Sometimes you’ve just got to say, what the…..

It is one of those movie scenes you never forget.  The one in Risky Business.  Now, not Tom Cruise in the underwear singing Bob Seger.  The other one.  The one with the interview with the Princeton guy when the party is going on.  The one that changes Joel’s life.  (click on the box and remember)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpuAeIEXoAc]

Starting and running a small business is all about taking risks.  Just the act of starting a business is a risk all to itself.  You can manage it conservatively, adding business and people along the way.  We have great respect for our friends and peers in Richmond who have done it, whether it was at about the time when we did, like the folks at Elevation Advertising, or more recently when John Sarvay opened up his facilitation practice called Floricane.

In the past seven years for my business partner (the unflappable Josh Dare) and me at THP, that “adding the people” time usually comes about mid-year each year.  We look at our book of business, how hard people are working, our physical space and then we bite the bullet.

The cumulative effects have been positive.  We have grown in revenue and in people each year.  Most of our clients at least don’t hate us, we do good work, and aside from the strange issue of employees’ husbands dragging them off to Seattle (long stories), we’ve had little turnover and great people, our employees, watching our backs.

Three years ago we became partners in a building that allows for expansion (more on that to come), so we have room to grow.

This year, things are feeling a bit different, and that annual risk taking moment is a very different one, one I think that will change our business in many potentially exciting and scary ways.

First, is this expansion of traditional public relations into the social marketing realm.  While this is leading to many great opportunities for us, there is no guarantee that this trend will continue or that we will figure out its magic formula, although initial returns look promising.

Second, rumor has it that the economy is not exactly solid, although business for us has been good and the forecast is promising.  We are always big believers in never taking the foot off the new business pedal and that has served us well. 

Third, we have maxed out in our first floor space and while we can expand to the second floor, this will trigger a major commitment financially, some immediate investments and some over time.  The payoff will be great but the road getting there more than bumpy.

Finally, we may decide that one hire is not enough.  This may be the time to take the quantum leap.  I have talked about content fueling the social marketing engine and we will need at least one content provider and equipment to create the content.  We also need some account management support at both senior and junior levels.  This will have an additional cultural impact in the business that we’re not taking lightly.

I created this blog as a diary of sorts to record my journey from traditional public relations to a new PR or social marketing or marketing across the board world.  Part of that world is growth.  Some of that growth might be frightening and some exciting.

I frankly don’t know what our final decisions on all this will be.  I can tell you that when we make them, we usually do them without regrets and without looking back.  It is the only way we know, and we have been successful that way.  This decision may change things at our agency geometrically and things may never be quite the same in both good and not-so-good ways.

My sense is however, that it is time to take the risk, to play offense when others are playing defense.

If we’re successful our business will be different next year than it is now, maybe very different.

If we’re not, its probably “University of Illinois.”

Would love to get some advice and thoughts.