Bop Design: Hiring some employees, but long days for the owners
Jeremy Durant and his wife, Kara Jensen, established Bop Design after he was laid off from a creative agency in 2008.
“We noticed there was such a need among small businesses that are professional services companies for effective marketing,” Durant said.
Bop Design soon signed up law firms and environmental consultants, among others, for a variety of services, including client generation, email marketing and search-engine optimization.
With an office in Bankers Hill, Durant has hired two full-time employees and about seven independent contractors. The company had revenue last year of $110,000, and it’s on track to triple that number this year, he said.
As Bop Design was gaining its footing, Durant and Jensen carefully considered whether they could bring on new employees. They decided to hire a Web developer because they needed someone with technical expertise, and a project manager to work directly with customers.
Kara Jensen and her husband, Jeremy Durant, started Bop Design after Durant was laid off in 2008. They have hired two full-time employees, and Durant is the default office manager.
For now, Durant is the default office manager.
“I would love to bring somebody on to do that,” he said. “It takes away from my core competency, which is really business development and sales.”
Durant spends around three hours a day on office management, from paying the water-cooler bill to setting up the company’s intranet site. During a recent morning, he wrote a creative plan for a client, then headed to the bank to deposit checks. He and Jensen often end the day at a networking event, such as those held by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m working, on average, 70 hours a week,” Durant said. “It’s amazing how as a small-business owner, you’re such a generalist.”
Still, he doesn’t mind putting in the time. “Most of what I do every day, I enjoy,” he said.
BY UNION-TRIBUNE, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011 AT 6 A.M.
Original article link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/sep/04/at-small-businesses-its-busy-at-the-top/
