Starting Your Own Agency-One Woman’s View From The Inside

Miranda Warren and Adam Arriola founded their agency VIA in March 2014.  Shortly after, Miranda wrote a post about what the experience of starting your own agency from scratch entails.

I’d met Miranda the prior October at the BOLO 2013 conference and after I read her post, I wanted to share it on our blog.

Many of you reading this have been where Miranda and Adam are, and many of you are considering taking the same plunge and starting your own agency.

Wherever you currently are, here’s an initial glimpse into Miranda and Adam’s journey.

Thanks to Miranda for sharing her post.

We founded VIA back in March of this year and the timing wasn’t something that either of us had necessarily planned.

But sometimes life events happen in such a way that an opportunity becomes very clear, and for the two of us, it was clearly the right time to take this next and very exciting step in our careers.

Needless to say we’ve learned a whole lot in a short period of time… about ourselves, each other, the technicalities of running a business, the best Starbucks to meet a client for coffee… and we’ll be the first to admit that there’s always more to learn.

They don’t make a manual for this stuff

. . .so we’d like to share with you some of the exciting parts and also some of the things that have kept us up at night.

So without further ado…here is the first of our two post series of – Taking The Plunge, Launching VIA Brand Marketing.

The 5 most exciting things we’ve experienced, and 5 things that have kept us up at night while building an agency from scratch.

The Good

1) We’re in charge. Well, actually the client is still in charge, but that’s not the point. Sure, we’ve run departments and managed people, but VIA gives us the freedom to take the creative where we know it needs to go. It’s freedom really…that’s the most exciting part of every day. We’re not creating for a supervisor’s approval.  We are creating for what we know is in the best interest of our clients and their brands.

2) Direct client interaction. No telephone effect here. We get to work hand-in-hand with our great clients everyday and that is nothing short of awesomeness. And better yet we get to see the results. Seeing the direct impact we’re having on their business is just another great reason to get out of bed every morning.

3) Optimism. It’s not that we’re all sunshine and rainbows over here – but we are excited at the prospect of creating something from scratch that is unique and good and realizing our potential by going for it. We are pretty glass half full people – everything is always going to be “super great” and in the end “it’ll all come together.”

4) We’ll work it out. We jump over hurdles because there’s no one else to do it and we want to be the ones with the solutions – creatively, strategically, whatever the case may be. All that said, we don’t have multiple layers of communication – and we think our client friends find that beyond refreshing.

5) We can see the future. Not really – but we do have vision. We know where we want to be next month, at the end of the year, five years from now. We know that life throws curve balls and we’re ok with that. But doing things the way we know they should be done and helping our clients along the way is very rewarding.

Thank so much for reading and keep an eye out for the second post in this series when we outline the 5 things that have kept us up at night while building an agency from scratch.

You can connect with VIA and Miranda on LinkedIn and Follow VIA on Twitter to get all their latest updates and content.

 

About Miranda Warren

Miranda’s proactive, put your head down and get it done approach serves her well in the role of agency owner and account service leader. Using data to guide decisions, she ensures that all creative strategies are explored to make her clients shine and their brands make meaningful connections with consumers.
Miranda graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Journalism with a double minor in Agricultural Economics and Plant Science. Miranda’s specializes in strategic brand discovery and development. She has been instrumental in developing the vision and messaging platforms that bring brands to life across multiple B2B and B2C marketplaces including, Healthcare, Industrial Manufacturing, Distilled Spirits, Financial Services, IT, Education and Communications.