One Memphis agency is taking the bull by the horns. Carpenter/Sullivan/Sossaman CS2, an agency based out of Memphis Tennessee, is actually expanding during the fiscal downturn. They’re attributing this success to the shop’s strategic plan implemented back in 2006 – diversification. Ah, yes. That’s the big lesson of the economic crisis – diversify your assets. Now, the agency has a healthy stream of revenue that allows them to operate from a more aggressive position.
“We didn’t have any large exposure to any one particular client or business,” managing principal Brian Sullivan recently told the Memphis Daily News. “All agencies are limited to one client per category or industry, so we didn’t have any real serious exposure in any one industry. They’ve all been hit differently.”
Meanwhile, another agency, Chandler Ehrlich has is closing its doors after 32 years. The agency pulled out all the stops to save the business from lay-offs to relocating to a smaller office. Previously, were paying rent on a posh 20,000 feet space they were hoping to grow into. They never did. The economy squeezed growth right out of the company. Chandler Ehrlich will be closed by the middle of this year.
Mark Henry who owns the Memphis shop Signature Advertising said: “When times are not so good, it takes two hands on the wheel and you have to pay attention to your profit and loss, your income, these ‘boring’ business things that aren’t creative and advertising-oriented. That’s the key to whoever’s going to survive and whoever’s going to prosper.”
True. True.