Noah Tannen

Back in the day, when I would bike in the 13 miles miles from home to downtown Seattle for work, I would cycle through the Phinney Ridge neighborhood and admire all the boutique stores and quaint coffee shops. The reconnect roadshow finally took me to one, Herkimer Coffee, to meet Noah Tannen, partner and founder of the brand and advertising agency Rupert Inc. Noah and I had never met, but Joe Huber and Matty Harper sent me his way as someone with a good ear and great perspective on creative work, leading teams, and starting an agency. Noah has a wonderful backstory, which you get by reading his LinkedIn profile. From first gig to agency founder, it displays Noah’s knack for storytelling as well as his growth as a creative executive, strategist, and business leader. In person, Noah was a wealth of knowledge. A few nuggets:

1) When running a small business, add costs slowly and cut costs quickly. This is a tough one to follow when people are the costs, but it’s wise advise Noah got early on from his mentors and it has proven itself to be worthwhile year after year.

2) Traffic is profitability. So much focus is put on wooing and winning clients, but it is often the traffic function that determines whether or not the agency is making money on those projects. Empowering traffic to manage the workflow while letting others focus on their roles increases efficiency and profitability.

3) When looking for the right partner to start or grow your agency, remember that you can hire out for a lot of the skills you don’t have to provide services to clients. The right partner might actually cross over with some of your own skills, allowing you to divide and conquer and enabling the agency to scale.

Good stuff on the reconnect roadshow, and great coffee at Herkimer. Thank you Noah for your time and your wisdom.

#advertisingandmarketing #smallbusiness #agencygrowth #coffee#thankyou