Whereas in ancient times a big waistline was an indication of prosperity, today it’s not. The same goes for your creative business.
“The conventional wisdom in our business is that you have to grow and keep moving to survive. We never grew, always stayed tiny, and it serves us very well over the years, allowing us to pick and choose projects, and keeping our financial independence from our clients. We actually have a rather good track record, because we do select projects carefully. Most of our ideas don’t eat dust but glimpse the light of day because we find it much more helpful to spend some serious time and effort before we start working on a project, rather than suffer through it afterwards.” – Stefan Sagmeister, Designer
Your client list can get big. Your staff can get big. Your hopes can get big. Productions can get big. Even invoices can get big. But none of that means a thing unless you’re doing work that you believe in and doing it well. And only you can measure that for yourself. Where do you want to go and what do you want to do?
Bigger is only better when you’re talking vision.
[thx to the lovely blog the99percent]
Victorious one CSN Coyotes basketball group.. alot more energy.
Awesome entry from an awesome designer. We designers (chilean designers at least) have a tough time once we finish college because amidst the huge ammount of useless courses made for money earning only, we never get the lessons that are related with marketing and business. Fortunately, I’ve managed to learn it quite smoothly.
Big ideas, big vision, selected projects make huge products.
Saludos Chase!
Wow, totally needed to hear this (again) today too. I had a meeting with a potential client today which was an absolute struggle. Was tempted with financial fears and the counter-intuitive nature of saying “No” to work. Reading the quote above was a needed reminder of learning to draw the line and maintaining artistic integrity.
Thanks!
c.
Thank you for posting this. It’s cheering to hear that quality is still appreciated. So often small business owners are encouraged to stop providing services that are time-consuming when, really, taking the time to perform those services are what keep people coming back. And it’s a lot more rewarding to work with the same small and dedicated group of people for years, getting to know them and developing friendships with them, then it is to have a lot of customers but constant turnover.
As it turns out, bigger is not better.
Tempest
Couldn’t be more true. My first, and perhaps last, business partner always talked about expanding and dominating by hiring more photographers and branching out. But I just wanted to be really awesome at what I do. No reason other than greed to go overboard. Thanks for sharing.
Dave