Agency interview: Clear Function

This is the third in a series of four interviews - my previous include nclud and nGen Works - that focuses on what it takes to start, manage and grow a successful agency business. In this interview, I speak to Aaron Boeving, Creative Director of Clear Function, located in Memphis, Tennessee.

When and how was Clear Function started?

Clear Function started in October of 2005. It wasn’t a glamorous beginning really, but mostly stemmed from the fact that myself (Aaron Boeving) and Stephen Rainey found ourselves without a company to work for as the company we had been with was dissolving. That being said, it was a great time for Stephen and myself to start a web design and development company with a focus on developing highly useful websites and applications. Something we both had been considering beforehand.

Are the services you provided at the start the same as you offer now?

Yes, we started with website design, interface design and web application development and still offer these today. At this time, the majority of what we do focusses around designing and developing web apps for ourselves and various clients.

What have you found to be most effective in marketing Clear Function?

We’ve been fortunate to get the majority of our work simply from word of mouth and referrals from our clients. However, we have done a few things outside of the box to help get our name out there.

The most effective was to develop an application in a single month and document our process on a blog. By showing people that we are capable and efficient in developing web applications, clients are knocking down our door.

What tools do you use to manage projects, track time and handle invoicing?

We use Basecamp primarily to manage projects, but also use Goplan and Lighthouse at times. The majority of our estimates/agreements are based on the entire project so we don’t do a lot of day to day time tracking.

As far as invoicing, we use Quickbooks to do all our billing and accounting. We use Quickbooks because it’s by far the easiest thing to deal with when it comes tax time as our accountant is a Quickbooks whiz. And we of course use Pulse to monitor our cash flow :).

Are all Clear Function staff full-time, in-house employees or do you also hire contractors who work remotely?

We’re all full-time. Myself and Stephen work in Memphis, TN and Nate Klaiber works in New Philadelphia, OH. We’ve been purposely a small team in the past but see ourselves growing some in the near future.

With your Marketing Director, Nate Klaiber, working remotely in Ohio, how do handle business development? Is each employee responsible for seeking out new client work or does a single person take this role on?

Just about all our business development is done through the internet. We don’t have an account executive or sales person at this time, so that primarily falls upon Stephen and myself. As I mentioned before, the majority of our work comes by word of mouth, so we are fortunate to not have to knock down people’s doors in efforts of selling a job.

With the official release of Reflect CMS in the next couple of months, we’re hoping to shift more of our marketing efforts and business development in that direction. This is mainly where Nate’s title Marketing Director will come into play.

All this being said, being such a small company we all wear several hats. Sometimes we each have to wear the hat of Account Executive, Marketing Director, etc…

What are some important business lessons you’ve learned since starting Clear Function?

Do what you know. When you do work that you enjoy and are passionate about, the results are of a higher quality and usually more successful. That being said, we’re still very young and learning daily. I think it’s also important in the web industry to stay agile and flexible. Things are changing every day and you have to keep up.