Many people have asked me if I would ever take a job and go to work for someone else again. I always answered, “Maybe. I’m always open to possibility and at least a conversation.” Over the last few years, Brian and I have both been offered jobs — jobs normal people would jump at. But really, neither of us are interested in giving up the freedom we have as design agency owners.
While some years were rougher than we’d like, Bourn Creative turns twelve this summer, and we could be happier. We’re fortunate to have a full roster of amazing clients we enjoy working with. We get to work on projects that fulfill us professionally and have time to pursue passion projects and hobbies that fulfill us personally. We can work from anywhere in the world and travel as much as we want (around the kids’ school schedule of course). Business is good. Life is good.
After almost twelve years of making my own schedule and managing my own day, I’m basically unemployable. So when Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Rainmaker Digital, reached out about being a guest on his Unemployable Podcast, I of course said yes.
Business Design And Systems
Attracting and working with clients can be challenging. Implement the right practices and processes, though, and you can design a stellar small business and lifestyle. That’s what we have done with our agency, Bourn Creative. We purposefully keep the operation small and set things up for both maximum profitability and vacation time.
In this episode of Unemployable, you’ll hear how we have optimized our business in the following critical areas:
- Marketing: Discover how a combination of content and community brought us a steady stream of clients, which in turn has led to valuable referrals.
- Pricing: It’s easy advice to give — charge more. But as you likely know, it’s not really that simple. You’ll hear the criteria and circumstances that made it clear it was time for us to raise rates.
- Onboarding: When the level of new business threatened to overwhelm the small agency, Jennifer took a purposeful break to document a complete onboarding and client management process that has the workflow humming and the clients happy.
