By Rick Stanton
I started Stanton & Everybody in 1991. There were some absolutes that first year, call them resolutions—a timely reference here at the beginning of 2019.
One was to never, ever again allow my agency’s staff to bloat beyond a core group that would efficiently contribute to the day-to-day. When it hit the fan at Stanton Bondo, we had to lay off 15 people in two days. Never again.
A second element was to rely more on the relationships I had made for nearly 20 years prior, to fill in the gaps on an as-needed basis. This would allow me to bring in the best and the brightest freelancers when it was the most advantageous to everyone.
And third was to be completely transparent with everyone involved about how this was going to work.
I asked clients and potential clients if they wanted estimates, hourly rates and retainers based on staff that didn’t touch their business. The said, “No.”
Then I asked them if I brought in freelancers when they were necessary and told you why I was doing it, would you let me make a fair profit on their rates for coordinating and managing their work? They said, “Yes (in most cases)
I was fortunate and lucky enough to always seem to reload my core group with great people when someone left. I guess I had a good eye for good teammates.
Oh to be sure, there were a couple of clunkers. One in particular was an ad rookie who I hired to run the front desk, open the mail and assume added responsibilities, in order to grow on the job. One of the things she did was hide 30 days worth of vendor invoices because, as she later admitted, “I didn’t know what I was doing and I thought if I said anything I’d get fired.” Not saying anything got her fired.
When you pride yourself on paying your bills on time and you begin getting calls from media reps, printers and the like wondering what’s going on with bookkeeping, your ears perk up.
But what we did at S&E, beginning in ’91, and until I shut it down in 2015, was to operate with a small core group and and a virtual bullpen of freelancers.
An interesting dynamic evolves from this approach: good, dependable freelancers understand that the only way they get the next job is to do good work on the first job. So it makes me to smile when I see things in the Ad Week online newsletter or comments from pundits about the value of smaller agencies, with their greater efficiencies and emphasis on creative leadership.
It’s especially gratifying when the concept is presented as something new, different or groundbreaking—when it’s made good business sense for a long time. And it’s why I placed a question mark after the word “pioneering” in the headline.
It’s a little pretentious to suggest I came up with this approach. Someone surely did long before I did.