Lee Dale

5 steps to getting your design agency off the ground.

Here are 5 key steps to establishing yourself and your agency in the local design community ethos.

Step 1: Define a need for design staff for your fledgling app design company.

Step 2: You know through a trusted advisor about one company’s work. You like their work. You want to be able to problem solve like them, but you want to hire a person to work with you full time, not a team of proven designers.

Step 3. So you contact a new hire at said company and ask them if they’d like to leave that company and join yours. New hire says, “No thanks, but I could probably recommend a few people, if you’d like.”

Step 4. Don’t take new hire up on that offer. Instead, contact one of the principles of the company and ask them if they’d like to be hired by you, maybe with the possibility of one day becoming a ‘partner’ in your fledgling agency. 

Step 5: Tally up the bridges burned before you’ve even put up a company website.

Suggestion: have an honest conversation with people (especially those in your local community) about what you’re trying to accomplish, don’t try to undermine them.

Scorecard:
Class -3
Dickbag +4