The process of creating our slogan (Uniting the Service Industry) was enlightening in many ways.  For one, it was formative in setting our core goals.  Since then, we’ve been operating under the following mission statement:  Simplify life for the service industry by uniting it. 

With a name, logo, slogan, and mission statement, the next step was sales and marketing materials.   Initially, I thought I might go at this one alone.  We’re a startup I told myself; gotta save money where we can.  Heck, I came up with “Servinity Now!” - I can do this.  So I tried my hand at a few sales sheets, a few ad designs, even a T-shirt.  Bad idea.  You want your company to scream “amateur” - do it yourself.

The problem with hiring an agency, however, was two-fold:  relevance and money. The service industry is not mainstream and our product is bleeding edge (they tell me this is beyond cutting edge).  We had to find an agency that naturally understood our customer and product. It wouldn’t work if I had to explain either one.  In our search we certainly came across those who failed to meet this standard.  I had one firm tell me they were excited about working with our “e-company.” Seriously.  Even if I found an agency that “got it”, though, I wasn’t sure we could afford it.

Enter Chair 74.

Former big agency guys, without the big agency mentality, I could tell from the moment I pulled up to their non-descript loft office that these were our type of guys.  It didn’t take more than 10 minutes into the meeting to confirm.  Web business?  Check.  Service industry?  Been there. Social network?  Of course.  They were spinning out new ideas before I could finish explaining the old.

But here’s the big one:  Money.  Chair 74 recognized that as a startup, money is an issue for us.  So they structured a success-based performance contract with us, based in no small part upon their belief in our idea, and have allowed us to pay as we achieve our own sales goals. With money out of the way, and confident Chair 74 was the right fit for Servinity, all that was left was the work ahead.  

The final validation of our decision to hire Chair 74 came in the very first piece they created for us, our brand statement (see below).  I think you’ll agree, they “get it.” 

We are excited to have Chair 74 on our team and look forward to more great work as we continue to develop The Servinity Brand.