Growing A Creative Agency & Getting Your First Big Clients
Joel Rosen & James Ewin | Growing A Creative Agency & Getting Your First Clients
In this talk Joel & James share their journey of building ORCA & Breifbox, giving insights into how to grow a design agency, get your first big clients and the importance of passions project and mentors.
Joel is an illustrator and the Creative Director of brand agency ORCA. Joel is regularly featured in publications such as CreativeBloq and Paste Magazine where he discusses his 10 years experience developing brands for clients such as Osborne Clarke, Moët & Chandon and Young’s Seafood.
James is a user-interface designer and Managing Director of ORCA and has worked with organisations as notable as the United Nations, BBC and Bath University.
“Become a thought leader in your field. If you’re really knowledgeable and passionate, people will look to you. Helping others helps you in the long-run”
Key Highlights
0:20 Introduction to their business, ORCA.
2:00 The struggle of building something new. Starting with flyers.
2:40 Started with £500 each, friendship and the choice to work together. -
4:30 Starting with what you have, investing in your team and adding value to get more clients.
5:30 Scrambling to find clients. Be aware of the constraints of an industry that you’re working in and the constraints of the niche that you’re trying to establish yourself in.
6:00 Building long-term relationships with clients.
6:55 Build their own brand and creating a marketing and social media strategy. A balance of having fun and paying the bills. -
10:20 Side businesses that nearly took off e.g. conceptual print business, Bristol independent (giftware store), custom gift service, project management app
12:50 Don’t let work stop being fun. Making time for passion projects and skilling up.
16:00 Intro to their other business, BriefBox, 30,000 users and 400 paying users.
18:25 Digital strategy = really helpful content (articles, motivational pieces) + Exciting Free Stuff + Premium Service.
20:10 Become a thought leader in your field. The fact that you’re really knowledgeable and passionate then people will look to you for things. Helping others helps you in the long-run with regards to business.
“Don’t let work stop being fun.”
21:15 Tools – finding the right tools e.g. accountancy, social media scheduling…etc.
23:00 Get a mentor and non-executive director. Helped define their roles. Most significant impact of their business.
25:40 Physical and mental health.
26:45 Normalised and encourage discussion of mental health. Have colour profiling cards to understand other people’s personality and mental health.
28:00 Healthy work culture.
29:30 Hiring for personality and skill.
30:30 Building your personal profile, trading content that helps others, engage with your audience & customers and personal development.
Q & A
“How long running ORCA?” 9 years, since 2010.
“How did you get initial clients?” Set themselves work that they wanted to be paid to do, then shouted about it and the work came. It showed that they could do. And be honest about your experience. You need to be able to sell your work. You have to be a sales-person.
“How did you learn social media strategy?” Trial and error. Speak to people who are doing it and doing it well. Test. Get a mentor who you aren’t afraid to ask for advice
39:00 Figure out what you’re good at. Figure out what tasks you want to delegate.
41:00 Finding clients that share values.
42:40 Business opportunity to take Briefbox into Universities.
“ Show what you can do and shout about it. You need to be able to sell your work.”
💡 Key Lessons
Selling your work - it’s not enough just to be a great designer, brand strategist or creative thinker. you also need to sell your work, build your profile and create opportunities to help clients. For Joel & James, dividing and conquering enabled them to take a greater leap forward.
Keeping the passion alive - devoting work time to passion projects, trying new things and having a healthy work culture is central to their success ethos. Over the long term this help keep you creatively agile and new business opportunities will emerge without you trying so hard.
Be a thought leader - if you want business opportunties to come to you, you have to position yourself as an expert in your industry. Think long-term, think win-win, think about creative ways to demonstrate your skills.
💭 Coaching Questions
How much time are you dedicating to passion projects and creating just for joy?
Which roles and responsibilities could you delegate to be more effective overall?
What are the different ways you could show your expertise to your clients?