And Then There Were Three…
This site and the company behind it began as a design firm in mid-2007. Actually, Charfish was around long before that, but 2007 saw it registered as a legal, tax-paying LLC.
At its inception we (or rather I, since it was still a one-man-band at that time) were a design firm. My intention was to do top-end web and blog design. I did exactly that for about two weeks.
And then they came.
Clients. They kept coming and they kept bringing more. Questions like, “Well, you’ve designed our banner, why don’t you just design our whole site?” became more and more common. As did, “If you can design websites, you can probably design books as well, right? Why don’t you design my ebook for me?”
One job grew into another job, design clients became writing clients, they told their friends and as we hammered out one job after another my dream of being a successful designer started to fray around the edges.
How I define success
For some people success is being staggeringly rich. Others think it’s having a company, or quitting their job, or finding a lake of oil buried underneath their backyard. For me, success is simple:
- Make money doing what I love
- Help others along the way
- Have my business run smoothly enough that I’m not tied to it at all times
The first two on that list were checked off as “complete” my first day in business. The last one has been, frankly, a joke. There were very few clients of mine who didn’t receive an email from me at 11pm, midnight or even much later. Those aren’t standard business hours for most people, but for us entrepreneurs it’s all too common and I don’t really want to go that route.
The line in the sand
As part of my personal life policy, I don’t do business while I’m out with people. If I’m being a friend, I’m being a friend. If I’m on a date, I’m on a date. I never interrupt a good conversation by answering the phone. I don’t email during dinner and I don’t do business calls unless I’m at the office doing business. It’s just poor manners to do otherwise, for my friends and clients both.
But the line started to blur. I’d feel my phone vibrate or hear the email “ding” notifying me that someone had written and I’d think “Shit…should I get that?”
As a solo entrepreneur I was doing far more than my 24-hour days were comfortably allowing. And seeing as how I like to sleep at least 6 hours a night, my remaining 18 hours were starting to blow chunks. Each day would see a little of:
- Marketing
- Correspondence
- Administration
- Studying up on emerging technologies to keep up with the game
- Editing
- Writing
- Designing
- Keeping up my blogs
- Working on my side projects (of which there are 3 MAJOR ones)
- Invoicing
- Consulting
- Fielding random questions
This stuff adds up. And every day there was more and more.
To the rescue!
How does a control freak like myself give up some of his business to run under the auspices of others?
Very carefully.
The process consists of finding people who are good at what they do, who lead clean lives, and trusting them and letting them do their jobs. That’s exactly what we’ve done and I’m very very VERY pleased to announce the addition of two new creative types to the team:
Paul
Paul is a budding designer. By “budding” I mean “new but entirely bad ass.” In a professional capacity I met Paul shortly after he’d completed his first website. My first impression was to be a bit frightened because in the few months he’d been studying design, he’d already become really good at it and would surely put me out of a job one day.
Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, ask ‘em to join, right?
He’s a great guy and is funnier than anyone has ever been ever. He’s also drug-free, insanely ethical and great at communicating (ask me what those have to do with business and design and I’ll say everything). His command of typography is already thoroughly advanced, and he’s got a memory like flypaper and never needs to be told anything twice. Actually, he’s sensible enough that he usually doesn’t even need to be told once.
The World, meet Paul. Paul, the World.
Sarabeth
At the age of 21, Sarabeth was responsible for the editing, proofreading and production of a series of booklets that would be printed and distributed millions and millions of times. It would be impressive if she had done all that for a series of booklets in English, but she did the same thing for booklets produced in French, Italian, German, Spanish and I think even Klingon. It’s more than likely I could ask her to write me a book in Sumerian cuneiform and she’d have it done within the week. Needless to say, Sarabeth isn’t afraid of huge jobs, responsibility or impossible deadlines.
She’s a student of the Chicago and AP manuals, she knows her proofer’s marks, and she can spot a misplaced comma from across the country. If she had a nickname it would be “keen eye for the misplaced modifier guy.”
And to top it all off, she’s getting pretty damn good at the Xbox.
What happens now?
To all appearances, nothing will change. Our work will be just as good, our turnover just as fast, our communication just as friendly. In fact, as good as all of those things were before, they’ll probably even get better now that we’ve got some breathing room.
On a project-by-project basis, Paul and I will be handling the design work. I will most likely continue to tackle the larger web projects while Paul will start with print and graphic production. Sarabeth will lend her writing/editing chops to content writing, editing, ebook production and that sort of thing.
I will do all quality control and nothing will leave the shop until I’ve checked it, smelled it, looked at its sell-by date and tested it for STDs.
Please join me in welcoming Paul and Sarabeth to the crew!
I can’t end this without saying a big thank you to all of our past and current clients. This would have been impossible without your support, your trust and your own visions of success.
To the future!
Comments
5 Responses to “And Then There Were Three…”
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Congrats on your expansion! I am going to have to kick it into overtime to catch up. Maybe now you’ll have a little more time for that guitar-playing and novel-writing.
@Stephen -
Thank you, I appreciate that!
You’d think I’d be enjoying some new freedom or at least the hint of it, but no. Haven’t touched my guitars for days and haven’t written anything for myself in…couple weeks?
So in some areas things are expanding, and in others I continue to be a complete failure. What to do?
Amen! Trying to balance the joy of doing what you love for a living with the maturity of figuring out that success has less to do with the amount of money (and more to do with the amount of life satisfaction) happens with all freelance folks.
As a remote professional, I’m doing this same “evaluation” of my life and deciding to trim back and spin off even more of those “not a perfect fit” portions of projects to others. I’ve been “talking this talk” for years — but now I’m actually DOING it!
I’m also trying to learn to not answer the phone after hours (I still check voicemail to see if there are emergencies) and to get OUT of the office occasionally.
After over 8 years in business, I’m finally starting to get my life back! It’s amazing!
Congrats on your success and thanks for sharing your voyage and your particular solution. I wish you well on that novel too — that’s on my list (as soon as I finish up the reorganization of my business to carve out just a little more time).
Angela -
Hey! Loved your comment. Sounds like you’re at that point, too. The point of growing pains and false ceilings that you can’t grow beyond without changing your process. It sounds like it’s working out for you, and that’s fantastic!
You have “after hours?” Haha, I wish I had those! There’s not a day goes by that I’m not working on something way later than I should be. Or emailing. Or fitting in a paragraph of the novel before I sleep…
Thanks for reading and for your comment. Hope to see you around here again!
Hey Charlie,
Noticed your link at Doug E Rapps. Remember me?
Cheers!
JP Holesworth