One small business can be One BIG Challenge! But two can handle it if they stick together.
by Jill Christine Carpenter
Between September of 1998 and March of of 2002 I contracted with a mid-sized publishing company that developed educational materials for school districts across the country. My job was to provide illustrations for the reading and English "passages" or stories they gave me. During those years I did a total of 1,523 drawings, and learned to handle reeeeally tight deadlines without ripping my hair out (although banging my head on the wall several times a day did leave one small bald spot as a reminder).
One day in late November, 2001, I received an email from one of their on-staff writers. Her name was Stacy Mantle, and she said that I was assigned to illustrate some of her stories. I had no clue at the time that this person would be any different from the usual parade of contract writers I had worked with during those years. Believe me, I had seen a LOT of them come and go. Only a handful ever showed some personality and real creativity. Most seemed like cookie-cutter, corporate drones that merely put words on a paper in order to get paid. I used to call them "Prissy-Missies" (yes, even the guys). To be honest, much of the writing I had been given to illustrate was painfully dry and boring. It was often a chore just to find one passage worthy of an illustration, much less three or four. The sad part was that these projects were destined to be used as teaching aids for elementary school children. I felt compassion for those children on more than one occasion.
But Stacy proved to be very different. Her stories were as fun to read as they were to illustrate. Her emails were animated and full of humour. She actually responded in helpful ways when I had questions, was cheerfully open to ideas when I had suggestions, and always willing to work with me to make the projects fun and interesting. As a result the things that we worked on together seemed to have just a little more sparkle and polish than the norm.
Over the next few months of working together and emailing regularly, it became clear that we had found a creative...something...I don't know what to call it, can't really think of a good word to describe it. I just know that our email conversations were rowdy and funny, full of practical jokes, sarcasm, argumentativeness, and general craziness. The truth is that we are both brats at heart...though, for the record, Stacy is MUCH more of a brat than I am (just kidding :o).
Those crazy emails proved to be fertile grounds for unbridled and outrageous creativity. Wild ideas often flew back and forth snowballing as they went, until one day it hit us that we needed to take those creative moments and turn them into real projects. By late spring of 2003 we made the decision to work towards building a business of our own.
Could we do it? Would our rowdy temperaments and quirky personalities allow us to get along well enough to maintain a long-term business relationship? Did we have what it takes to make a business out of just our combined (slightly wacky) creative skills? The answer is yes, because above all else we had each developed a strong appreciation and respect for the other one's creative talents.
What other assets did we have to start out with? Erm...well, we had very little, actually. Just our creativity and work skills, a little money (emphasis on the word "little"), some basic business experience, a few rag-tag computers, some office supplies, an unflagging (and VERY appreciated!) support system of family and friends, and a lot of enthusiasm and faith.
We hoped that would be enough to get us started, but we still wondered if we could hack the highly competitive, dog-eat-dog world of entrepreneurism. There was only one way to find out, and that was to take the plunge...
Gulp!
...and so we did. In January of 2004 we formed an official partnership. During the following two years we had LOTS of interesting adventures. Some we would have definitely preferred not to have had, but we got through them just fine. Stacy and I learned some great lessons during our first two years of partnership, mostly about the value of teamwork, friendship and trust. We also learned that we had the toughness of spirit and determination of will to keep moving forward no matter what obstacles were thrown in our paths. We may not always be the speediest horses on the track, but we can make it a mighty entertaining race, and we never, ever give up.
Above all we learned to appreciate our greatest strength as a team; our sense of humor! Laughter kept us afloat many times, like a bright-colored buoy that kept our spirits from sinking. Our ability to laugh also helped us to stay focused and sane (well, focused, anyway).
Oh yes, and we also learned the value of keeping records of absolutely everything, and of having a first rate attorney, and an accountant that has our best interests at heart. Yes, Virginia, they do exist, we know this because we have them (and we'll happily recommend them to others if we're asked).
There has never been a day during these last two years that has been easy by ANY description, but there HAVE been many, many moments that were gratifying and filled with a grand sense of joy and accomplishment. Those times were what held our little enterprise together, even during the toughest struggles.
One of the hardest lessons we learned was that some who want to do business with us may not have honest intentions. You might think the most dishonest ones would be easy to spot (and avoid), unfortunately such people don't come along wearing a "Beware of me, I'm Evil" sign on their foreheads. Nope, not every crook will wear black and hold you at gunpoint to steal your wallet. Some of the worst culprits actually know how to look and act quite benign and personable.
The really difficult cases are people who are not overtly rude, but who sweetly manipulate or abuse your company's production processes in a sly and calculated way that ends up costing other people time and energy, without bringing any benefit to the business. Such people often have their own secret agendas, and actively look for wedge points in every procedure, to give themselves more influence than they might otherwise have (or deserve).
This type of activity is much more insidious than mere rudeness or overt sabotage, because neither the behavior nor the damage it causes is apparent to casual observers. Though as we found, the customers are bound to notice what's happening, eventually.
Stacy and I know this scenario well, as we had the misfortune of doing business with such people for a while. Happily, we had the gumption to make a stand and take action before it was too late. We stuck together and refused to be bullied or threatened, then picked our little business up, dusted it off and kept on pluggin' along. We had to make some changes, and in some areas we had to just start over from scratch, but we refused to get discouraged.
Once we broke away from that horrible situation we found that the atmosphere was SO much less oppressive. Creativity was no longer stifled and communication became more relaxed and open. In fact everything became easier, and opportunities began to open up that now have us busy and productive once again.
That old creative spark is back in full force, and it feels great! In fact, looking back, we actually feel gratitude towards those unsavory folks that made our lives miserable for a time. They helped us to find our strengths and to believe in ourselves more than ever.
We know, of course, that our gratitude wasn't exactly what they wanted. But thankfully, that's all they got away with. :o)
I, for one, am also grateful for finding such a great business partner. Thank you, Stacy, it's been an honor and a joy to work with you! Looking forward to many more years of partnership.
(However, this doesn't mean I'll stop arguing with you about anything and everything, m'kay? :o)
