh off back surgery a year before from a train accident here in Chicago and looking to begin a new phase of life.

The Back Story

But let's step back even further, to what started me on the path that would eventually lead me to be writing today. (Yes, this is going to take me all the way back to high school folks). I was 16, living a normal teenage life, and I had friends who were attending The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They invited me to come out and visit, so I accepted, and when I arrived, I fell in love with the city right away. It was so different and so stimulating, in comparison to where I grew up. It was, for me, the next thing I needed to do.

So I applied, in my junior year in high school, mostly with an all sculpture portfolio. My drawing skills, to say the least, were not on par with even my architect father's hand and eye coordination. My sculpture teacher at the time told me I wouldn't get in. (Yeah talk about support), and I think it was at that moment, I knew I had something special happening. I had luck on my side, yes luck, and a little creative talent. I was ready.

So the Art Institute reviewed my portfolio and asked me to come out for a pre-acceptance interview. I was nervous, but I had guidance, even then, from my friends who were attending, and with their help and a little help from admissions I got in. At that time, 1 out of every 4 people were accepted, so I felt pretty good. I guess they saw something, that even at that point I had not seen. I didn't chalk it up to talent but more to being in the right place at the right time, as I sure was then.

The School of the Art Institute had a 4 year program, and it was there that I began to understand what it was I wanted to do. My 2nd year, I ended up in Visual Communication, with Intro to VisCom, taught by the late John P. He was a critical reason why I chose to stay in VisCom, and why I excelled from there. For me, SAIC was never about the quality of the facilities, the non-grade system or its academics. It was all about the professors and mentors. I was able to finish the program before my senior year, while studying under great designers and typographers of the likes of Stephen Farrell, Ann Tyler, Jennifer Moody and others. My senior year I took all graduate level independent studies (for those of you undergrads, yes you can do this with the dean's permission), and it was my senior year at SAIC that I got my next moment of major clarity... my first client.

The one thing that school never prepares you for is the real-world. You hear this complaint about so many industries, but it is more true for the creative industry than just about any other. Working with my first real client was an eye opening, life changing event, that would determine the next 8 years of my life.

The Real Deal

Upon graduation, I worked with the base of clients I had garnered while I was still in college. For the first six months I worked alone, in the apartment I lived in during my senior year. The projects were small, and I couldn't pay my bills at first, but I kept working on it. Around that six month mark, just before summer of 2003, I teamed up with my schoolmate Meredith Martin, to start Killswitch. She had been interviewing at the time for creative positions but decided she would come aboard to see how things worked out. After all, we had nothing to lose. It was then that Killswitch was really born.

We got our LLC status in early 2004 and set up a bank account with $8000 we had saved from previous client work and savings. We moved from my apartment into hers and set her entire place as our studio. Desks in the living room, conference room in the kitchen, and we had one employee... a programmer.

At that time, we both focused on creative, while I also took on the business side responsibilities. We knew eventually we would have to divide this up even further, but back then we both had the time to wear many, many hats.

We started acquiring new design work, along with some small flash-based websites. We learned our lesson pretty hard in the beginning, as our first major web client wound up declaring bankruptcy, and we were never able to get paid up for all of the work we did. (We knew something was up after his first couple of checks bounced, and then he attempted to pay us part of our fee in Best Buy gift cards he had received from his uncle for Christmas). That moment was a wake-up call, so we managed to get some rock solid contracts in place from that point on. We started doing a lot of work for smaller local companies and other design studios. This operation was month-to-month for some time, when we decided to take the plunge. We were working 14-16 hour days from early 2004, until the beginning of 2005 to meet deadlines and get enough work done that we could slowly pay bills and make it into a living wage for ourselves.

In 2005, things began to pick up, we took our first "real" paychecks, and it was then that we got our first "real" office in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood: a 2500 sq ft loft space, super cheap rent, and it was just the two of us. We had big dreams and high hopes that we would fill the space. And guess what... we did.

By the end of 2007, we were full with 14-15 people working in that space, no real conference area, bathrooms that you could hear people pee in (I am not kidding, one of our project managers who is still with us can substantiate this claim), and we were running out of space. Plus, we had acquired some big named clients by then, and this space was just not going to cut it any longer.

