Six Questions About Entrepreneurship With Kim Herrington

Kim Herrington is an entrepreneur, founder and creative director at Orsanna, a website design and digital marketing company based in Conway, Ark. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs and knows the unique challenges for small businesses, especially in the world of digital marketing.

She also is a graduate of Hendrix College and a native of Massachusetts. Herrington recently took the time to answer a few questions about entrepreneurship in Arkansas.

TB&P: What was your first job and what did you learn?

Herrington: My first job was working for my dad’s business, Ace Archers, in Massachusetts where I grew up. He launched an archery recreation business when I was in high school. We traveled from town to town during the summer, teaching children in town rec programs how to do archery. Eventually, he opened an archery pro shop that I helped manage while home from Hendrix College in the summers. I learned a lot of skills I use every day in my digital marketing agency, Orsanna, like how to serve customers, how to manage a business, and how to communicate well with clients. Without having the experience of entrepreneurship at a young age, I don’t think I would have started my agency. My dad has been an entrepreneur my entire life, mostly as a computer developer and consultant, so it’s all I’ve really ever known.

TB&P: What book had the biggest impact on you?

Herrington: A lot of books have made a big impact on my life and how I view the world. It is hard to pick just one, especially as I have a bachelor’s in English and French from Hendrix. To turn this question on it’s head, I’d say that blogs have had a bigger impact on my career than books. I read search engine marketing and digital marketing blogs like Moz and Kissmetrics as often as I can to stay current. These blogs are also the same things that led me towards my current career as a digital agency owner, blogger, and SEO. After college, I blogged as a hobby and was looking to reach a larger audience. I’d heard about SEO and content marketing but didn’t know much about it. After pouring through online resources like Moz, I learned and started applying it. Over time, I realized that business owners needed the skills I’d developed.

TB&P: What do you like about the Arkansas entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Herrington: Arkansas is a small state and has a tight-knit entrepreneurial system. While that can be a double edged sword for some, it has helped me immensely when I’ve needed advice from other smart, experienced entrepreneurs. If I need help with something, I only have to ask the community to find someone who can steer me in the right direction.

TB&P: What advice would you give to new startups or entrepreneurs?

Herrington: The idea that if you launch, customers will come flocking, is misguided. Marketing is absolutely essential in today’s highly competitive market and should be part of your budget for a launch and as part of your on-going operating expenses. Your budget doesn’t have to be huge but should be spent wisely so your business gets the best results for your spend.

A lot of entrepreneurs are hesitant to bring in outside marketing help at first but end up overwhelmed. Marketing almost always falls to the wayside because it seems the least important. Without marketing, you’ll almost always run out of clients. Bringing in outside help at the beginning can set you up for sustained success and ensure your budget and time is well spent. Marketing experts can do a lot to prevent cycles of busy and slow periods created by insufficient marketing.

TB&P: What are your top five apps or tools to help with productivity?

Herrington:
1. Quickbooks Online is the easiest accounting system I’ve used that does everything I need, from customer accounts to payroll to taxes. It’s better than the desktop version because we can access information and take payments on our mobile devices, which is far more useful than you’d think. I’ve worked with Intuit products a lot before but really love the capabilities of QBO.

2. Toggl is what we use for tracking our time for client projects. Orsanna has some attorney roots since my co-owner and fiancé, Joseph Charlson, is an attorney. As a result, we’re big sticklers on recording everything we do for clients. It allows us to give accurate estimates for website builds and marketing work and make sure we’re spending our working hours wisely throughout our whole team.

3. Google Drive is fantastic for working with our team effectively. It integrates seamlessly with Analytics and Adwords, both of which are very important in our daily work at Orsanna. We’re on the go a lot, visiting clients on location, doing photoshoots, or checking out our client’s competition, so being able to take work documents with me is a must. Not all of our team members work in our office daily as is the norm for most modern companies these days, although we all live in Conway. Drive makes it easy for all of us to collaborate, even if we’re not physically together.

4. Having an all-Mac environment has been a huge productivity helper for me because allows me to switch devices quickly and easily without major headaches. It’s a small thing that makes a huge difference.

5. Calm helps me gain focus when working on difficult tasks by drawing out the world around me. It’s an app meant for meditation but I use it for focused work segments. When the gong tells me I’m done with my session, I get up, walk around a bit and stretch, and return for another focused session. Research shows time and time again humans work best in highly focused chunks and that our bodies need movement throughout the day to help our minds work at their best.

TB&P: What are your top three pieces of advice for other entrepreneurs?

Herrington: Establish rules on who you want to work with and stick to them. It’s better to have one great client who raves about you to everyone than four bad clients who don’t value your work. Michael Hyatt has great advice on this in “Book Yourself Solid.”

Treat your clients and co-workers professionally and require they do the same in their relationships with you. This doesn’t mean you have to be overly formal or someone other than who you are but rather that you deliver on promises and hold others accountable.

Keep learning whatever it is you’re doing in your business and stay abreast of latest developments. If you’re not ready to change with the times because you’re busy learning what was new a year ago, you’re going to get left behind.