It's that time of year again when Inc Magazine comes out with its list of the fastest growing, privately-held companies in the country. We are stoked to make the INC 500|5000 list for a third consecutive year - I get really reflective and nostalgic of how far we've come as a company - very proud of our team.
This year, we achieved #1,876. It's hard to believe that we have grown 169.7% over the past 3 years. Actually, it's not that much of a stretch - we've worked our asses off to do great work and push the ball forward. We were also awarded #30 in the Portland Metro Area, we share the list with others like EthicsPoint, R2C Group and even Papa Murphy's International.
The top 10 ranged from advertising & marketing to logistics & transportation but the business who earned the crown was insurance. Miami's Northern Capitol Insurance topped the list with 19,812.2% growth and $95 million in revenue. Their business model changed from one of accommodating a more narrow margin of well-off home buyers to one that was focused on managing risk for large groups of re-insurers. The foresight to change their path greatly helped them achieve the #1 company status. Another great example of working to the market was #3 Harley Stanfield. They used a model of sustainable housing and flexible ownership for the unstable housing market.
This September 24-25, I'll be in Washington D.C. at the Inc. 5000 Conference - I know some friends of mine from Brass Media and Ethics Point will be there. How about you? Let me know if I'll see you there. It's my 3rd time going to this conference and get a ton of value from it every year. I highly recommend it.
When I first started writing for this blog, it was called "Email Days" and featured lots of examples of everyday emails, highlighting the importance of email in our every day lives, not just touting email marketing only. So, I thought I'd go back to my roots a little bit and tell you about an email a friend sent me last night. He is an avid cyclist and knows I like cycling as well, despite the fact that we both mainly commute to work by bike and don't get to do long rides very often as our weekends are consumed with raising young kids and different kinds of activities then biking. He sent a link to the video below, which is filmed in Portland, Oregon, and really captures the humor of two different types of cyclists - hipsters vs performance. This is one of the funnier videos I've seen in a while and is very close to home, literally and figuratively. Enjoy.
Now we may not be as blessed in the rap department as Crispin but that doesn't mean we can't wrap with the best of them. Andy, one of our designers, decided to go away to get married over the first weekend in August. Poor guy had no idea that with separation anxiety in full effect the eROI team banned together to give him his biggest wedding present yet, his own desk. The team wrapped everything - his functioning phone, his fancy tea maker, random cords on his desk and even the papers on his magnet board.
Andy's reaction to his newly redesigned space was pretty priceless. Watch the video below keeping in mind that in the beginning he is standing right in front of his desk and somehow fails to look at it while the rest of the design team is gawking at him in disbelief and anticipation.
Moral of the story. Your desk isn't safe on vacation. Consider yourself warned.
The YouTube video from Crispin interns has been circulating through agency e-zines and word-of-mouth email for the past week or more.
It made me think about the wacky stuff that free labor at other large agencies come up with and here's what I found off of a Google Search: Crap - I searched and looked at dozens of intern videos with no sound or no humor. Maybe Crispin nailed this better than I thought. There is opportunity for other interns to take their spin on it. This also proves that online video still needs a lot of content - there is very little out there and much much smaller amount of quality. As for interns at eROI, we love 'em. Not sure I want to task any of them with spending 100's of hours putting together a rap video. Your thoughts? Next post...wrapping paper gone wild experiment in the office (video and pics to follow)...
Publicis just got a little bigger as it outbid the other agency conglomerates to take Razorfish off Microsoft's hands for a mere $530 million. I haven't had a chance to ask any longtime Razorfish employees how they feel about being traded as frequently as a baseball card, but I can't imagine that it fosters a lot of loyalty to the company. Microsoft bought Razorfish's parent company, aQuantive, for $6 billion or 10x revenue just 2 years ago, and is now shedding the business units it doesn't want (Razorfish) for 1.4x revenue, which says a lot about software company valuations vs. agency valuations. On reflection, I couldn't be happier with the type of independent culture Portland agencies have. Portland's largest agency, Wieden + Kennedy, is the world's largest completely independent agency and was named Global Agency of the Year last year - any coincidence that they best creative work comes from an independent agency?
