On this episode Jon & Dan take a listener question. Steve Cowburn writes in to ask:

“Why do people start their own companies, given that the rewards and workload can be tough? What is that 'certain something' that we get out of doing it for ourselves?”

To answers Steve’s questions, Jon & Dan cover the following topics:

What was the initial decision process in starting our agencies - what led us to take the plunge?

What was the turning point where it first felt like a business and an agency?

Working on our first ‘product’ and finding our niche

What were the first things that began to highlight how hard it can be to run a business

Doing the first business activities as new founders

Who did we look towards as inspiration - who could we learn from?

What was our fallback plan?

Business and personal milestones that forced us to make decisions

Hiring the first employee

What do rewards do we get from it personally

What are the purely financial rewards?

Working hard and what you need to put in

If for some reason we no longer had our companies, what would we do next?

Show notes

Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace - Ricardo Semler

Find us online

Jon Darke - @darkejon

Every Interaction - @everyinteract / www.everyinteraction.com

Dan Gent - @gentusmaximus

Lighthouse London - @wearelighthouse / www.wearelighthouse.com

This week Jon is joined by Dan to talk about how we manage your time and feel productive while running our agencies. It’s a hard thing to quantify and we feel every business and person running them are different. But we talk about what works for us, along with what doesn’t.

In this episode they discuss:

How the problems changes as you begin to scale.

Various tools we use to manage team

Abiding by systems or not?

Understand what you have achieved rather than not achieved

Tracking your activity and productivity

Email etiquette, and when to allow it in

Meetings; good or bad?

Coming away feeling good

Diversifying task types and being realistic

Show notes

Perspective #13 Brexit; concerns about the leaving the EU

The book Jon was referring to but couldn't remember the name of; The E-Myth Revisited

The important/urgent quadrant diagram Dan was referring to; The Eisenhower Matrix

Find us online

Jon Darke - @darkejon

Every Interaction - @everyinteract / www.everyinteraction.com

Dan Gent - @gentusmaximus

Lighthouse London - @wearelighthouse / www.wearelighthouse.com

This week Jon is joined by Dan to talk about how to sell the value of the design process to clients. If you’re working with clients who don’t understand the value of design or simply don’t have any experience working with a design team, how do you communicate the value your design process can bring? The benefit of doing this well can mean:

the project will run better

the communication is easier

the decisions you make are understood and respected

everyone enjoys the process

the end result is likely to be more successful

In this episode they cover

How do you sell the value of design to a client?

How do we communicate the value of design thinking and the time to do it properly?

How do projects go differently if the client gets it or not?

How do the results differ if you've applied design thinking throughout?

Show notes

Book: You’re my favourite client, by Mike Monteiro

Lighthouse event, 14 March 2017 - An Evening of Startup Product Questions Answered

Find us online

Jon Darke - @darkejon

Every Interaction - @everyinteract / www.everyinteraction.com

Dan Gent - @gentusmaximus

Lighthouse London - @wearelighthouse / www.wearelighthouse.com