Thursday March 18, 2010

smSmallBiz.com - SmartMoney's Small Business Site

profiles: In Focus: Redesigning the Web for Today's Consumer

profiles

In Focus: Redesigning the Web for Today's Consumer

SmartMoney.com

more profiles articles

April 6, 2009
By Diana Ransom

Small-business owners, what are you doing to stand out from the crowd? Each week, we focus on an entrepreneur who has lessons to share that we think will resonate with other small-business owners.

Sumin Chou and Glen LaFortune, co-founders of interactive web design firm, Concentric Studio, answers our questions:

What are you doing to stand out from the crowd?
Concentric Studio is a full-service interactive design firm that’s helped plan, design and build web sites for such brands and titles as Victoria’s Secret, CNNMoney, DailyCandy and Foreign Affairs. While we can create a site from start to finish, we’ve noticed that some sites don't need a complete overhaul — they're just ill-equipped to meet today's consumers' needs. As such, we'll gladly help companies construct prototypes of new ideas or fix specific problem areas.

What's the best part about owning your own business?
It has been an incredible experience to see our studio grow over the past several years.

What's the biggest challenge of owning your own business?
Working on everything — all of the time. From project planning and meeting with clients to managing the business day to day, trying to squeeze in quality time with our families has been tremendously difficult.

Name: Sumin Chou and Glen LaFortune
Sumin Chou and Glen LaFortuneBusiness: Concentric Studio, an interactive web design firm.
Industry: Web Design
Location: New York
Year founded: 2007
Number of employees: 2
Web address: www.concentric-studio.com

What's the biggest hurdle you've overcome?
Making a name for our company. While we each stand out in our respective areas of interest, building the Concentric Studio brand and raising its visibility has been an ongoing project.

What's the biggest mistake you've made?
Turning down potential client projects because of scheduling constraints. As a two-person shop, we felt intimidated by the volume of work we were getting in the beginning. However, as we began hiring freelancers, it's become much easier to balance priorities and deadlines, while not sacrificing the quality of our work. 

What's the best business advice you can offer?
Stay focused. It's easy to get lost in trying to be all things to all people.

Last 2 Comments
Glen Posted: 3:40 PM On April 23, 2009
@Sammy... a lot of it has been luck. Whether it's knowing someone that has a project in mind or a referral from the design community, we've managed to get in touch with the right people. Our company website has also been listed or mentioned by a number of design sites which has helped drive traffic to us and has helped generate some project leads.

Having been involved in this industry for some time, we both have extensive histories working on a range of large scale projects. Just to clarify, though we are the Principals of our firm, we go beyond being just a studio of two—we have a team of designers and developers we work with extensively. That said, Sumin and I do end up doing a majority of the work. We focus on our strengths and we get assistance when needed.

I do think these days clients are interested in working with smaller creative studios because they can deliver a level of focused work they might not get at a larger agency; No red tape or middle management to deal with.
Sammy Posted: 3:09 PM On April 9, 2009
Wow! This is very inspiring guys. I too belong to a 2 person design agency. I'm curious to know how you were able to land such big clients. I've managed to get meetings and interest with big clients but they felt that we were too small a group to handle the work. Any advice?
Thanks!
Add Comment (1000 character max)
Fox Business - Small Business