Over the past few months, a lot of what our team has been speaking, writing, and studying about relates to the philosophy that it's okayto fail, as long as you are able to learn from it and, in the end, come out achieving success. After reading our latest study "Use of Testing in Email Marketing" - which concludes by saying "if you're not failing, you're not learning" - I began thinking about how, as an entrepreneur and business owner, it was extremely important for me to embrace this philosophy early on and realize that it expands to every aspect of business. I'll be the first to say it, failing isn't fun! Doing so however, can be enlightening and isn't something you should fear. If you fear failure, you will likely refrain from taking risks and experimenting with new ideas that can ultimately move you ahead. I have gone through the "fail, learn and improve" process numerous times and each time I've learned more about it. One such lesson is that sometimes "the fail" isn't always obvious. The below video is comedy and not relevant to my particular FAIL, but it's a Fail Video worth watching.
There are times when the big FAIL sign isn't held up to alert you, "the fail" is often something you have to keep an eye out for. This eye-opening lesson came upon me in early 2007 when eROI was going through a big transition period accompanied by lot of growing pains. Going though this period certainly made me stronger as a leader, us stronger as a company and created a culture where my employees have a stronger voice and a bigger influence in the ongoing success of eROI -it however was an emotional and professional journey to get to this point and one that I actually documented in a 5 part blog post back in the summer of 2007. If you are so inclined, the entire series can be found in the eROI Days archive for you reading pleasure but to sum it up:
The Fail
I had assumed that I was connected to the thoughts of each employee and each department because I had a hands-on management approach and frequently interacted socially with my employees. I assumed that the agency was well aligned internally and that that everyone was happy, felt valued and felt they had a voice, both on a project level and within the agency as a whole.
As I began preparing material for a company retreat, I scheduled short one-on-one meetings with all of my employees where I encouraged them to be candid with me. Through 34 one-on-one meetings over 3 non-stop, emotionally draining days, I learned how wrong many of my assumptions were. Here are a few specific learnings.
The Learnings
As a business owner this particular "fail" taught me...
Keep your eyes (and ears) open for "failures" and when you find them... admit them, learn from them and quickly take action to implement change.
Never assume that informal socializing with employees is good enough. You must regularly meet one-on-one with your employees in a professional, confidential environment where true sharing is encouraged and rewarded.
If given the opportunity, your employees will let you know when the company has fallen out of alignment. If this happens, get their opinions on how improve and let them know you are listening by sharing their suggestions with the whole company.
Take a hard look at what and how much you delegate - you may feel like you've handed over a substantial amount and given up a lot of control over your company - but often you actually haven't. If you want your company to soar, embrace delegation on every level and truly give key pieces of control to your employees.
Get advice from other entrepreneurs. I was fortunate to have co-founded a group, called Starve Ups, of 18 founders of high-growth startups and I received a lot of trusted advice from the trenches. Additionally, I am part of another group of advertising agency owners called Agency Owner Roundtable which is run through the Portland Advertising Federation. Both of these groups gave me pointers of real-world experiences on employee advice, branding advice, and strategic direction that I couldn't get anywhere else.
The Results
Here we are 2 years later and as an agency we've come a long way from the above "fail". We have seen some awesome changes, implemented great processes and overall, better aligned ourselves internally to cultivate better communication, collaboration and creativity.
The "Process Team" we created in the summer of '07, with a representative from each department, continues to be an integral part of implementing ongoing improvements to our process - both between and within departments as well as between us and our clients.
My employees have a voice - and they use it! Although many are comfortable speaking up when they feel there is reason to, we've made it a semi- annual practice to schedule a day of one-on-one meetings where employees are encouraged to meet with not just me, but anyone on the management team, and candidly talk about what they're loving, hating, or frustrated with (i.e. processes, projects, or communication breakdowns). Following these meetings, the management team meets to review and discuss new strategic and performance related goals, as well as create an action plan for any needed change.
On a daily basis I am impressed and inspired by the level of work our team continuously produces as result of the open, collaborative environment we've created. Of everything that resulted from this particular "fail" my favorite remains this personal one - As a business owner, I get an enormous amount of pride and satisfaction seeing my employees being truly passionate about eROI and seeing their continuous ability to reach new levels of synergy as a team, resulting in the accomplishment of work I never thought possible.
