A little healthy competition.

To be in business, I think you must possess a healthy competitive streak. It is what makes you strive to have the best product out there. As a business owner, I consider myself to have more than my fair share of the competitive gene. True, some people may have suggested I get therapy, but what do they know. I admit to gritting my teeth when informed we have lost an account to a certain competitor or if the owner of that certain company was asked to speak at a conference over me. This is a normal, healthy response, right? Since it might not be classified as healthy, I deny all rumors that I have a dartboard in my office with a picture of that certain company’s owner on it.

I am puzzled then at my reaction when I got the news that this certain company has closed its doors. Considering my competitive nature, one might expect me to be pumping my fist, smiling and feeling smug. On the contrary, I feel deflated and somewhat shaken.

This isn’t the first agency we have heard that has shut the lights off. It is, however, the last one I would have ever guessed. Interestingly enough, of the recent companies that have decided to call it quits, they all had one thing in common. They all worked with development companies that could no longer pay their bills. This hits so close to home.
Speaking as someone with first hand experience with this, this is becoming a very unsettling trend.

Warning: Soapbox tirade coming up…Marketing agencies are left holding too many bags and do not have enough legal precedence on our side to fight back. Agencies have learned the hard way that we are not afforded the same legal rights, as say a landplanner or architect, when it comes to being able to collect fees owed. When an agency invoices go unpaid, it usually means that agencies can’t pay the vendors they owe on behalf of that defaulted client. There is no lien that you can put on the land. There is no judgment that you can file that is a sure thing. If the agency isn’t profitable enough to absorb that loss (and who is theses days) there are not a whole lot of options left.

Amy

Follow me:  twitter.com/coastalgirl142