By the beginning of 2008, we moved, into the space we are currently in: a 4000 sq ft building in Chicago's West Town neighborhood (on the outskirts of Wicker Park), much nicer and more professional. We opened a second office in Austin, TX around the same time, and on payroll we had upwards of 27 people total, all benefits, no contractors. We were doing it the right way, working on some large accounts. We grew, and we grew, and we grew.

And then...everything changed.

Restructuring

In late 2008 into early 2009, the economy, as everyone knows, took a plunge. We never lost our accounts completely, but when Fortune 500 clients decide they are going to spend 10-20% of what they spent a year earlier, you realize that something has changed. And so we finished projects, laid staff off in early 2009, and then were left to clean up the pieces.

Going through the process of suddenly having to shift your company from an expansion growth mode to a contraction survival mode was probably one of the hardest things we've ever done. Just like the big guys, you have to trim budgets, expenses and unfortunately, that means letting go of talent. But as a small business owner it is especially difficult to do this and not to simply give up. There were a lot of other opportunities for me along the way, as there were for others at the firm, and everyone hung in there like dedicated soldiers. This economic downturn was nothing short of a war within the industry, only we were not fighting our competitors, we were fighting the uncertainties of the business climate.

And as we went through this process, I took a look around at many other agencies, those who were 10-30 people deep and who had been around for a lot longer than us, and they were completely out of business. Completely. That is when things got very scary.

It's worth noting that we had everything they tell you to have in business school (even though I never went to one). We had a well diversified portfolio of clients, plenty of money in the bank, we had never had any business debt, we had employees who liked coming to work every day and we had good clients. And even though we had all of these bases covered, had done good work for many years and had a support from our employees, we were not immune to the economic downturn. No one was.

Nothing they teach you in school can prepare a business owner for a downturn like what occurred to us and many others in our industry. And one of the biggest lessons I learned from this first 6 year phase of Killswitch, is that building a successful business is a lot less about what you can control, versus what you cannot. Granted what we and many other agencies have gone through is probably the worst we will ever see, but that doesn't discount the fact that everything you build can come crashing down pretty quickly. You must do the things you can control well, but you also have to have a little luck and timing along the way.

Moving Forward

After the dust settled and the storm cleared, Killswitch was still in motion. We still had a project manager who was with us since our first office, several programmers that had been with us for many years and a few other staff who made it through as contractors. I can say that without the staff we have had over the years I would not have achieved the success I have in such a short time. They have been pivotal with the decisions that were made, and while there were mistakes made as we have gone through the cycles of business, I don't regret anyone's involvement or contribution to where Killswitch stands today. Everyone has had a positive impact, both for those people with us today, and those that are no longer here.

And so with all of this restructuring behind us, we were ready to achieve the impossible. To rebuild, correct the mistakes we had made, and to do this next round of Killswitch smarter, more efficient, and with even better work from before. And so far, we are doing just that.

As an owner of a small business, I now truly understand the responsibilities that come with this job. Whether it be the mouths that it feeds, or the impact it has on clients and their projects. For those more seasoned than I, this probably all comes as no surprise, but for me, there is nothing in this world I would want to do more than build a small business. My creative path has brought me to what I truly love to do and now that I have just turned 30, I intend on doing just that.

Onward and upward.

Footnotes on achieving success for new entrepreneurs and small business owners:

1. If you hire staff, always hire people better than you for the position you are hiring for. Don't worry about them making recommendations or opinions that may differ from the company's vision. While hiring employees that share a common layer of vision is important, finding employees who are independent and who want to add to a company's procedures and vision, are the most important kinds for you to find. Sometimes these employees are the ones that can change the direction of a small business in a very positive and eye opening way.

2. Don't think that owning your own business means that you will be able to easily make your own schedule. Your client base target will have a lot to do with this point, however, most of the time, clients don't really care that you're a business owner. They come to you for a service and expect excellence no matter who they see at the meetings. It is important to understand that as a new business owner starting out, your schedule, as much as it might be hard for you to admit, will most likely be dictated by your clients. At least in the beginning, success is not likely achieved otherwise.