Chad White wrote an eye-opening story about the real ROI in email. The raw return is not being measured in the traditional sense. Having a ROI of $43.52 is killer, but the fact that the real number may be closer to $103 is astounding. Devoting more budget towards email is the smart thing to do. It should put a smile on your face to know that when you are tracking your data the numbers are higher than they first appear.
Even online, where it's easiest for email marketers to track the path of subscribers, we're not getting credit for much of the action that our messages drive. That's because 33% of permission-based email recipients say they usually visit sites directly, instead of clicking on an email link, according to Epsilon. This means conversions may be undercounted by 50%.
Taking into consideration the action that email drives offline and directly to Web sites, email marketing's ROI is probably closer to $130 -- about three times the DMA's estimate. And that's clearly ignoring email's ability to drive interest and actions in other channels like catalogs and social networks.
OMS has been touring the country to spread the word on online marketing the right way. On June 29th, OMS set up in Portland for a day full of expertise. I brought something back from every speaker and got to watch. eROI's own Alex Williams did a great job of breaking down the value of a good welcome email for the crowd. Here are some of my other notes from the event: Aaron Khalow started the event off with key points like 63% of website visitors who don't find what they are looking for will never come back. It makes a strong case for optimizing your site. He stressed that your website is your foundation but it won't matter unless you have the tools to encourage people to find it. The three pillars were search - with SEO having the largest impact, email - the fabric that holds it all together, and analytics - customization is key.
Ray "Catfish" Comstock, from Business Online, went deeper into some of these subjects. He illustrated a search cycle that went from ranking to repeat customer. Ranking - [SEO] → Traffic - [Landing Page Optimization] → Conversions - [Marketing and Sales ]→ Sale - [Customer Service] → Repeat Customer Why is ranking so important? 90% of traffic happens on the first page of search engines which means you have to be in the top 10 results to have a chance. Like Khalow pointed out, analytics play a huge factor in how you get to the repeat customer. Finding out what keywords are relevant is extremely valuable, personalization and location are both key components. Other strategies Catfish brought up were optimizing video, news and the use of internal linking. These techniques are effective because there is a lot less competition than with traditional searches.
Yesterday, Chanin Ballance (founder/CEO of viaLanguage), Mitch Daugherty (founder of Morange Design), and I (the eROI guy) got together to plan what we'd talk about for a webinar about Bootstrapping and our personal experiences with self-induced starvation and endurance thru the early days. It was like catching up with old friends after a couple years - the instant bond entrepreneurs share in dredging up old stories that weren't fun at the time, but are great memories in retrospect. The OEN Webinar is set for June 17 (registration isn't live yet, but will be shortly) and we're going to use a different format than the usual put-your-audience-to-sleep-with-powerpoint. We are going to try to re-create the casual, round-table discussion among entrepreneurs sharing candid stories. Some of the topics will include:
-- Risk vs Reward - How do you know if it makes sense to bootstrap your idea?
-- Keep your Day Job - The stress of self funding with no income can sometimes lead to failure
-- Cash Flow - How to get a handle on your most important business aspect
-- How to market your business on a shoestring budget
-- Why most business models don't need funding as it can be a big distraction
Alcoa presents (sorry, that's the beginning of a TV commercial of "The Catch" in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it's now back on the prize - bragging rights to the Third Annual Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark. If you want to take a look at videos from prior year's Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008. It's going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we're going to bring our "A" Game. Check it (this is the main event email and all the info is below):
BATTLE OF THE BANDSDATE: Wednesday June 17, 2009 TIME: 6:00 pm PLACE: Someday Lounge 224 NW 5th Avenue Portland, OR COST: $300 per band Register your Band! Contact Mike Terry at mterry@magnetoworks.com
Yes, it's time once again for the infamous Battle of the Bands. And if you haven't guessed, the theme this year is the 90's.
Ahhh, remember Jon Bon Jovi, Dee Lite, Madonna, Nirvanna and the most wonderful of all, M.C. Hammer?So put on your pantaloons or your plaid shirt (or both) and sign up your band for a chance at glory.Sign-up Deadline is May 30thDo you know your membership status? Join the dynamic men and women of Portland's Creative Services Contact the PAF office, 503.224.2623, or jamie@portlandadfed.com.PLEASE WRITE A HAIKU COMMENT ON YOUR LOVE OF 90'S ROCK BANDS, RAP, POP MUSIC, ANY OF IT. CONTINUE THE INSPIRATION!
