STARTING YOUR OWN AGENCY
THE RIGHT TIME AND THE WRONG TIME TO DO IT
“There are pros and cons to starting [an agency] at different times in your career,” argues Owen Lee, creative partner at Farm Communications in London. “When you’re younger, you have more energy, less cynicism, and probably more time, if you don’t have children for instance. However, if you are established in the industry, you have far more contacts and clients you can approach. If I had to call it, I’d say about ten years’ experience in the industry is ideal, but people have made a success of it both earlier and later. I think fate plays a hand in when you set up, certain things come together—the right people, the right client, the right redundancy package.”
“Fame and success can be a rewarding consequence, but they are not the best motivation for starting an agency,” warns Alexandre Gama, president and chief creative officer of Neogama BBH (Brazil). “In my case, independence was the motivation…but in the end you become dependent on clients’ decisions and approvals anyway.”
“There isn’t a right time, just less wrong times,” suggests Jo Tanner, co-founder of creative boutique Us London. “But don’t ever expect all the boxes will be ticked because if they appear to be…that’s a sure sign you’re in for a surprise. It will always feel like jumping into cold water to some degree—and that doesn’t half make you feel alive.”
José Molla, co-founder of La Comunidad, Miami, told ihaveanidea.org: “I always obeyed my intuition. I never let rationality prevail, no matter how attractive the offer was. At one point I simply felt that it was time to make the leap. I had shot commercials all over the world with top directors, I had worked in three offices, I was single, and was well off financially. It was just the time to do it. I went to talk to Dan Wieden and told him, “after working here I cannot go back to work in a traditional agency. I am going to have to open my own agency.” Everyone would tell me I was insane; why would I leave a job like that? We opened without having any clients. I will never forget when I spoke with my lawyer regarding some paperwork and I told her I had to discuss it with the office staff and that I would get back to her. I hung up the phone and found myself alone in the office, with no one to discuss anything. That’s when change hit me. Now things depended on me.”
WHO DO YOU START AN AGENCY WITH – PEOPLE YOU LIKE OR PEOPLE YOU THINK ARE GREAT?
“Preferably both,” says Owen Lee, “but definitely people you think are great. You do spend a lot of time and go through a lot of highs and lows with your business partners, so it’s good if you like them, but pivotal that you think they are good at what they do. Perhaps rather than people you like, people you trust is more important.”
Justin Tindall, creative partner at The Red Brick Road in the UK, agrees on the importance of trust.
“You have to have confidence in every member of the team,” is Justin Tindall’s view. “If you lose a few pitches in a row, your relationship is going to get tested, so there needs to be a mutual respect. But most of all, there needs to be a shared point of view. You need people with the same values.”
“They need to be people you like and who are great,” says Ben Priest, the founding creative partner of Adam & Eve, which launched in London in 2008.
“But if I had to choose, ‘great’ would win every time. I have plenty of friends who work outside of the business; I don’t need more mates, just people who are brilliant at what they do. It really helps if some or all of you have worked together before. For us that was a huge reassurance; our relationships had already survived long, long hours and pressure. Think of it as going to war—who would you want at the front with you? However, I would say one or a few of you need enough of a profile to get new business momentum.”
“Do it with people you trust,” echoes Jo Tanner. “And make no mistake, that trust will be tested way beyond Recommended Industry Standard Tolerances.”
“The only thing that matters in a start-up is that everyone involved gets on and respects each other,” says Ben Kay, who was the initial co-creative director of Lunar BBDO, UK, but left in 2008.
“Otherwise the tiny cracks of difference at the beginning will eventually resemble the Grand Canyon, and by then you’ll be in too deep to separate painlessly. This also is very important because potential clients smell disagreement a mile off and will not give you their business.”
