Katie: Welcome back to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. Esther and I are still being wined, dined, and entertained at the beautiful loft space that we're in in Houston. As we mentioned earlier in the show, we're actually here for a fantastic opening event with Primer Grey and co.lab Marketing and I am actually honored to be here with three of our most generous and handsome of hosts, the three of you, the partners of Primer Grey. We have Chris Valdez, Chris Everson, and Cliff Raymond. Guys, welcome to the show.
Primer Grey: Thanks Katie.
Katie: We're so happy to have you. So first of all, we are in this amazing space full of really wacky crazy people. Tell me, what is going on here. Like this is to celebrate you and yet you are celebrating the entire Houston city I feel like.
Primer Grey: I guess we moved to the neighborhood about, gosh, the first of February. So just almost two months ago. You know, originally it was kind of a plan to be our open house party and we realized that, you know, we're just one of many in the neighborhood and one of many that don't necessarily hang a sign on their door that you don't know or necessarily hear.
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: And so we, you know, quickly became, you know, in the spirit of things like Only in Houston and SLGT, you know, we decided to make it about more than just us. You know, there's plenty of other people around, you know. So we turned to our friends and neighbors and invited people like Net Victories, Zenfilm, 002 Magazine. So -
Katie: Excellent to come celebrate together.
Primer Grey: - and then you have tonight.
Katie: Yay! (Laughter) So tell me a little bit about Primer Grey. I mean what do you guys do? Whenever I hear the name I think of like a cool hot rod that's sitting in someone's garage, just ready for like some flashy paint job.
Primer Grey: Kind of love that reference actually.
Katie: (Laughter)
Primer Grey: I mean we do full service marketing and kind of we, I guess, start from scratch is the whole Primer Grey idea. Start with nothing and then turn it into something amazing.
Katie: I love it!
Primer Grey: The idea there.
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: I think the idea of starting with a blank canvas just kind of like what you mentioned, you know, as something ready to be painted anew. You know, kind of it harkens the idea of, you know, questioning what you've done in the past and what you've been doing to date and rethinking things and how can you do things in a new and different way because today's market is new and different for a lot of people -
Katie: Absolutely.
Primer Grey: - and adjustments are necessary to stay up to pace with your competitors.
Katie: Absolutely.
Primer Grey: Yeah, we do take pride in kind of offering a full service range of services I guess, and kind of do it with a smaller, more personal environment than a huge corporation or one of the big multi-city marketing firms around or something like that.
Katie: Absolutely.
Primer Grey: So instead of the huge corporation, we're just a few guys and a few girls - (Laughter)
Katie: Doing what you do.
Primer Grey: Doing what we do.
Katie: Now, when you say "a full range of services", I mean are we talking online services or I mean, what at your heart are you guys crazy about?
Primer Grey: Well I mean we consider ourselves a hybrid agency, meaning we do probably 75 percent of our work in Web -
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: - but we come from - the idea with developing the agency was that we all came from disparate backgrounds that were very diverse and taking the experiences that we had in our careers up to this point; and whether it's print agency client-side and applying that to a hybrid concept, obviously with the development of the proliferation of the Internet, everybody needs a website -
Katie: Exactly.
Primer Grey: - and those types of things, so that drives a significant amount of our business. But we do approach every new client as, like Chris said, "A blank canvas." So it's not necessarily you come to us, we build you a website. It's, you come to us, what are trying to do to drive business? What are your business goals? And what can we take from our skill set to apply and achieve those goals for you?
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: And maybe that's a website or maybe it's a giant blown up monster truck in the front of your next tradeshow exhibit.
Katie: Awesome! So I mean, this is interesting to me the idea that, you know, a lot of times people come to a company saying like, "I need this, I want this, my competitor's doing this. I wanna be better than this guy. Do what this guy's doing but cooler." But sometimes they're not very educated or it's not what they do, so they just have this perception on what they need. How do you kind of tackle people that come in, you know, clients that come in and maybe don't have a specific goal in mind but that are like shiny on this website. "Shiny, shiny, blinky, blinky. Do this for me." You know, how do you deal with that?
Primer Grey: I think our initial approach is taking a step back and I think we find ourselves doing that often, because as Chris said, we do get clients a lot of times walking in the door that say, "I need this."
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: And we find ourselves oftentimes taking this and saying, "Wait, wait, wait." Okay, that may be a component of what you need, but let's take a step back and really talk about the 30,000 foot view of what you're trying to accomplish with your business and then we'll delve into how we're gonna do that.
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: Actually we spoke with someone today that was like, "You know, everything that's been done by the people at my company in the past has been wrong, you know, and it hasn't been right, and it's just our cake." And we're like, "Well you know, there's still value to some of those things."
