Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Morehouse Herman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alex, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?
In the very beginning it was myself running the business. Fielding EVERY application (which we received somewhere between 100-200 monthly when we first launched), running all the interviews, shooting with each photographer in LA who applied, running social media, responding to all the emails etc. In the first couple of years I brought on interns and tried to find someone else to bring on who could help me run things, and I tried a few people and 3 month trial periods. Each time around the 2 month mark, it would be abundantly clear that it just didn’t line up or make sense. Larissa Raquel who was one of my first interns was really the first person who STUCK and she’s still with me today. So she’s the longest standing “employee” or freelance creative who TGS has worked with from just about day one of being an actual legal business! She is not only an incredible photographer, graphic designer, web designer, and so much more… but she’s become one of my absolute best friends. People say that doing business with friends is tricky, and it absolutely is, but she’s helped me really grow as an industry professional and as human and we’ve gone through a lot of growing pains together, have had to have many a tough conversation (in regards to money or payments, client work, personal vision for my brand etc.) and because of the relationship that we’ve formed we have really figured out how to balance work life and personal life because we love and respect one another. Because of that we since have brought on 2 other gals (friends of mine) who run social media accounts for some of our clients. Again, they’re girls who get the vibe, understand the vision, have love and respect for the team and TGS as a whole, and also want to serve the community and fellow business owners because they know the impact of the work we’re doing. So we’re a small but mighty team of creatives / freelancers helping as many aligned businesses as we can. Having Gia + Sophia as additions to the team has been FUN and has also allowed us to bring on more clients at one time than we’ve ever had the bandwidth to do in the past.
Alex, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
So my business The Groovy Shack has evolved and changed with me over the past 7 years. Originally when we were based in LA we were a creative community for artists such as photographers, models, makeup artists, hair artists, videographers… we also started a print and online magazine ARCHIVE, and had a licensed talent agency MORE Talent where we represented models + photographers. Life happens and things change and interests change and more recently we relaunched the business (about a year ago) from where I now live in Northern California and our focus is on amplifying small businesses through photo, video, website support, branding / logo design, merchandise creation, social media management and more. Basically using all of those creative skills and the network to help amplify other aligned small businesses. We also launched “The Groovy Shack Podcast” a couple of months ago and we sit down and interview amazing creatives, artists, business owners, and just really RAD people who have important things to say – that can be listened to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! We overall since the beginning have been a safe space and community for people of all kinds, and its cool being able to look back at all the different versions of the business over the years but to realize that the undercurrent is the same: support those around us through art.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
This is really throwing myself under the bus here but I was YOUNG and this was an important lesson that I wish I didn’t have to learn by going through it. When I was 17 I started a boutique called Carpe Diem. I had an online storefront and also popped up in about 2-3 locations throughout town where people could shop in person; think spas, hair salons, etc. My product always moved through pretty quickly and I knew I wanted to be in fashion so it was an easy way to dip my toe in. When it was time to go off to college down in Southern California I packed up all of my merchandise into a chest and brought it with me, not doing all that much but occasionally making a sale online or through Instagram or Facebook here or there. This was back in 2013 so social media wasn’t what it is now. When I was employed by a boutique down in Long Beach they wanted help starting an online store and social media which I was spearheading. They knew I had an online store and wanted to buy me out to minimize competition so they “purchased” my boutique and all of the remaining inventory. I don’ remember ALL of the specifics like the $ amount, but I do know that I didn’t get the agreement in writing, I took down the website and the social channels, they took my inventory and sold it in store (for twice what I was selling it for) and I maybe made $1,000 from the sale. They easily profited $2,000-3,000 just off the inventory they acquired alone. Originally they told me they would pay me closer to $2,500 so I lost over $1k by not getting it in writing. Now I know this could have been WAY worse and I could have lost a lot more money, which is why this lesson always stuck with me and why now I do contracts for nearly everything – so everyone is on the same page and held accountable. Thank goodness this wasn’t a $20,000 or $50,000 deal. Better to learn on the small scale because over the past 10+ years my projects and businesses are playing at much higher dollar amounts!
Have you ever had to pivot?
2020 was a tough year for everyone… but with a business in the event space where we made money each month by getting 30 people together in a small room, we obviously had to make a big SHIFT or my business was going to take and with that my monthly income. Since we couldn’t gather in person for our photographer model meet ups, we hard core turned to social media to keep the community connected. I hosted 3-5 Instagram lives per week which resulted in lots of value added for our creatives and followers. We got creative and connected with outdoor venues so we still could abide by Covid guidelines, and we hosted some incredible events out in Joshua Tree or larger outdoor ranches etc. in LA. When one door closed, we had to build our own doors elsewhere to walk through so that things weren’t frozen in time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tgscollective.com
- Instagram: tgscollective / thealexmorehouse
Image Credits
Larissa Raquel