When It All Goes Wrong

We've come to expect a slowdown at our design agency in the early weeks of each year. 2014 was no different. Except that it was. Early weeks turned into early months, and by March, Clearfire was teetering on the brink due to financial issues. How could we be working so hard, yet making no money? Learn how it happened, how we survived, and how we hope to prevent it from happening again.

Transcript

2. Greg Hoy Happy Cog April, 2014 “I recently spoke to quite a few digital design shop owners, and the consensus is that the first quarter of 2014 sucked, and for some, criminally so.”
3. Erik Reagan Focus Lab August, 2014 “Seems like most services shops are in a slow season. Abnormally longer than previous years. There are exceptions but not many it seems.”
4. When It All Goes Wrong
5. When It All Goes Wrong
6. This was supposed to be fun.
7. …how it is supposed to be.
8. …you’ve got to keep on being a success.
9. Always.
10. Everything.
11. Rollover Projects
12. …people expect work to get done.
13. I didn’t owe them that.
14. No, it wasn’t OK.
15. 2.5 weeks of work a month in Q1
16. No new business.
17. Cashflow
18. The Snowball
19. I was disappointing my family.
20. I felt like a failure.
21. Thank the Lord for May
22. Where are we now?
23. The hard is what makes it great.
24. When it all goes wrong again.
25. Chad Crowell @chadcrowell Clearfire, Inc. @clearfire