Five things we learned since setting up Curious Orange...

Setting up an agency is never easy. That’s a given. You need to commit time, faith and patience to even get off the ground.

And although we’re only scratching the surface in this article, here’s a quick sum-up of a few things we learned along the way.

1. Compromise – it won’t work without it

Put four relatively senior people in a room and you’ll get four very distinct (and of course considered) opinions. So, in order to get things done we quickly learned that very few hills are worth dying on. We’ve been able to find the middle(ish) ground – without sacrificing quality of course – and move forward. The flip side of this is that when one of us really feels strongly about something we understand that it needs to be looked at again. 

2.  We each rediscovered our craft

All of us recently came from running large teams, and so were somewhat out of the day-to-day of doing the work. Creative directors in particular can go a long time between actually crafting versus overseeing. So it was refreshing for all of us to rediscover the love of what drew us into the industry in the first place. 

3. Every day really is a school day

Behind every successful agency is a slew of niche skills and building a successful agency requires most of them. However…you generally can’t afford the headcount in the beginning.  So, from creative directors mastering the intricacies of SOWs to CEOs nailing the art of making the coffee and even strategists understanding the difference between leading and kerning – we’ve expanded our knowledge way beyond our individual comfort zone. And that’s essential for growth when you’re an independent start up.

4. A newfound understanding and respect for other roles

There’s also another element that soon becomes apparent when diversifying your skillset. And that’s gaining a deep appreciation for other people’s roles that can go unnoticed when you’re in your own bubble. From client services to creative and everything else in between, understanding the challenges other roles face has given us insight and empathy that’s harder to attain when you join an established agency.

5. Whatever you do, never assume

Situations rarely play out the way you think they will. And that can be both a positive and a negative. Pitched for a small project and ended up with a behemoth that’s worth way more than initially scoped? It happens. The person who said they’d get back to you ghosts you like a bad Tinder match? It happens…a lot. Coffee machine bubbles over, ruins the office wall and goes everywhere? It happens way more than it should. You get the idea.  

On a serious note, as a start up we quickly learned that we don’t have the luxury of time or capacity to deal with the fall out of poor assumptions. We assess the situation, check, then double check. We quickly learned that thoroughness is the mother of efficiency. It’s stood to us well so far, and it’s something we’ll carry through as we grow. 

So after all that, do we believe the juice is worth the squeeze?

100%.