The maturing of my entrepreneurial dream.

I started planning the Perfect Agency Project blog when I began planning to birth my own advertising agency.  It was August of 2015. It was also really hot in Atlanta. So it was a nice time to sit indoors in the air-conditioning and think.

I had big dreams back then. I was going to start my own advertising agency.  I was going to write a blog to share my challenges, wins and losses, surprises and learnings. But back then The Weaponry was just a vision. There were no clients. No employees. No office. No religion, too.

There was no reason to think The Perfect Agency would become a reality. Other than my vision. But in my head The Perfect Agency was very real. It would be an amazing company that would help its clients win the war of business. It would be a bottomless well of excellent creative ideas. Best of all, it would offer a fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

doo-da-doo… doo-da-doo…doo-da-doo….

Now let’s do the dream sequence bit from Wayne’s World, and fast forward two years.

Fall of 2017 Updates

Today The Weaponry LLC is realer than Real Deal Holyfield. Don’t let theweaponry.com fool you. We have real clients. Real Processes. Real creative ideas. And a really real relationship with the IRS.

I have joined a CEO roundtable group through the chamber of commerce. I think it is hilarious that the table we meet at is actually rectangular. At our meeting this week we were asked to share one word that describes what’s going on in our world right now, and then spend 2-3 minutes describing why we chose that word.

My word: Maturing

Here are the latest ways The Weaponry has been maturing.

• We are in the middle of our search for a new office space. I’m learning interesting nuances, terms, tricks and oddities of the commercial leasing world.
• We are preparing to offer our first employee benefits. Health and Dental are the starters. We may also add Fortune Telling.
• We have been in significant contract negotiations and budget discussions with several great clients. This provides longer term visibility and increases our ability to plan, hire and invest in the business.
• We’ve hired lawyers. It’s a good problem to have. But I’m not sure there is anything that makes you feel as much like an adult as having to spend time with a lawyer.  It’s the adult equivalent of going to the Principals office. Trust me.
• We’re discussing establishing a line of credit with our banker. It will allow us to tap into capital when our cashflow is burdened by a lot of activity at once, and longer payment terms from our clients.
• We are transitioning more of our significant freelance team to part-time employees. This is part of a development process that identifies and moves great talent from our outer rings to our core full-time team.
• We are working with international clients and have to clarify on our invoices that all numbers are in US Dollars. That feels significant to me.

Thank you for being a friend #GoldenGirls

Thank you for following the journey. Or being part of the journey. Or being Steve Perry and singing all those great songs for Journey. But the best is yet to come. I can see it.

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