Kevin Tate, a buddy of mine, had an awesome analogy featured on the front page of the Oregonian today in the article "Tech entrepreneurs defy recession" by Mike Rogoway. Here's the excerpt from the article with Kevin's quote that really got me thinking from a different mindset:
"Portland fosters the creation of small, furry mammals rather than dinosaurs -- the really big things," said Kevin Tate, 35, CEO of StepChange Group, a social media advertising and marketing specialist in the Pearl District. The "dinosaur" model of big corporate campuses and regimented software development (think Microsoft -- or even Google) is going by the wayside, Tate said, in favor of more informal and collaborative arrangements. Portland's current high-tech foment positions the state well to capitalize when the recession ends, provided its technology entrepreneurs have the appetite to take it on. "What happens when things start coming back?" Tate asked. "Will the small, furry mammals evolve?"
Nearly 9 years ago, 7 mainly tech start-up entrepreneurs co-founded a group called Starve Ups. We all survived the dot com implosion, but were influenced by really wanting to scale our companies for growth. Some Starve Ups companies have grown a little faster than others, but many contain a desire to do something world-changing with our companies through software, social good, amazing company culture or all of the above. I really like Kevin's quote because it is accurate and represents a strong contingent in Portland's software community, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves that our dream is to do something bigger and be more like a lion than a forgettable Chihuahua. So, how do we get there? Lack of capital is usually at the top of the list, but our biggest limitation is our mindset. Let's grow game-changing, sustainable software businesses in Portland and tout Portland's livability and balance as a BONUS, not a detriment to growth.
Comment below with your ideas of a more representative furry mammal for Portland.
I love that YouTube videos are timeless and all of us can re-live ridiculous moments years later. At eROI, we have dozens and dozens of those moments captured over the past many years on the eROI YouTube channel here >>. So, why am I doing a Flashback blog post? Yesterday, I had a client meeting with my friend James Adair and the typical client meeting turned into something so much better after watching the below video on our big screen. The second video is of distinguished Portland PR specialist, JulieAnna Little Giannini. She was the winner at eROI Idol, so it was only appropriate to include her video as well.
We, at eROI, have been working the last year on creating a new generation of Event Registration Software, eROI Event, with an enhanced user experience. We are currently in the Beta Launch Phase with a limited feature set, but we are excited to get this early-release version of the product out in front of our clients and the tech community in Portland. Our goal is to gather real user feedback as we continue to develop and enhance the product. We are offering a freemium version of the product for free events, but should a user prefer to hold paid events, we can enable the Payment Gateway feature for a minimal monthly fee of $50.00.
Novel concept, but I actually used our eROI Event tool to create an event for our Employee Disco Party on June 26th (if you are one of the 2 friends that employees can invite, then you too can join in the fun). I thought some screen shots of the back-end admin area would help you see why we are excited about this beta release (even though the feature set is slightly limited for the next 1-2 months until we get feedback from all of you that want to signup for a FREE account for free events (to use for RSVPs to dinner parties, seminars, BBQs, industry networking events, business meetings, etc.)
During this Beta Release, we will continue to support, maintain, and offer our eventROI product to our clients for complex events as it contains a larger feature set than the current Beta release of eROI Event. The goal is to eventually replace eventROI with eROI Event, when the features of eROI Event exceed those of eventROI. eROI Event has been developed in a manner that will allow users the ability to upgrade easily.
Please write your own haiku about ways you’d like to use this event registration tool - I’m waiting to see your haiku in the comments below.
I love the comments from this video (and I need to give thanks to Alex Williams at eROI for sharing this enlightening piece of film below). Here is my favorite comment (by “iknklst” on YouTube):
“I make my business cards out of unrefined nuclear waste. They glow in the dark quite nicely, and give the receiver terminal cancer within ten minutes of touching it.
One person I know , a self-made man, very succesful in business, was aked for his card one day. He looked at the person blankly, then said “Business cards are for used car salesman and hotel managers. If you don’t already know how to contact my office, there is nothing I need to talk to you about anyway.”
