Five years ago today, John Confer and I filed paperwork with the great state of Texas to officially incorporate WrightIMC, LLC. WrightIMC had existed as an entity since September of 2007, but only as a consultancy. March 1, 2008, was the day we became an agency.
This month, we’ll be celebrating our firm’s birthday in a variety of ways, many of which we haven’t even thought up, yet. But, today I’m reflective, and I hope you’ll let me indulge in a bit of sappy nostalgia and not-so-humble brags.
When I started this firm, I had enough money in the bank to last 6 months. I had a house payment, two car payments, a 2-year-old son, a wife, and a dog. I had no steady clients. I started with nothing but a computer, a desk in my home office, and the confidence that I could help businesses of all sizes be profitable on the Internet.
Now, we have a monthly payroll that vastly exceeds my yearly salary in any other job I held before WrightIMC. We’ve got almost 30 of the best Internet marketers and administrative personnel in the world. And this year, we should exceed $5 million in revenue.
I now have the same wife (thankfully!), four children, the same dog, and an unquenchable excitement about the future.
In five years, many of the strategies, methods, and tactics we use have changed dramatically – but my confidence has not changed. In fact, I’m more confident than ever that the team here at WrightIMC, right now, can help any company have a profitable, sustainable web presence. And judging by our clients’ results, and the fact that they stick around even though we don’t do long-term contracts proves that my confidence isn’t just false bravado.
Our clients are who we come to work for every day. My employees know that I don’t pay their salaries, our clients pay their salaries. They may drive us a little crazy sometimes. I know we drive them crazy, too. However, at the beginning and the end of every day, we are passionate about their success. So much so, in fact, we have to be vigilant that we don’t over-service and lose money on clients. We want them to succeed so badly that we’ll do whatever it takes. And, we’ve been like that since day one. And, it’s not going to change, even as our clients continue to grow in both size and notoriety.
Of course, we didn’t get here alone. The marketing and advertising community in Dallas has been more than gracious to us. In fact, without a client referral from Christine Churchill at KeyRelevance, a firm that most would consider our competitor, we might have gone bankrupt in the early days.
We’ve been so blessed to have people believe in us and our vision. The awesome members of the Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association have been encouraging and educational. We’ve also benefited from the many other organizations to which we belong. There are way too many people for me to thank individually for helping us over the last five years – hundreds of people who have referred business, talent and offered sage advice to us. I’m afraid the Academy Awards orchestra would play me off the blog if I tried to thank them all.
Ultimately, it’s the team at WrightIMC that is responsible for our success. We’re all a little different – and I don’t mean different from each other. I mean different in the sense that we don’t necessarily fit in elsewhere. Everyone here has been hired because of their passion, and it shows in our work. I’ve never seen another team with the desire to have the client succeed more than the folks that work at WrightIMC. I’m privileged that all want to work here and make our vision blossom. And, I enjoy coming to work because the people are so awesome.
On a more personal note, without my wife Kathy, my kids, my parents, my brothers, and my friends, WrightIMC wouldn’t have made it 6 months. When I am down, they pick me up. When I am overconfident, they bring me back down to earth. I love you all.
The best part is – we’re just getting started. Wait until you see what we do in the next five years. Keep your eyes open. We’re going to blow the doors off this marketing thing.
