Agency interview: Erskine Design
This is the final in a series of four interviews - my previous include Clear Function, 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 Simon Collison of Erskine Design, located in Nottingham, United Kingdom.
When and how was Erskine Design started?
I was into my fourth year as Lead Web Developer at another agency working on some cool projects when my friend Andy Clarke introduced me to a wildly enthusiastic pointy-bearded chap called Simon Campbell. Andy and I were pulling together a small website for Simon, and soon into the build Simon and I began talking about combining his business sense and creativity with my web knowledge to form a new company. That was the seed of Erskine Design, way back in August 2006.
During our first two hour discussion about the possibilities of what we could achieve, it was clear that our vision was the same, that he knew what he was talking about and I knew what I wanted to achieve - and how to do it. I was surprised at how lucidly the business plan evolved as I spoke. This was definitely one of those strange twists of fate, meeting a chap who could help me realise a dream.
For me, the desire to have autonomy, to be a part of the decision-making process, and to decide exactly which projects to work on was incredibly tempting. I’d been considering going freelance for many months but was worried about working so remotely, in a vacuum. To be at my creative best and stay excited, I need the company and inspiration of others, and it was clear that one of our goals with Erskine would be to build a strong, small team that would allow us to take on any project that came our way. Pretty early, I realised it was an agency we were building, and I knew exactly how ambitious this was, but I had confidence in my ability and an unshakeable desire to just go for it. Eighteen months on and the pressure is intense, but the rewards are incredible.
Are the services you provided at the start the same as you offer now?
Pretty much the same. The overwhelming aim was to provide a responsible service. I poured every effort into this word “responsible”. To me, it signifies value for money, scalable design, a fun but informative experience, and everything that web standards delivers by default. I wanted Erskine to be ethical, to be accountable. Last but not least, it had to be fun for all involved (us and the clients). We’ve these principles in place, we just dived in to see what would happen.
The number one service is of course web design and development. So, we look for very interesting projects coordinated by extremely interesting people. We like to find clients we can learn from and develop a long-standing relationship with. Naturally, we enjoy being involved at the very first stages of the process and seeing a project through beyond the launch and then continue to be part of nurturing it.
An early back-up plan was to be available to take provided designs and render them with HTML/CSS and/or stick a CMS underneath them. We actually only did this twice, and it was a disaster on both occasions. We were left frustrated at our lack of scope for visual input or direction, watching usability and accessibility slide down the hill. We found that clients would force us to stick rigorously to provided designs and we were just machines. So, we are very thankful that we have been able to say “no” to any similar requests since then, and keep our focus on providing the whole process from inception to launch and beyond.
Aside from the full-on web dev and design production, we do a fair amount of UI design and mapping, consultation work, public speaking, plus occasional training for local companies or more far-flung design agencies (who usually desperately want us to unlock the secrets of ExpressionEngine for them).
What have you found to be most effective in marketing Erskine Design?
We still haven’t done any marketing in the traditional sense. Occasionally we’ll discuss it in a meeting, but we’ve been too busy to implement any ideas yet. We’re very fortunate that most of our work comes via word of mouth, and often in a good enough quantity that we can still select exactly which project to pursue. We certainly do not take this for granted, and we do have marketing ideas on the back burner should we hit lean times.
In short, we just try to do the very best job we can on every project, ensuring the client and any stakeholders receive an unparalleled experience across the board. We’ve found that not only does this lead to recurring work for existing clients, but that many will actively refer their friends or associates to us. Our clients tend to do our marketing for us, and we love them for it.
Still, some of our daft marketing ideas are due for imminent launch. The Wallswaps project is a lot of fun, where people send us anything they want in return for Erskine buttons. We’ll document everything we receive (and there’s already a fat pile of goodies from around the world) and they in turn get permanent exposure on the Wallswaps site, our Flickr pool and proposed posters and other methods of documentation. There will also be an actual wall.
I guess our blogs and articles in physical and digital magazines definitely help promote Erskine. I do wonder, now that you ask about it, what might happen if we did actively market ourselves? We do intend to do so, and will certainly be giving our websites a redesign soon. That’ll probably be the start of some serious world domination and scheming.
What tools do you use to manage projects, track time and handle invoicing?
I can hear the yawns as I proclaim that we use Basecamp to bind everything together. I’ve been using it since it was launched and I think the very first thing I did on Erskine Day One was set up Basecamp. I still desire a few more features, but all in all it is Basecamp’s simplicity that makes it so good for us and our clients. We have recently been trialing ActiveCollab, which is not as intuitive as Basecamp, but being able to provide start and end dates for milestones, and host the thing ourselves, are clearly big advantages. Not sure if we’ll adopt it full time though.
For invoicing and general paperwork we use Simon Campbell. He’s not exactly “Web 2.0” and the upgrades are infrequent, but he’s an otherwise excellent product.
Are all Erskine Design staff full-time, in-house employees or do you also hire contractors who work remotely?
We’ve grown significantly in the first eighteen months - way beyond expectations. There are six of us (me, Jamie Pittock, Greg Wood, Glen Swinfield, Phil Swan and Chris MacPherson) full-time designers and developers, with some of us having very broad roles. I’m out “in the field” quite a lot, but everyone else can be found gathered around the kettle at most times. On top of that, there is my business partner and co-founder Simon Campbell who does a bit of everything, plus Angela and Vicky who look after everything else part-time. We will occasionally bring in other people to help with anything beyond our specialisms, but its mostly self-contained.
What are some important business lessons you’ve learned since starting Erskine Design?
The main thing is to specialise. There is a desire to do everything, but you can’t do everything well. There are inevitably things that we just don’t do. An example being visual identity and branding, where we’ll call on our associates Funnel to deal with all of that. We keep our focus on web design and development, and swerve anything where we might get caught short. Where possible, the kind of tasks that can cripple a business are left to the experts (accountants and IT people for example).
In the first few months of Erskine Design, I perhaps didn’t have the confidence to turn some jobs way and wait for the bigger ones to land, so I jumped at everything, eager to hit a stable cashflow and build a good client base as quickly as possible. This was a mistake, as we got mired in some difficult projects that didn’t pay very well and caused us to work through the nights for little reward. In short, I would undercost work to ensure we won the pitch, which came back to bit us in the arse. Now, we have a very rigorous pricing structure, and several of us have a say in shaping our proposals. I personally have learned a lot about how to run a business (thankfully).
I also strongly believe in looking after every member of the team. I am keen for all of us to keep learning by having diverse roles and growing both as individuals and as team members. At interview stage I identify what potential employees want to learn and how they want to develop, and then ensure they get that opportunity if we take them on. Everyone has a say in everything, and we keep things very transparent. If there is one thing I’m desperate to avoid, it is the idea of us becoming a production line where individuals only work within their perceived skillset. That is no good for anyone.
We do our best to enjoy what we do. I always go on about how we don’t work down a coal mine or clear minefields. We are designers, so we should listen to music all day, wear stupid t-shirts and experiment with facial hair.
Finally, I’d say that a confidence in our ability to deliver has grown, and this is very important. We take risks and we gamble. This rarely backfires as we genuinely believe in ourselves to deliver beyond expectations.
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