Common Craft Blog
Erring on the Side of Happiness
By leelefever on February 16, 2010 - 11:19am
Comments
Not everyone knows, but Common Craft is a two-person, home-based business. We're 100% independent, with zero employees or investors. While we work with specialists by contract, everything that Common Craft does comes from us and impacts only us. This has been our goal since 2006 when Sachi and I started working together and today, we're starting to really understand what it means to be a two person "couple company."
It's not all unicorns and rainbows. Along with our important video-making duties, I am one of two people in the customer support department. Sachi is our head bookkeeper. There's no one else to answer the phone, run errands or follow up on a question. We spend valuable time on things that could easily be done by others, which surely impacts our productivity. But, we are connected directly to our customers.
Work is a constant part of our lives. Business happens over dinner, on walks and off-hours. We don't ever really get away. Instead, we've learned ways to streamline our work, even when we're supposed to be traveling or on vacation.
Perhaps most importantly, our business is difficult to scale with two people. When headcount is a constraint, fewer business models make sense. So we have to find what works for us.
These are obviously self-imposed limits and I'm sure most business people would say that we're missing opportunities. It's true, being small means passing on many opportunities and focusing on ones that fit for us. But it also means new perspectives, perspectives that don't make as much sense outside of a couple company.
Think for a minute about how decisions are made in many businesses. Money is obviously the driving force, which is directly connected to investor and shareholder interests. Business leaders make hard decisions every day, ones focused on increasing the health of the business. Of course, this is responsible and rational behavior.
But what if there is another perspective, one that is unique to companies like Common Craft? What if, along with money and business health, a driving force of every decision is happiness among the founders? This is how we've learned to operate - our happiness as a home-based unit is perhaps the most important thing for our business and something directly connected to long-term financial success. When we look at opportunities, we ask ourselves - will this make us happy? If this opportunity comes to fruition, will we still be able to live the life we want to live?
Of course, it's not just happiness. This is really a strategy to prevent its evil twin, unhappiness, from rearing its head. Unhappiness, in the context of a married couple's work together, is poison. Business success wouldn't matter if we stopped enjoying our life together.
So we've been very deliberate about how we run Common Craft. We don't have employees because we don't want an HR department. Instead, we've found a business model (video licensing) that scales without employees. We don't have an office because we love being at home and have made it our best possible workspace. We can be very low-overhead, agile and lightweight with two people. We've never required outside investment, and I think we're better for it. Investors aren't likely to enjoy a return based on our happiness. We are happily independent.
In the end, we're designing a business that fits with our goals as a married couple. By erring on the side of happiness, we can grow in ways that create a successful business, but also ensure that we don't lose control of our day-to-day lives. And with these things in place, we hopefully have a solid formula for sustainable creativity.
Of course, things change and Common Craft may become something different down the road. But what will always be in the front of our minds is the idea that we have a choice. Every business is different and just because your "supposed-to" do something doesn't mean you have to do it. We all have a choice, and for us the important question is - will this make us happy?
For more posts like this, see our Being Small category.
Thanks for this perspective.
Thanks for this perspective. More than once, I've pointed to Common Craft as a model I wish to emulate for our little business (please note: no link to mentioned business. I like your style, but I don't want to go for the cheap business plug. If I'm going to emulate, I'm going to do it genuinely).
I have no illusions about the amount of work your business model requires, but compared to the alternative, the rewards are well worth the effort. Congratulations to you and Sachi for sticking to your plan.
Now, how do you weather the tougher (or toughish) times? :-)
Bravo!
What a great post! I've often wondered how I'd enjoy a business like yours, especially if I lived with my partner. It always seemed like fun. Do you have examples of decisions that made you happy or unhappy?
Happy or Unhappy
Hi Glenn! Great to hear from you.
Let's start with happy decisions, which I'll describe through what we've observed watching other entrepreneurs. We've know multiple people who started businesses with a lot of enthusiasm. As it grew, they grew along with it, taking on responsibilities for marketing, sales, etc. Over time, they would say things like "Man, if we could just hire a Marketing Director, I'd be able to focus." That Marketing Director was hired and it didn't help. For many, the idea that adding employees would take away problems was not accurate. They ended up with a successful business but a tough day-to-day life.
Of course, many entrepreneurs are more than willing to take the heat because they're betting that the business will eventually make them very wealthy or influential. For us though, this was not a bet we wanted to make. So, I'd say that not having employees, for now, is a decision that has helped us remain happy.
We try our best to listen to others experiences, remember our own in other companies and make the best decisions we know how to make. For us, it's about anticipating outcomes and asking "What if this works - are we prepared for the impact on our lives?"
