Gossip Genie turns six on February 10th, 2016. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 6 years. In honor of our anniversary, I wanted to take a look back at what I have learned each year through Gossip Genie.
2010 – If you were to calculate what I was charging clients and how many hours I was actually working, I was probably making less than $5 an hour. I would bend over backwards for even the prospect of a client. I was so hungry for business; I would gladly take on the cheapest yet most demanding clients out there. There were many days when I would sit at my make-shift desk (kitchen counter) for 14 hours straight working on every aspect of my newly founded little business. I did not set any client boundaries and I soon realized that it was going to lead to premature burn out on my part if I kept up at that pace. It took me a long time to realize that it’s okay to say no or to charge more because it’s reflection of your business and worth. It was at the end of this year that I put together structured pricing and detailed scopes of work.
I have always been very frugal with my expenses and my collateral in 2010 proves that (bottom left)
2011 – Thanks to the wonderful interns I had hired in 2010, I was ready to hire a full time employee. Let’s just say I learned a valuable lesson in hiring, firing, employee contracts, trial periods and intuition from the person that I hired (she is not in any of these pictures). Hopefully she has updated her resume since we worked together to include skills such as defamation of character, thievery and fabrication on another level. Let’s just leave it at that, growing your own business and finding the right people is a very complicated process. That was a bump in the road and my interns helped me pick up the pieces. At the end of 2011, I got married and it was the first time I turned on my out of office in almost two years. It was short lived because a few days into my honeymoon, I left my strawberry daiquiri melting on the beach in Hawaii to hop on a new business call. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing work in our honeymoon suite. Side note – the picture of the cookie in the upper left hand corner of the collage is from my bridal shower. Yes, the theme of my bridal shower was Gossip Genie – that’s how much I love what I do.
Client products came with me on my honeymoon and everywhere else
Bottom right – Colleen at her “desk” in my apartment. We had to use a laptop in the literal sense.
2012 – The hard work was paying off; Gossip Genie was growing at a rate every entrepreneur dreams about. It was a pivotal year for us; we successfully made it to our second anniversary, which many start-ups fail to do. I hired Elizabeth in January and Anthony in August. I knew from the moment I met them both that I needed them on my team. Four years later, I am still fortunate to call them my coworkers and the evolution and growth of Gossip Genie is largely in part due to them. A solid team can take your company to the next level but in order to build a solid team, you need to trust and support the people on that team. I learned a lot about managing a team in 2012, I caught myself micromanaging at times and Elizabeth helped me realize how detrimental that can be to the success of a team. I vowed never to do that again and that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. In May we moved into an office and out of the second bedroom in my condo. We ended the year with a 62% increase in revenue over the previous year.
Second bedroom office
New office
Genie Office Painting Party in 2015
2013 – At this point we had some really incredible clients on our roster. We were on our second year working with a Fortune 500 company, TDS Telecom and in August we signed Reynolds Consumer Products and Hefty Brands. In September we put on an incredible hour-long presentation for social media week about the ROI of Social Media. Our seminar sold out and we signed a client as a result of it. This was another year of extreme growth and learning.
2014 – By far the worst year of my entire life, I wouldn’t know that until July 24th but just the mere mention of 2014 makes me cringe. Despite my unimaginably difficult personal life, Gossip Genie continued to thrive. That is a testament to how incredible my team truly is and how fortunate I am to work with them. It was this year that Stephanie Reed and Anneliese Peper joined us, two fabulous additions to our team. Unfortunately, we lost Stephanie to London due to the expiration of her visa but in the two years we worked together she introduced PR as an additional service to Gossip Genie. I’ve learned that it’s so important to always search for additional sources of revenue, updating services and refreshing/enhancing current offerings.
2015- Gossip Genie had been around for half a decade. The company had been through ups and downs, client wins and losses, many new hires and fires. Over the past 3 years, Elizabeth had been so instrumental in our growth through incredible client acquisitions; she deserved a piece of ownership in Gossip Genie. I was thrilled to give her 10% of Gossip Genie as a token of my appreciation. Elizabeth was made VP and Anthony was deservedly made Director of Social Media. It has been one of my greatest professional pleasures having watched Anthony evolve at Gossip Genie. His passion, dedication and loyalty to his clients is beyond admirable. In May we hired Dana and Kristina, both have been a wonderful addition to our team. This year I learned a few very valuable things, fight for what you believe in even if it means getting lawyers involved to collect what you are owed. I also learned to relinquish control when necessary, I took a 3-month maternity leave at the end of 2015 and Gossip Genie continued to flourish despite my absence. In contrast to 2014, 2015 was the best year of my life, my sweet baby girl arrived, Liv Liberman, on September 25th, 2015.
2016 – It’s clear that Gossip Genie has been the greatest learning experience of all time. I learn something new every day and these past 6 years have provided more education than any number of years in school could ever provide. I learn from my clients, I learn from my coworkers and I learn from trial and error. I would not trade my job for any other in the world. This year I hope to continue to grow and somehow find the perfect work/life balance.
