Starting your own marketing company is an uphill battle, there is no doubt about it. In an emotional sense, it is exciting and scary at the same time, while definitely stressful as well. As we celebrate our one year anniversary at the One Twelfth office, we bestow upon our blog readers some words of wisdom.
Finance and Planning
It is no secret that monetary wise most first-year businesses experience their primary hardships. A key way of preparing with financial struggles is in the planning process. Pitfalls can be avoided by setting realistic financial goals and projections.
The top priority as a business owner is to ensure that your company always has means for operation. Chances of making a profit in your first year (or first couple of years for that matter) is slim and most businesses experience a loss. Keeping those expectations in mind, most business owners have to sacrifice their own salary, put in more time doing work and find investors to keep the cash flowing in.
Your Team
Many startup marketing companies do not have the manpower that most experienced agencies do. For that reason, it is extremely important that time is being consumed and rationed out wisely. Use your time wisely in assigning tasks and prioritize projects to meet deadlines. As a director, recognizing your team’s strengths and weaknesses will help to delegate work and know what areas to expect delays and fallbacks.
Clients
One of the things we have learned from our first year is the diversity of the client. As your business begins to acquire a client base, you will soon find out that each client not only has a different type of business (that’s an obvious one!) but that each client holds different expectations and works differently.
You will notice that some clients enjoy weekly updates and checkpoint meetings on a consistent basis, while others may like to check on progress less frequently. The same goes for the style of work that is being done for each client. Some clients enjoy visuals and like presentations, while others prefer raw data.
Once you realize how each client functions, you can anticipate behaviors and strategize more efficiently to meet their needs. At certain points, though, clients will throw curve balls, whether it is expected or not – one of our major findings this year is to manage situations on the spot and adapt to different environments.
The Future of One Twelfth
Luckily, One Twelfth has had an overall successful first year of business. We have many people to thank for that – our clients and those who have supported us. We are very proud of the effort and time that we have put in to each and every project that we have been involved in from start to finish.
All of our clients are near and dear to our heart and who couldn’t love such a diverse group of clients – from insurance brokers and dog treats to baby products, healthy snacks and triathlete stores, One Twelfth has worn many hats over the past year.
For the coming year, we expect to grow as a business and fortify what we have learned and continue discovering new strategies and evolving our methods.
