We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenna Millner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge for creative professionals to profitability is that time equals money. There are a lot of factors that play into that concept. We not only have the challenge of balancing how much time we are spending on our clients’ brands but also getting people to realize the value of our time as it relates to design.

Personally, I have a hard time relinquishing creative control on projects. I want to hold on tight to anything that is visual related. I also have a hard time raising my prices, likely because of some kind of imposter syndrome. So often I find myself working late nights just so I can keep up with the daily grind of marketing my services, working on client projects, and working on the business itself.

I also have to weigh out the fact that if I just say yes to every client, I lose sight of the big picture of what I’m trying to do and what my company stands for. I have had so many chats with potential clients where it is clear they don’t quite understand the importance of really great design and how detrimental it is when you use poor design in your marketing. I’ve even seen CEO’s in corporate america can miss the mark on that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a designer for 15+ years. Ever since I was in high school, I knew that designing was my ultimate passion. I was initially drawn to editorial and layout design, but now I have evolved into branding and website design.

My clients now are typically entrepreneurs who are either starting their business from scratch or they have been in business for a while and want to invest in their branding and website. My offerings typically include a full logo suite with graphic patterns, social media templates, and any marketing materials the business needs to promote themselves.

When I work with clients, I am not just thinking about the logo and the website, I want to know exactly how my client plans on running their business. How they work with their clients and who their target audience is can be so important when designing for them. I have a lengthy background in designing for in-house marketing departments where I’ve designed entire vans, to creating a brand new website.

Nothing is more scary when you are starting a business and you have no idea where to start. I am most proud of giving small business owners the confidence to go out into the world and start marketing themselves. We have done the work together to create a truly unique brand experience.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

March of 2020 is likely when a lot of careers pivoted and my story is no exception. I was working for a travel company at the time and I was quickly furloughed in those beginning months. Within the next 1.5 years, I was on and off again being furloughed and trying to navigate life of uncertainty. I had a toddler boy and was expecting my second child.

My friend and I were having play dates every week and she was starting a business to help sleep consultants with content writing and she saw a need for design help as well. I had some experience in designing logos and websites but I never took the leap of launching a business from it. I loved the thought of helping sole business owners with their branding and websites because I just loved design and I thought it would be a great opportunity to empower others with their businesses.

A few months later, my friend and I started a marketing firm to help entrepreneurs with their marketing. Now it’s been almost 3 years that we have been in business and I’ve grown a lot from March 2020.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Our business sees the importance of diversifying our income revenue. We don’t want to just offer 1:1 services because there are only so many hours in the day. We also wanted to make sure that our skills can be used to help a wider set of people.

Almost 2 years ago, we launched a template shop. In the shop we provided a subscription where we offer social media and marketing templates for sleep consultants so they can stay consistent on social media and also market themselves with confidence without having to pay the higher fee of hiring a person.

We also sell sleep guides for commercial use, so sleep consultants can also provide diversity in their income stream as well.

My goal is to launch a template shop for semi-custom brands and websites this year.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marketstcreative.com
• Instagram: @marketstcreative
• Facebook: @marketstcreative

Image Credits
Savage Photography and My Brand Photographer