Well, as you can see, it has been quite a while since my last post and this has a lot to do with many different factors which have inspired the topics that I will be writing about in my upcoming posts.

In April and May, I spent a good portion of my time working on the renovation of our offices as well as running a business and designing for multiple clients. (Pretty soon we’ll have some photos of our space which is now complete up on our site.) Trying to manage all of those things at once was quite a lesson in time management and taught me not to spread myself out too thin. I was probably working 8 or 9 hours on various projects then I would get my hands dirty for another 6 or 7 hours in the evening working on the demolition, reconstruction and beautification of the space. This wore pretty heavily on me physically and mentally after a few weeks in a row of this same kind of schedule. Needless to say, the next time we do any kind of renovation, I will hire someone to handle all of the renovation instead of getting in on the action.

While all of this was going on, I was also trying to manage a little pickle I had gotten us into financially. (Which will be the topic of another post.) Even though it was manageable, it put me and my staff in an uncomfortable position that made me realize that we needed to come out of this stronger than we went into it. Giving up was not the answer. Of course, being a young business owner, I am learning where I need to mature and realize that I am only human and mistakes will come with the territory. But, I also have to learn from the mistakes so I don’t make them again. Fortunately, the way we are managing our books now and dealing with our receivables and payables will help us make it through this relatively unscathed but much smarter and more prepared.

All in all, the last few months have been revealing. They have showed me where my weaknesses are and what I need to improve on. They have also spurred on a new zeal for generating new leads and creating a niche for ourselves. During the down time, we were actually finding ourselves doing a substantial amount of work for churches and found we were becoming pretty good at developing creative materials that can help churches grow. We were also really enjoying the work we were doing for them. Not only were we allowed to be creative, but we were helping organizations spread their message so they could help more people. We began to consider becoming a more “human impact” oriented design firm because there is such a lack of really good church, mission organization and not-for-profit communications, especially in Indiana, that we needed to become that firm that they could turn to in order to revitalize their own marketing efforts.

One particular project that we created early on has become the best marketing piece we have ever had and has generated more work than anything we have done to market ourselves to date. (See the project we did for Vineyard Community Church) Pretty much all we have had to do is either set up a meeting with the decision makers at the local churches or drop off one of these stunning packages at a church we wanted to work with and it will begin to get their wheels spinning. This strategy has actually led us to work with numerous new churches in our area.

All in all, we have been blessed to have found this niche in the midst of a period of events that could have sent me running for the hills, but if you stick with it, like I have, even in the bad times, negatives can lead to positives.

Stefan Bean | President/Creative Director
Pulse Creative Partners, Inc. | BoDo Author | Bean’s Biz