3. Make sure that even when things are busy you take the time to look at as much work going out to clients as possible. When Killswitch started to grow, and we became layers of managers working at two offices, this is the one area I wish I had taken more time to perfect. Even your best employees will make mistakes, just like you have. As the owner of the business, you are responsible for the work going out, its brand messaging, expectation of excellence and achieving the client's expectational perception of the project. If you are in a creative industry, this point is especially important.

Generating Business Using Twitter

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:42:54 -0800

I will start by saying that the strategy for using Twitter to generate business is not the same for everyone. Twitter, as a network, can be used a variety of ways. In my experience it can be used to:

-Generate business leads
-Support new leads
-Penetrate an existing client's already large base of needs.

Generate New Business

"If you post it, they shall come." This mantra could not be further from the truth. To generate new leads on Twitter you have to convince a potential customer in your network that your business values, service offerings, pricing and other factors, will add value to their needs. But let me back up a minute...what if this "potential customer" is not in your network already? Then you should start with the basics, and what really should be the main answer to this question... BUILD YOUR NETWORK FIRST.

I have had other colleagues ask me how Killswitch uses Twitter to increase the bottom-line, and my first answer is always the same: the bigger the network, the better the connections, the more likely you are to score a new deal.

In other words, don't just "build" your network. Build it on high value potential customers, as well as other businesses and individuals who you feel will at some point need your services. Once you have a network built, it will be much easier to generate leads from a potential customer, and there will be a better likelihood that that customer's needs are already aligned with your service offerings.

By keeping your twitter feed updated with information pertinent to your business, and by having the right network, leads will come in.

Support New Leads

This aspect of the strategy is rather simple. Use Twitter or what it is good for, to stay current. If a new lead, say someone who has called your office, or someone who is a referral comes to your doorstep and says, "I want to spend money with you," then use the brand you've created on Twitter to support the relationship you are about to enter into with this new client.

You can:

-Refer this client to Twitter posts that are relevant to the project you are about to embark on.
-Use a snapshot of your twitter posts to formulate a general stance on a subject and then insert this knowledge base into a proposal.
-Use Twitter as a reference hub, so that your new client can call on some of the people in your network to see how past jobs have worked out.

Granted, each of these works a little differently and are not immediately available to your client, but with the right finesse you can make it work for your needs.

Penetrate an Existing Client's other Business Needs

This category of "Twitterfulness" (Twitter + Usefulness), is probably the most powerful. Similar to establishing a relationship with a client and over time branching out into the client's other areas of business, you can use Twitter to set up similar goals.

If you have an active account, are posting regularly, and you have an existing relationship with a client who you enjoy working with, then bring the two together. This is one scenario below:

-Referring your existing client to posts that may serve a role in their needs (i.e. you just finished a campaign for Client X and you think that the knowledge from this would bode well for a similar transaction with your favorite client). By using Twitter, you can show this existing client (who should already be part of your network anyways) what you are doing for others. A relevant cross over will get their attention, and when they look for more information through the link or whatever the post provides, you have already successfully garnered their interest and aligned your services with something that they don't already use their spend on you for.

One Important Note: You should never rely on one form of networking to generate new business, as using multiple forms throughout the process of new business generation often brings you closer to closing the deal.

This was an answer to a question originally posted on LinkedIn.

You can see the entire thread HERE.

The BIG Questions Surrounding Proposal Writing

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:59:33 -0800

Require an NDA?

This depends on the client. Usually a client who approaches you, at least from my experience, usually has an NDA available to sign. It is not common for me to get a RFP on my desk without some sort of legal protection in place. This answer, however, differs based on what type and breed of client you may have. For smaller business projects, it is not common to see an NDA. Usually the potential clients for these smaller projects either:

A. Do not care about protecting their ideas in the RFP

or...

B. They are not educated to do so

or...

C. Do not have a background in issuing a legal layer into the RFP/Proposal process.

Charging for In-Depth Plans?

In this climate it is extremely hard to charge for anything in a proposal. If you are only doing a proposal, no matter how small or large, you should only be giving the client enough to ensure they understand your strategy, goals and that you are committed to meet all goals on a project, as outlined in their RFP.

If the proposal turns into a Planning/Strategy phase (hopefully the 1st phase in any project), then at that point I would bill for your time, or flat rate a fee for developing and delivering a plan to the client. Lets be clear that a Strategy Plan is different from a proposal. While the proposal includes the initial knowledge base and thinking behind the various aspects of the potential client's project, it should not include all of your knowledge and planning.

