Marketing

This interview with Catherine Juon, Co-Founder and Catalyst at Pure Visibility, marks the first in our series on "Financing Your Innovation". The series was sparked by the observation across multiple interview participants that they faced common problems in financing their innovative businesses.

Catherine introduces us to the issues faced in financing a services business. As we have covered previously, Pure Visibility is a three year old Internet marketing firm that helps its clients grow their businesses online. Like many services businesses, Pure Visibility has grown through bootstrapping. In their particular case, this has meant:

• They started with immediate cash flow from clients they had garnered in previous ventures so could forego bank financing.
• In addition to contract work, they established monthly recurring revenue streams that guaranteed a source of revenue.
• Working capital, the difference between payables and receivables, has been an issue as the company has grown. Pure Visbility is currently seeking bank financing to help with working capital but has also financed it through credit cards and loans from friends and family.

In the past few years, Wagner Design Associates has significantly progressed from a sole proprietorship to a partnership with seven employees. Founded more than 20 years ago, the firm is clearly not on a rapid growth path. Rather they view their small size as an advantage. It allows them to more closely interact with their clients.

The firm adapts to client needs by pulling from its network of collaborators. They provide additional staffing as required. They also allow the firm to stay current with technology by supplying a pool of people familiar with the latest trends. It's worth noting that Wagner Design Associates became a partnership in part by incorporating one of its longtime collaborators, Kathy Roeser.

As described in our last segment on Wagner Design Associates, the firm started as a print design shop. However, by the late 1990's, it was clear that the web would play a more significant role, at least partially displacing print, so Jill Wagner began the move toward the web. Some highlights from this segment:

• Shortly after the start of the current decade, Jill approached Kathy Roeser because she felt she needed more web expertise.
• Much like Carrie Hensel at Inner Circle Media, Kathy had become a self-taught web guru with a grounding in design and she was actively engaged in teaching others.
• Kathy's design background also fit well with the culture of Wagner Design, smoothing the firm's transition from print to web.
• Wagner Design Associates now does about 50/50 print and web work.

This segment kicks off our series on integrated marketing communication with Jill Wagner and Kathy Roeser of Wagner Design Associates (download 9 minute iPod compatible video, 46MB). Jill founded Wagner Design in 1986 in Ann Arbor, MI as a print firm. She initially did type lay-outs by hand and hand drew story boards. In 1989, she moved to computerize her offices, 5 years ahead of the curve. In future segments, we'll explore how she grew from a one woman shop and vastly expanded her firm's capabilities. In this segment, we cover the following topics:

• Wagner Design Associates' value proposition as a boutique creative firm.
• How Wagner Design Associates helps clients define their identity. In particular, we cover how they achieve client buy-in to the process.
• How Wagner Design Associates uses social capital to market its services.