Katie: So I mean you guys are a young company. Actually, when did you start Primer Grey? Like how old are you?
Primer Grey: You know, we incorporated end of August, but we've been working together in this kind of arrangement since last summer. So I mean you know, you're looking at -
Katie: So I mean less than a year old.
Primer Grey: Yeah, less than a year old.
Katie: So you're a relatively young company, I mean less than a year old and I know, you know, with the economy the way that it is there are a lot of designers and marketers that are out of a job, that are maybe freelancing. How did you guys make it work?
Primer Grey: Devotion.
Primer Grey: Passion.
Primer Grey: It's plain and simple devotion and passion, yeah.
Primer Grey: Absolutely.
Katie: Okay.
Primer Grey: Care about what you do every day.
Primer Grey: It's kind of - you have to want to do what you do to make it work as opposed to just it being a job. It's more of the passion, more of a desire to succeed and do great things with great people.
Katie: Alright, and one of my favorite things about Primer Grey is that it's not just that you have passion for the client project for, you know, who's writing you the next check, but you're really, really in deep with the community. What are some things that you're working on right now that are coming ahead that are helping you light those fires under ya?
Primer Grey: We kind of coopted the term co-opetition.
Katie: Co-opetition! We like that word on the show.
Primer Grey: And the idea of, "Do we really have to dislike each other as agencies to be successful?" And the idea that there's actually potentially more success in collaboration outside the agency doors.
Primer Grey: And it has been nice too because, you know, my background does come from a traditional advertising agency side of things. It has been nice to, you know, recognize that as the more competitive and sort of siloed agency approach. Recognize that as a thing of sort of an older guard that's changing now and I think, you know, those guys are opening up to you know, that it is cool to be open and to talk about what we're doing
Katie: Excellent.
Primer Grey: - and share with others and come together.
Katie: So there's no more secret sauce. I mean you're growing together, you're learning together.
Primer Grey: I think fairly omen as far as businesses go with each other just to try to improve the Houston community as far as design and small businesses and startup businesses. Everything kind of goes. We've kind of -
Primer Grey: You know, a rising tide lifts all ships, right? So I mean that's sort of the idea. If we're making each other better, then the whole marketing and design community gets better.
Katie: It gets better. Well Chris, Cliff, and Chris, thank you so much, number one, for throwing this amazing community focus shindig. And lastly, for certainly spending your precious moments here with The Overtime Show, we loved it.
Primer Grey: Thanks for having us.
Primer Grey: Yeah, thanks.
Primer Grey: Thank you very much.
Katie: And now it's time for another business survival tip from Carl Kleimann of Odyssey One Source.
Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann with another Business Survival Tip from Odyssey One Source.
After a yearlong debate over healthcare reform, we finally have some answers. Admittedly, many questions still surround this voluminous legislation and as the regulations are written, those too will be answered. Today, I will address the timeline for the major elements of healthcare reform affecting small businesses.
This year, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be eligible for tax credits covering 35 percent of their healthcare premiums. As plans renew, lifetime limits and restrictive annual coverage limits will be prohibited. Young adults will be allowed to remain on their parent's insurance until their 26th birthday. And insurers will be barred from imposing exclusions on children with pre-existing conditions.
In 2011, a plan to provide a new vehicle for small businesses to offer tax-free benefits will be created. This is intended to ease the small employer's administrative burden of sponsoring a cafeteria plan. The Medicare payroll tax will increase from its current 1.45 percent to 2.35 percent for individuals earning more than $200,000 and married filing jointly above $250,000.
In 2013, contributions to flexible savings accounts will be limited to $2,500 per year, indexed by the Consumer Price Index in subsequent years.
In 2014, companies with 50 or more employees must offer coverage to employees or pay a $2,000 penalty per employee, excluding their first 30 employees, if even one of their employees receives a tax credit. Waiting periods before insurance takes effect will be limited to 90 days. Employers that do offer coverage but has one or more employees that receive a tax credit will pay $3,000 for each worker receiving a tax credit. Insurers can no longer refuse to sell or renew policies because of an individual's health status. Health plans can no longer exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions. Insurers can't charge higher rates because of heath status, gender or other factors. Health plans will be prohibited from imposing annual limits on coverage. Health insurance exchanges will open in each state to individuals and small employers to allow them to comparison shop for standardized health coverage.
And finally, in 2018, "Cadillac" plans will be subject to an excise tax. For example, employer-provided health plans valued beyond $10,200 for single coverage and $27,500 for family coverage will be subject to a 40 percent excise tax on those premiums.
I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.
Katie: And up next we've got a fantastic Chapter 3 where we're talking about "Support Local Grow Together" community building throughout the United States. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.
