Being Honest With Yourself
I always knew it, but never truly embraced it until recently—I can only work for myself. I hate working for other people. I always sabotage it somehow. The truth is I realize that when I work for someone I’m putting my entire life, freedom and goals in their hand for a steady paycheck. This is purely personal since there are benefits to working for someone else. But, for me, I don’t like others having that kind of control over me so I always had something on the side. I always knew that I could make more on my own than I could working for someone else, but man is it a lot of work.
Hard Knocks of Being Solo
When I first went out on my own I wasn’t starting from ground zero. I had a handful of clients that I could leverage for more work while I continued to grow. I actually made more than my corporate job my first two years solo. Then the recession hit and I got one of the biggest wake up calls in my life. I know graphic design is highly needed but seriously under appreciated. However, quite literally all my work dried up overnight while my clients hunkered down to ride out the storm of the recession. Meanwhile, I had a mortgage, no clients, no marketing and no companies hiring designers. Recipe for disaster. I worked another job while trying to get any work in my field. By the end of 2008 with just a few small projects and fewer prospects I had to do something else. Thus came the next job, an overnight position that I hated it with a passion.
I hated it because of pride, lack of humility and a deflection of responsibility. I hated it because it was a constant reminder that I failed in my business. Mind you, I’ve known I wanted to have my own business since high school. Since that high school epiphany I only took jobs that would give me a skill I could use to succeed in my own design studio. Now I had my chance and blew it in such a spectacular fashion they could make a movie about it.
At this point I was holding down four jobs. With that kind of workload I barely slept. While part of it was the workload I didn’t want to sleep because I was hungry to get back into business; real business not this underemployed stuff. However, I knew I wouldn’t get there if I didn’t invest the time. Yet, there was something else I wasn’t dealing with—my internal flaws. If I didn’t address these issues and grow from them I would be back in the same boat.
Bad jobs are done by people who resent where they are due to pride. They think such a position is beneath them, they shouldn’t be there and they should be getting paid more.
The E-Myth Revisited
A Time For Change
This didn’t happened until I started listening to The E-Myth Revisited. In it author, Michael Gerber, talks about a hotel he frequented he loved. He loved it because of the same amazing experience he got every time he went there. This was because it ran on systems that gave a predictable and enjoyable experience every time, which is part of his mantra for business success. He talks to the Manager who tells him about his first day on the job. He was in construction and never thought about working in the hospitality industry, but we do what we have to do. On the first day the owner doesn’t talk about what his responsibilities are, he doesn’t begin training him or anything like that. He simply talks about the culture of the hotel that makes it so successful.
Essentially, it’s that everyone there no matter what position they hold WANTS to be there. The owner said that no matter what position it is, when done with care, love and passion can look like it was done by an artist. He continued that bad jobs are done by people who resent where they are due to pride. They think such a position is beneath them, they shouldn’t be there and they should be getting paid more. As a result they put in half-hearted work which makes everything else suffer. Then, he drops the bomb, or at least it was a bomb to me.
“The people who loathe their new position in life have only themselves to blame. The ones who feel that way at this hotel should either fake it until they make it or quit.” He did not want anyone there that didn’t want to be because he knew bad morale was bad for business. That was the truth I had to recognize. I’m the only one to blame.
I made the decisions that caused my business to fail. I was the one who didn’t do enough marketing. I was the one who didn’t update my website with all the incredible work I was doing to get more work. Amongst other errors I was also the one who couldn’t find another job in my field. I was the one who turned in the application for this job I hated so much. And ultimately, I was the one who accepted the terms of under employment. That was all me. Accept it, recognize it for what it is and move onto something else.
Right then I remembered a quote I saw many years ago. I don’t who said it but it goes like this: “Being in a bad position is not your fault. Staying in a bad position is.” While I could’ve said the recession put me in a bad position and shift blame I chose not to and asked myself what do I need to do so I don’t stay in this bad position? Many stop there and live the rest of their lives in misery. Not me, I got a family, kids and aspirations. What’s more I know the freedoms that come from entrepreneurship and it wasn’t going to escape me. From that point on, I stopped complaining about my jobs, for the most part. Then I sought to do my job not just well, but to the same standards I’d hold myself to if it were my business. Soon after that internal revelation I went about applying the lessons I learned to my new business, Cherished Keepsakes.
