Integrating Spatial and Special
Sonny Hong was an architect getting his master’s degree when a friend starting a company asked him to design a corporate logo. That company hit the $1-million mark six months later, and Hong continued doing its corporate identity materials, which helped him pay for his schooling. Eventually he realized that graphic design was what he loved. Working from home and hiring contractors to help with big projects are strategies Hong has used to keep his company lean. Hong talked about his business with freelance writer Karen E. Klein.
After graduate school, it was a fairly obvious choice for me to stay with graphic design rather than architecture. The economy at that time wasn’t great, and projects for architects were hard to get. I worked in-house at a graphic design firm for six months, then when I landed an account with Mattel in 1995, I decided to work full-time on that and form my own agency.
There are a lot of benefits in working from home. I have a 2,000-square-foot house and have dedicated the entire front section to my business. The dining room has become a conference room; the two front bedrooms are offices; and the living room is my studio, where I have two workstations.
Clients from large corporate offices visit my home, and they love the relaxed, casual environment. I make lunch for them and serve it on the patio. Because it has the feel of an office, they aren’t uncomfortable about invading my personal living space.
I treat all the people around me like family--whether they are vendors, clients, co-workers or associates. I take care of them; they take care of me. I use this concept with the freelancers that I hire to help out when the work flow gets too hectic for me to handle alone.
My pool of design talent comes from an investment I’ve made over the years, hiring freelancers just starting out whom I feel have the potential to become good designers. I give them some small projects at first as kind of an experiment to see how they do. If they are good people, I can help launch their careers and teach them things. In return, they give me loyalty and hard work.
When I get a large project, I put together a team of freelancers. Technology is changing so fast, it’s great to be able to draw on people who have different sets of skills and expertise in various new systems. It would be a real strain to have to pay for the overhead of training staff employees to keep up with it all.
When I got a request to design a Web site, I considered trying to learn Web design skills myself. But I decided I just didn’t have the time to master that. My expertise is in print design, and I can’t learn how to do everything.
Because I have so many good people I can count on, I brought together a team of Web site designers to work on this project. They don’t have the business experience, so I do the project management and they do the design.
Working with outside contractors keeps the company lean, and it allows me to expand without moving out of my home office, since the freelancers work in their own space. The practice also reflects the general economy we have today. I think you have to be instantaneous, spontaneous and flexible in business.
If I had a static staff of nine or 10 full-time designers, I would have to really watch my costs. And I’d have to fit the projects that I got into the talents of my studio. Drawing from an almost infinite pool of talented freelancers, I can cater to the needs of my clients by bringing in the person who fits their needs perfectly.
It’s not all rosy, of course. Freelancers sometimes miss deadlines or get full-time jobs and leave in the middle of a project, which puts me in a bad situation. But I try to be as flexible as possible, and I can usually weed out the people who are flaky before I give them projects that are really important.
At this point, I am trying to pace my growth. I don’t want to grow too big or have too much overhead. I have a part-time administrative assistant and a full-time designer who helps me with production on the jobs I work on personally. In the future, I don’t plan to expand my staff beyond three or four employees maximum.
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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.
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AT A GLANCE
* Company: Sonnyside Up
* Owner: Sonny Hong
* Nature of business: Graphic design
* Location: 11911 Juniette St., Culver City 90230
* Web site: https://www.sonnysideup.com
* E-mail address: sonny@sonnysideup.com
* Year founded: 1995
* Employees: 1 full-time, 1 part-time
* Annual revenue: $110,000