My rule of thumb: If you are working on a proposal that at some point makes you feel as though you should be getting paid, that usually means it's:

A: Not the right client for you

or...

B: You are giving too much away

The other litmus test is, "Is the client able to take my proposal, and execute my ideas with someone else?". If the answer is yes, than you are also probably giving too much away.

Trying to Weed Out "tire-kickers"

Ahh yes, the age old issue of "Is this proposal worth my firm's time and money". As a business owner of a creative agency, this is a question I continue to struggle with. As part of our initial RFP/proposal process, I rate the value of the RFP based on several factors and then weigh the value proposition against the time and cost of compiling a proposal.

Lowest Value: The RFP came in from a cold lead. If this is the case, have you done the ample amount of research on the client (i.e. budgets, years in business, other projects they have executed, spoken to others who have worked for them, etc.) The majority of these types of RFP's that come across my desk are tire-kickers.

Medium Value: The RFP came in from a new client, BUT that client was referred to you by an existing client or colleague, then the value here is increased. Clearly a direct connection through your potential new client is a critical thing to know when you decide to draft a proposal. Someone in this category is usually legit, however I have spent time on a plethora of proposals from referrals through existing clients, and conversion rates are still under 10%

Highest Value: If the RFP came from an existing client, that you are currently working for, OR have worked for in the past, this is the highest value and this is usually 100% legitimate. I would not pass up an opportunity such as this one if it was my scenario because the conversion rates are much, much higher here. Plus the fact, you have an established relationship, so there would be no reason to pass on this type of client, or change the RFP/Proposal process.

It's important to mention that my methodology above Is not an exact science, as anyone in this industry will tell you, but it has proven to work for Killswitch over the years.

Considering a New Approach?

Responding to an RFP is a process that is hard to perfect. The expectations of the potential client are never 100% known, even IF the RFP has clear guidelines. Usually the people that make the decisions on a project have nothing to do with the RFP. This is especially true for larger/instituional projects. There is a huge gap in many cases with regards to the behind-the-scenes planning a company puts into an RFP and many times that gap can be detrimental to the drafting of the proposal.

You should always think about different ways to approach the process, but don't loose sight of the initial evaluation of the RFP before making a decision on whether it is worth your time. This initial value proposition exercise, will help any team craft the right proposal for the right client for your particular firm.

This was an answer to a question originally posted on LinkedIn.

You can see the entire thread HERE.

Killswitch Website: Redux (No Category/Not Active)

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:09:05 -0700

Well, if your are reading this news post, then you may have noticed some of the exciting new changes we have made to the Killswitch site! For those off you familiar with our site, immediately you will recognize the new format of the KSC homepage, which we think will make navigation of our site even more user-friendly than before. The new format brings to the front our Perspectives Blog and allows for quick viewing of the best we have to offer in terms of programming and strategic musings, and we have added a simple but effective API that gives the user Real Time viewing of what @KSCollective is posting on twitter. Finally, we are also proud to announce our "Interviews" initiative, through which Killswitch will profile trend-setting personas from all walks of life such as artists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, industry-leaders and more. As always, we love to hear feedback, so let us know what you think by emailing us!

Perspectives

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:08:16 -0800

Welcome to Perspectives, a collection of articles written by members of the Killswitch staff. These articles will pertain to the individual strengths of the authors, as well as the firm's position on certain issues and outlook for the future. We are starting by writing under four topics: Development, Design, Project Managemment and Running the Business. Here's a quick rundown:

Development articles will be directed at the development community. Some of these articles will be technical in nature, while others will be commentary on larger development matters.
Design articles will range in topic, but will be written by our design staff here at Killswitch and will support our design logic, design tasks, challenges and everyday solutions to solving our clients' big design problems.
Project Management articles will range from Killswitch's unique approach to managing a project, to simple and easy strategies we employ to make our project management the best for our clients.
Running the Business articles will be written by the Partners at our firm, and will include high-level business and marketing strategy topics, as well as client and relevant business issues.

Overall, we hope this is used as a resource to learn about our practices as a firm, our holistic approach to design and development, and how as a young firm, we have continued to thrive in a competitive market.