Investing in the Company of Friends

It’s a relationship that their friends, parents and even their husbands urged them to approach with caution. Going into business with friends, they were told more than once, can be the kiss of death for both the business and the friendship.

But Joyce Ukropina, 39, and Carolyn Johnson, 44, were both convinced that the conventional wisdom didn’t necessarily have to apply to them. They also didn’t listen to the naysayers who insisted it was crazy to open an advertising and marketing agency at a time when dozens of similar shops throughout Southern California were closing their doors.

Instead what they did 14 months ago was follow their gut instincts and open Johnson/Ukropina Creative Marketing in Irvine. So far, their hunch has paid off. Last month, in fact, the pair moved their business to larger quarters.

“Despite all the words of warning, it never occurred to us that working together wouldn’t work,” says Johnson, who began her advertising career 20 years ago with Cochrane Chase & Co. in Orange County and rose through the ranks to become that agency’s senior vice president and executive creative director.

“Joyce and I had worked together in a much larger corporate environment and had seen each other in action for six years. We knew how the other operated under deadline, and we knew each other’s idiosyncrasies. Over the years I’ve had a number of opportunities to go into business with other people, but Joyce is the only person I ever seriously considered doing it with.”

Says Ukropina, who met Johnson 15 years ago when she was hired by Cochrane Chase to manage the multimillion-dollar Carl’s Jr. account: “We were a lot less concerned about the potential pitfalls than our friends and family were. It’s not that they thought we couldn’t make it work. I think they were more concerned that it could somehow jeopardize or compromise our friendship.”

Alice Rubenstein, a New York psychologist, says the advice to avoid going into business with friends is archaic and is based on a traditional male model of power.

“It assumes that only one person can be in charge, that only one person can win,” says Rubenstein, who is partners in a psychology practice with four other women, all of whom continue to be close friends. “It’s based on the assumption that you can’t mix support and caring with success and achievement.”

Traditionally, Rubenstein says, the way it has worked is that men make money and women make friends. But she says women are now realizing they can make both.

“Smart, confident women understand the value of affiliation and the power of aligning with an equally strong partner,” she explains. “Combining strengths and sharing power is an effective way to build successful businesses. Instead of seeing other women as competitors, many women are realizing that they can indeed be their strongest allies.”

Rubenstein says that partnerships between accomplished women have very good odds for success because women are typically less rigid and less invested than men in titles and turf.

That, says Johnson, has certainly been the case in her partnership with Ukropina.

“We have a combined business ego that really drives us to produce the best work we’re capable of, but I can’t think of one example where we’ve gotten locked into a battle of will,” says Johnson, who lives in Newport Beach with her husband, Ken Cosgrove. “We’ve been able to avoid it because we really value our differences. They’re what make us a strong team. She can do things that I not only can’t do, but have no interest in doing. And vice versa.”

Ukropina says that even potentially delicate decisions such as whose name would go first on the business logo have been made more from practicality than ego.

“Even though Ukropina is pronounced exactly as it’s spelled, the name Johnson is less intimidating and easier to remember,” says Ukropina, who lives in Corona del Mar with her husband, Rob, and their three children. “So that was that.

“Who got the bigger office was just as easy a decision. I meet with clients and suppliers more often than Carolyn does, so I needed more space. I’ve heard of relationships where that kind of decision has erupted into a real power struggle, but we don’t get caught up in all that stuff.”

Adds Johnson: “For a lot of years, I had a secretary and a huge office with a view and couches and the whole thing. But that didn’t make me do any better work. I think the older you get, the less attached you are to all the trappings and symbols of success. Your sense of accomplishment is more internal. You also learn over time to compromise and to invest your energy where it matters, which in our case is helping our clients succeed.”

From the beginning, the two women were determined to not do business as usual.

“As creative as a lot of advertising people can be, it has always amazed me how similarly many agencies do business,” says Johnson, “Joyce and I were both dedicated to taking a more progressive approach and tailoring our business to our personalities and to our way of working. We want to make money, but we also want to have fun and do it our way.”

Since launching their business, which has produced print ads, commercials, brochures and annual reports for such diverse clients as LA Celluar, Caffe Classico, Overnite Express, Choice Hotels International and Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., they’ve turned their backs on some of the unwritten rules that have long been as much a part of advertising as jingles and slogans.

“Having been in the business as long as we have, we both saw a lot of ways of doing business more efficiently,” explains Ukropina. “For example, we don’t insist on keeping clients on retainer. We work with a lot of our clients project to project.”

Adds Johnson: “We also don’t do lunch meetings because we’d rather work through lunch and get home at a decent hour. Joyce has three kids under the age of 10, and we’re both determined to have a life outside work.”

Ukropina thinks she knows why their approach is working: “When people come to Johnson/Ukropina, that’s who they get. They don’t get passed off to a junior creative team or some account executive they’ve never met. There’s a personal relationship there, a level of trust. They know we’ll come through.”

Says Johnson: “Even though we love to laugh and joke around, they respect that this isn’t ‘Bimbo’s in Business’ or Lucy and Ethel out to have a good time. They know our backgrounds, and they know we’re serious about this business.”