Failed Business Lesson 1: Pick A Recession-Proof Business
If design is prone to suffer during recessions then pick something where you can apply your skills but is more stable.
Admittedly at first, I didn’t fully embrace the potential of Cherished Keepsakes (CK). For those that don’t know, Cherished Keepsakes is a provider of amazingly designed funeral keepsakes like memorial programs, prayer cards, bookmarks, buttons and more. These are provided to families that can’t produce these on their own. Part of it came from recognizing a hole in the market place and another part came from the experience of losing my grandmother. I was unable to design the funeral program I wanted for her though I had the skills to do so because I ran out of time.
However, I still loved working on client brands and gravitated back to it, invariably stalling CK’s growth. Yet, I was tired of client’s not taking my advice. I mean I was giving gold here, but they weren’t listening. So I asked myself, what would a brand look like that followed my philosophy and approach of branding properly from the ground up and making design an integral part of growth strategy? Additionally, I wanted to diversify my income so I wouldn’t lose everything like I did the first time. A product-based business provides consistent revenue. Armed with these founding elements I set to creating a business that didn’t have the mistakes of my design studio.
Failed Business Lesson 2: Choose the Right Clients
This was the hardest lesson. In my design studio I wanted to help those that needed it most, but charged beyond what they could afford because I knew my worth. Well, you can only charge your worth to those who can pay it. Those who I originally targeted couldn’t afford it no matter what adjustments I made. You can’t run a business on sentimentality. You either pick clients who can pay or adjust your delivery to what they can afford and what you’re comfortable with. Picking clients who couldn’t pay naturally created the third hard lesson.
Failed Business Lesson 3: Get Paid Up Front
Goodness gracious if I was paid from all the clients that stiffed me, some really unethically, I’d be in a much better position. I’m talking about you, Lonnie Daniels. I mean how are you going to stiff someone with a newborn?
Ok, now that I got that off my chest, with Cherished Keepsakes I definitely wouldn’t be chasing money after a funeral service. With this type of business that just wouldn’t work. Getting paid before starting the work was policy from day one. Yet I knew, based on my branding background, that people would be concerned paying in full up front with nothing to see in regards to design. To combat that I provided a large body of work with solid reviews to establish legitimacy. That, coupled with a few policies designed to favor family concerns negated this potential issue. Plus, it’s professional to discuss money upfront and I know no one likes surprises when it comes to money. It’s worked so well for years. I think out of over 1500 orders we’ve done, I’ve only had two unpaid balances. Those were reminders not to run your business on sentimentality. With a growing body of work I needed to make sure I leveraged it.
Failed Business Lesson 4: Market Your Business
Show your work because no one will use you if they don’t know you exist. On top of that make it easy for them to to find you. What caused me to actually fully embrace CK was the organic nature of its growth. Ok, that and also finally listening to my wife. I’ll get to that part in a second. Like I mentioned, I was still attached to doing client work because of the personal and passionate fulfillment I got from it. CK wasn’t even CK at this point. It was just another service of the re-established design studio in an attempt to diversify my income, but not in the right way. If you’re serious about growing your business you must diversify your income. Otherwise, all those who actually depend on you will no longer be able to when you close your doors because you didn’t do the things every business does.
CK, unlike my first time solo, was starting from ground zero with no clients. The business hit a stopping point and was put on the back burner for a year. Yet, with zero marketing people found me because they needed the service and word spread on its own. Then I remembered what my wife said when I first started this business. She said I should stop doing design work and focus on this only. She said I was better at it and, admittedly, I derived more fulfillment from it because it was making the personal impact I wanted my work to have with people. She saw the potential before I did, but I’m stubborn. Nonetheless, several families coming to me when I did no marketing compared to all the hours I was putting in marketing my client work made me finally take notice and switch gears. Yet, I had to give it the attention it needed if it was going to work. This lead to what I didn’t realize at the time was my first Discovery Session.
