The Shop is a small agency. Just a few full-time employees and numerous part-timers that help bring our internal family together. It’s how I envisioned it, it’s how it remains. You see, The Shop is a labor of love, nearly ten years in the making. Ten years of learning, ten years of mistakes, ten years of ups and downs, and ten years of highs and lows. In March 2015, with enough savings to finally start this agency, I did just that. I had to save because I didn’t want investors. I dreamt of an agency without a board, without a bug in my ear, and with total creative freedom. Two years later and I still have that! Here is how and why I do.
After years of working at numerous different agencies, whether freelance or in-house, it became pretty obvious to me how tattered the quilt of agency was. A bunch of individuals who act like they know more than they do, a few too many overly ambitious fresh off the college boaters, and a litany of obnoxious-isms. It was too much me and not enough us. The agency world was a bit too contrived for my blood, so I was bound and determined to make it better.
Without investors, I’m able to do the things that I always thought were the right things to do. It’s the reason, we’re the Unagency. It’s my company after all, so I chose to make more humane, less greedy choices. Does this mean I make less money? Yep. Does this mean we have fewer clients? Yep. But what we lack in those departments is made up in others. I gladly pay my employees above livable wages, which means even my entry level employees can afford rent and a meal better than ramen. I hire long-term, recognizing the potential in everyone. If you want to work at The Shop, it’s because I know you want to work here. I also know that you want to grow and develop as a person and a professional. My hope is that when those items work in tandem, our workforce is full of people who genuinely enjoy the family they’ve joined.
But it’s not just our internal core. These values hold true for the clients we seek and invite into our home as well. At The Shop, we believe that passion is important, that a true belief in the product or brand is imperative, and that trust isn’t a given. We’re not seeking clients with deep pockets, we’re seeking clients with deep understanding of the products they produce and the brands they exude. We aren’t looking for profit, we are looking for sustainability and self-actualization. At the end of the day, you need to love to people you work with, both internally and externally. We aren’t looking for employees or clients, because those just aren’t the right words…because we’re a family.
Think you’re a good fit at The Shop? Give us a call. Whether you want to work with us or for us, let’s see if we’re good for each other.