Lovely post, Lee
I enjoyed reading this post in particular. Your intent and integrity in what you and Sachi do is crystal clear - and as a small business owner I can understand the many hats you need to wear and how impactful that decision is on those busy and tough days.
It is rare what you two do -- working together as a couple, in your home, and striving to make it a success on so many levels. The communication between you two must be so in tune so much of the time.
I echo the last comment - how do you weather the tougher times, which I define to mean either when there isnt as much work to support your family business or when you have personal stuff to take care of that affects the both of you yet you have an influx of work to accomplish?
Tougher Times
Kate and Pete,
Thanks for the comments. Times obviously change and we realize that happiness is not always a choice. However, I think our happiness, in part, comes from a solid base of optimism. Even in challenging times, we're usually able to find the silver linings. You won't find a lot of cynicism around our house. It may sound contrived, but it's a part of general disposition, a way we've always been.
In terms of the business, I think we're built for tougher times. Being a two-person company, we're very agile and can react and evolve very quickly. We can tighten our belt or let it loose without thinking of the impact on others. It's this agility that allows us to deal with the issues that come out of no where and have the potential to make us unhappy.
Happiness!
That's wonderful!!!! You're both happy!
Now, if happiness was more than a state of mind or could be "guaranteed" you
guys would have it made! A baby, cut new male or female friend could change one's whole
world! Not to mention health or accident issues.
Get a plan B, as in the book "Of Mice & Men", the best laid plans often go a stray.
More happiness to you both!
Paul
word
bro, nice -- I remember a meeting we have and Alki Mail and Dispatch before you did your walkabout, around the time Textura Design formed -- 1997 for us. Different work, but parallel paths and my new focus is socializing the good and by that I mean using these tools we created to do interesting work, making a different, doing epic stuff.
2005
I do remember that DL. Thanks for the comment!
Gross Joint Happiness
Thanks for formulating your choice process that reflects what my life's love and I are feeling our way around. I see a parallel with Bhutan's choice to go for Gross National Happiness.
'Opportunities' I and we experience as chances to test choices: if we let this opportunity go by, how will it affect our happiness?
Do you have a clear concept of happiness or is it a gut feeling, something that emerges as having increased or decreased in response to choices made?
Remain happy.
Joost
Thank you
Lee!
thank you for this great post!
you both are a model to follow,
that question you ask yourselves: "will this make us happy?", is the question we always need to keep in mind.
thank you again!
Values & Blessings
Beautiful approach to business and to life, Lee. I've never built a business of my own but have done dozens of very different things "for a living" for many years. Something I've seen repeatedly (in others and sometimes myself) is, we often get so caught up in making a living we neglect the more essential task of making a life. It appears you and your wife recognized this pitfall and resolved to avoid it by keeping your priorities straight.
Every job I've ever had came with blessings - bosses, coworkers, customers, interesting experiences, exciting new knowledge - if I'd just pay attention and SEE them as blessings. I learned this a long time ago but often got so busy 'making a living' I didn't do it.
I hope your business will prosper, but more than that I pray you'll both remain focused on those things that really matter most, so you can continue to enjoy life together from now on.
Success really based on loot?
What a pleasure continuing to find you guys come up. I saw an animated clip from a company with a product called DropBox and I bet anything it was designed by you two!
Don't know exactly about the happiness part, but certainly the self-actualization can give any individual (or company) the basis for insane fulfillment and, naturally, happiness.
As Guy Kawasaki, ex-evangelist at Apple, once said "Steve, leave me alone!" or, more appropriately, "make meaning, not money!" He implies that for any organization to survive, it first must have a reason/benefit that customers really need. If it is compelling, the money (financial benefits) will naturally follow (and not the other way around).
I just hope that the unique technique that you all have is seriously protected, because it is only a matter of time before competitors come rolling in (if they haven't already).
Thank you!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
The heart of the business is the people. Happy people = Happy customer. It was extremely refreshing to read your post. Thank you for sharing your positive outlook.
Keeping Happy
Just found your site - love the blog post and like the others feel and realize that happiness is key...and that we're each responsible for our own. The formula I've come up with and use is Passion=Purpose=Prosperity.
thanks again!
Michael
bills
I agree with all you have said. But how do you pay the bills?
Happy Owners Of Company
Excellent post. I agree with what you say - when you take each project with a Happiness Factor built it - it translates into a awesome product for your clients - it helps your clients be successful.
And that is the most important thing. With such a attitude - you will always have great projects come your way. And you will make a difference. I have always admired your products and your thinking.
Thanks