Ask any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you the secret to starting a business is simple. Craft a brilliant business plan and have your lawyer happily approve it before moving forward. Next, start with a great idea and get lots of financial backing from friends, family, and those friendly guys called "investors". Enough to cover your expenses for about a year should be enough, two years would be great. Strategize and launch with a well timed marketing push, striking while the economy is hot. Of course, in reality these same people will tell you the way they started their business was nothing like that and the only way to know what works is to try. Ready or not, here we go!
Humid Design was launched on a shoe string budget in a spare bedroom by two designers during the worst economic disaster we have ever experienced. Six months in we were working 8 days a week and although we were great with Photoshop, we still couldn't figure out some program called QuickBooks. Undeterred and driven to succeed, we maintained the same focus and determination that started the company. So we learned Quickbooks, reminded ourselves we were a 'creative agency' and pushed on late into the night. Every day was a challenge requiring guts, determination and resilience but failure was just not an option.
It is now nine months into 2009 and we are doing better than ever. We formed a partnership with Gordon Laabs to launch another venture to fund Green Entrepreneurship called AssemblyLime.com and have doubled our active client base since the beginning of the year. We are certainly not out of the woods but it was, and always has been, our creative thinking that has enabled us to keep charging, albet in many new directions. We embrace the Rhino attitude every day not because it's novel or fun, but because there is no other option for small business owners and because it works! Keep charging forward with a positive mental attitude and Live the Laws of the Jungle. It's hard work sometimes, but it's a choice and will never fail you!
