Citizen Agency

So…here we are at the end of, what? Like just over a month in bidness and we’ve maxxed out on clients. We’ve signed all of our ‘willing to do client work time’ (as opposed to volunteer, community, development and business stuff work) and signed all of the contracts related to that.

We have deposits in the bank. We got a nice cushion-y business line of credit (hope to never use it, but it’s nice to have it there). We can stop going to 5 meetings a day + having 3 more conference calls. We can settle in and get to know our new clients:

People Aggregator - Ma.gnolia - Mozes - Jeteye - Inspiration Festival

(and a couple more we can’t mention yet) Scrapblog - Tangler

And finally catch up with our ‘old’ clients: Riya & Flock.

Yeah, Chris is being a little dramatic as is his ’schtick’ (remember when people thought Flock was folding?) - but we are what I like to refer to as ’sandalstrapping’ this company. No savings. No funding. Totally, 100% people powered - meaning that we get clients and become profitable from day 1.

And the day I posted on my blog that I am a free agent, I started getting phonecalls and emails. We have been keeping track of leads and …wow… there is a demand for what we do (even if some people ask, “What is it you do, anyway?” and we answer, “Um…?”).

Steve Jobs said to a hopeful class of graduates at Stanford last year:

‘Keep hungry, keep foolish.’

Heh. We’ve certainly got that foolish part down pat. Hungry? Well, I’d like to be all romantic about this like Chris, but I’ve been way ‘broker’ than this (remember, he’s a fancy white boy from New Hampshire - this is good for him).

I’m actually exceedingly excited about the future of Citizen Agency. Between the number of people approaching us to want to be part of it (from investment to partners to loosely joined citizens to advisors, etc.) and the amount of demand there is for the type of work we do (which is community building, user experience product design, developer networks, general marketing, design and development consulting, teaching people to dream bigger and think longterm, etc.), I’m blown away by the support.

And, so I read Chris’ post and felt nervous. “What are people going to think?” was my first reaction. But then I thought about it. Transparency is what we preach to our clients, so why shouldn’t we follow our own lead? I mean, really. We can show that sandalstrapping is possible. Build cheap. Be profitable early. Failure (and success) is cheaper than ever, so fail (and succeed) often.

We want other people, dreaming about going independent to know that starting a business is effing tough. We haven’t slept properly in the past month and a half. We don’t get to join our friends for drinks. We are constantly confused over forms and steps and laws. You need a lawyer, which costs money. You need payroll (still in the process of setting it up - which is why Chris is broke - he’s paid for lawyers, travel, etc. out of pocket while the CA account has $$ in it we’ve been told to not touch until it’s done legit…by an accountant who costs money, too). You need a gazillion things that cost money and that take gobs of time and mindspace. At the same time, you need clients, so you have to meet with 50 potential clients to find 5 that are a good fit. Each meeting lasts 1-2 hours, which also requires travel time.

And more and more…but we love it. We are getting a total high off of this. We are meeting some amazing people and getting a glimpse into a world of bootstrapped, passionate entrepreneurs that very few people have the priviledge in doing. We now get to partner with some of these entrepreneurs to try and make history. That is effing amazing.

Besides, it will be a great story to look back on a year from now, when we are all sitting on our yacht feeling good and money is in the bank and laugh about Chris having his bank card declined when trying to buy a comic book. Seriously. It was a Superman comic book.

So, we’ve entered the Harvest New Founders Program to win one free year of Harvest. We’re pretty excited, because Harvest is a nice looking business tool (we’ve already subscribed based on our testing out of it)…and it isn’t like we are so broke that we can’t afford to pay the monthly fee…we just love the idea of the contest and like winning! And, we really really <3 the idea that Harvest is supporting new businesses like this. From their website:

To help companies get on their feet, The Harvest New Founders Program is giving away one year’s subscription of Harvest time tracking service to a new company each month.

So, what is Harvest?

Basically, it’s time tracking for businesses. Agencies need this stuff. We need to know how much time we are spending on the business, each client, certain tasks, etc. so we can become more efficient and, you know, bill stuff. We’ll also be able to figure out our own personal inefficiencies.

Chris futzes.

I’m going to make a category for him that says, “Futzing” - which includes stuff like checking his Flickr comments, IMing about general stuff, playing around with new apps…these are totally valuable tasks. They are what builds the basis for his connections to community and keeps that brilliant brain of his going. However, if he is futzing more than doing client work, he’ll have to discipline himself a bit more so we don’t fall behind schedules.
Me, I drift.

I get going down a path and then I get absorbed in topics for too long. I love looking too deeply at stuff. Once again, this is very good because I get to really get into a subject and start to understand context and really care. Not so good if I get distracted from the task at hand. I’m making a category for myself called, “Drift”.

We’ll have to see what Ben’s ‘thing’ is.

Anyways, we all know that time tracking is essential, that’s why we need to use something like Harvest to keep us all in line. Here is our submission:

It goes back to high school…or at least it does for Chris. For me, it goes back to, geez, I can’t remember when. But at some point we both had this crazy idea that we could make a living by teaching others to run more ethical businesses. To care about people. To give a damn about changing the world.

I know, it’s nuts.

But then somehow, across countries and all sorts of barriers, we found one another. Chris and I, I mean. We met, fell in love and had this epiphany that we were going to change the world together. And that was all that mattered. And really, that is where it all started for us…

Both of us were working at startups. Me, at Riya. Chris, at Flock. We blogged. We had funny ideas about stuff. We would never compromise our ideals. And, really, that is what led both of us to leave our respective employers and strike out on our own.

That is when Citizen Agency was born. The name came to us in an easy whirlwind. Instantly, we knew that is who we are. And then Ben came to us in that same easy whirlwind. The third Citizen Agent, who we had met and plotted with in French cafes last December, who had left the BBC because he was darn-well ready to. He was born to be a Citizen, too.

We formed what will be known as “Whatever happened to Citizen Agency?” just over a month ago. We really loved the idea of Harvest (design, layout, features, etc.) from the beginning. Thought we’d take a swing at your little contest (quite nice btw). Love that you are supporting new founders. That rocks.

So, we are Tara Hunt, Chris Messina and Ben Metcalfe and we are Citizen Agents. We do cool stuff for pay and that is great, ’cause it looks as though people are wanting to pay us.

And we hope you pick us, too.

So…wish us luck! If Harvest works out well, we’ll be talking about it here.