Starting a business in a global pandemic.
Once in a lifetime.
We hear that saying quite a lot in our lives. Ironic really. Maybe you’ve got a new job, or that dream holiday has been advertised for a price you can’t pass up. Once in a lifetime, not to be missed, the list goes on.
It’s a good thing. Unless it’s not. 2020 was a year many earmarked for “big things”. Until the COVID-19 pandemic managed to get every detail of our lives into a chokehold.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
As they say.
So, in these strange times, I did what I thought made the most sense. I started my own business in the middle of it all – speeding directly towards a likely economic collapse and without a single lead, client, savings or a name for it.
Why? Changes matter.
I’ve worked on some amazing projects until now. Across social, content and brand I’ve had my share of great clients, projects and jobs. I’ve loved it and hated it. Wanted more and wanted less. I’ve been dabbling with freelance work ever since I left school (far too many years ago to admit). I loved the variety of project work and getting to decide how to tackle problems, without the politics of an office. Most of the time.
At the beginning of lockdown 2020 I worked with some amazing people who trusted me. I helped with content strategy, paid advertising, product launches and more. Anything I could get my hands on. The projects went great, and the clients were a dream to work with.
(If you were/are one of these people, thank you!)
Without a day job, I had time to think about the future. Did I always want to work 9-5? Set holiday allocation per year? “Kind regards” on every email for the next 10 years?
I think I had an idea in my head somewhere that I’d eventually start my own business. What I didn’t think was that I’d do it at the most difficult time. But after speaking to a few people about it, the most common feedback was that there’s never a right time.
I guess it was now or never.
One week later Hundred was formed as a collective of talented creatives, sending transatlantic proposals with all my fingers and toes crossed. I’m still figuring out what might happen; do I need to get a mentor? Should I start an online training program? What if people don’t think we’re worth paying for?
Then it hit me – it doesn’t matter. Hundred isn’t here to please everyone.
We want to work on big projects for aspiring businesses. Change the game.
I’ve seen so much idle work in my short career that I want to make sure I never sit on my hands. The traditional agency model is inefficient, as it doesn’t reward efficiency or value creative work for the returns it offers business. It’s expensive and it doesn’t always need to be.
We’re ambitious and we want to work with ambitious people. Already, we’re working on some projects which I can’t wait to share. Building relationships with people who are ready to shake things up.
Where do we want to be? What’s our North Star metric? It’s an idea called “Future narrative” that I learned from Christopher Murphy. Write down your dream project/client, then keep asking if what you’re doing points you in that direction.
I want to work on a product launch for Nike.
Check back in a few years and let’s see what we can do.
If you’d like to chat about a project, or even if you just want to say hello you can send me an email. I’ll get back to you within 24 hours – guaranteed.
If you work at Nike and want help with a shoe launch, you can definitely send me an email.
We’ll be sharing all the latest thinking and workings of Hundred here, to keep all of you in the loop. About everything; the good stuff and the bad stuff and the hard stuff.
If you’d like to follow along, we’ve got Twitter, Instagram, and a mailing list coming soon. I’m just not sure when – maybe when I’ve got plenty to say.
—Gregg