Mark Denton, former creative partner of legendary 1990s UK hotshop Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson, recalls;
“We got a phone call from Paul Simons, we met him, and then we met Simon Clemmow and Carl Johnson, and they liked our reel. So then we went into business with these guys…but we didn’t even know who they were. It was completely naïve. And in fact we never took the time to get to know them. So it was no surprise when we fell out six-and-a-half years later. It was a very costly slap around the legs.”
“Don’t be tempted to do a start-up where your other partners are all creatives,” advises Dave Dye, whose first UK agency, Campbell Doyle Dye, fitted that description, and eventually folded in 2008. “It doesn’t work. Who makes the calls? One CD is much better.”
TOP TEN TIPS FOR STARTING YOUR OWN AGENCY
1 Picking a good time helps. As does having a client already. But having great partners is the key.
2 Make sure you trust these people totally. You’re putting your house on the line for them.
3 Don’t do it when you’re young and inexperienced. But don’t leave it till you’re old and bitter either.
4 As with starting a rock band, the name you choose is crucial. A creative name like “Mother” or “Santo” communicates “We’re creative”; a shop named after the founding partners says “We’re professionals.”
5 Choose your location and décor with care; they will start to define you.
6 Don’t be completely ignorant of the business side of doing a start-up. But don’t try to handle it yourself.
7 Be prepared to become so busy that your family forgets what you look like.
8 Only go after the clients you want. If they don’t offer either good money or good creative opportunity, say thanks but no thanks.
9 Be honest about whether you really are an entrepreneurial person. There’s no shame in opting for the comfort of air miles and international board meetings instead.
10 You could build an incredible business, but you could also lose all your savings. How does that feel? If you answered “exhilarating,” you’re ready to jump.
WHY DO SOME START-UPS SUCCEED AND OTHERS DISAPPEAR?
Francesco Taddeucci, formerly creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Roma, now creative director and co-founder of The Name, has a piece of advice for that all-important question—what to call your agency.
“If you’re not sure what to name your agency,” he says, “remember this: all agency names are bad… until you do a great piece of work. In general, starting your own agency is stupendously exciting, but the effort is double—your mind is involved 100 percent of the time. Be prepared for that. But don’t panic: clients will follow quality. And if that even happens in Italy, it happens everywhere else in the world, believe me.”
“If you can’t be brutally honest with yourself and each other, and be humble enough to learn from the inevitable mistakes that happen along the way, then your business will fail,” says Ben Priest. “Lots of important people in advertising already think they know everything. That’s a disaster when you’re starting your own business.”
“Many a great player in a big agency has discovered how hard it is to suddenly be exposed to hunting around for clients yourself, writing the ads, selling the ads, and talking about the state of the agency toilets,” says Owen Lee. “I remember having a conversation with Richard Flintham just after they had started Fallon London about how much layout pads cost—I’m sure the average stellar creative in a big agency doesn’t even know where you’d buy a layout pad, let alone how much they go for. Running your own agency simply isn’t for everyone. It certainly isn’t the Promised Land that many people in big agencies think it might be.”
“A key founding client is perhaps the most important ingredient for success,” Lee continues. “A client where the relationship is so strong that they feel they have a vested interest in your success. And of course it gives you an income stream. Think of CHI and Carphone Warehouse, VCCP and O2, Red Brick Road and Tesco, BMB and French Connection.”
Campbell Doyle Dye launched with a large founding client—Mercedes—and Dave Dye’s new agency, Dye Holloway Murray, launched without a founding client, so he has experienced both scenarios.
“If you have backing, the new agency can feel like a “little big agency” rather than a genuine start-up,” he believes. “With no backing, no money coming in, your house on the line, it feels totally different. You’re wired. But it forces you to have a philosophy.”
“You must set out a set of values for your business,” agrees Alexandre Gama. “This is a controversial and difficult matter, but if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
Ben Kay, on the other hand, doesn’t believe a philosophy is required. “You will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to work out what kind of agency you want to be,” he says. “Don’t bother. Accept that you all want to do good work (if that’s what you want to do; making money can be equally/ more motivating) and do your jobs to that end.”
