Let Me Google That for You
When we first decided to start litenflame, we figured we had a pretty solid handle on what it would take. After all, we had 15 years of experience, the contacts, and the know-how—how hard could running our own marketing and communications agency be?
It turns out, that’s when the real learning began.
Starting a business is like diving into an ocean where the water is always shifting. Just when you think you’ve mastered a wave, another one comes crashing in—usually one you didn’t see coming. And when you’re running a full-service agency, you quickly realize you need to wear more hats than you thought possible.
Business formation? Easy, right? You file some paperwork, get a cool logo, and boom—you’re official. But the reality is, starting litenflame meant navigating LLC vs. S-Corp vs. Sole Proprietorship discussions. We found ourselves learning about business insurance, liability, and tax implications. It wasn’t enough to be good marketers—we needed to be half-decent lawyers and accountants, too.
We’ve always been comfortable with numbers, but suddenly we were knee-deep in financial structures. How should we set up cash flow projections? What’s the right way to budget for operational costs while leaving room for reinvestment? And then there’s taxes, payroll, and navigating “cash flow crunches.” It’s never just adding columns in a spreadsheet. The real learning curve comes when you need to forecast for projects that may or may not come in.
Creating pitch presentations and proposals for clients should have been second nature, right? After all, marketing is our game. But here’s what you don’t consider until you’re doing it for yourself—every proposal is a balance between showing your expertise and not overpromising. And when clients ask for things that are just outside your wheelhouse (e.g., "Can you build a CRM for us, too?"), it’s not about saying no. It’s about saying, “Let us figure it out, and we’ll get back to you.” We discovered that, while the work may be new, there’s always a way to learn how to do it.
Contracts? We knew they were important, but drafting airtight agreements is something else entirely. Suddenly, we were learning about indemnification, intellectual property, and how to structure payment terms that don’t leave us holding the bag. Each client’s ask required a tailored contract, and when you’re just starting out, paying a lawyer to do that for every job isn’t always realistic. So we dug into templates and resources to make sure we didn’t miss anything critical.
The actual work—branding, digital marketing, content creation, data analysis, strategy, consulting—was where we felt the most at ease. It’s what we’d been doing for years, but now it came with a twist: we weren’t just delivering work, we were managing every single aspect of the project. Delegating, overseeing, and sometimes stepping into new skill areas entirely. As clients asked for website development, ADA compliance, CRM implementation, and other services slightly outside our comfort zone, we realized we weren’t just running a business—we were learning it, building it, and doing it simultaneously.
We always thought billing was straightforward: you do the work, you send an invoice. Simple, right? Except that invoicing isn’t always just about the money—it’s about the relationship. There are nuances to payment terms, early payments, partial payments, milestone payments. Don’t even get us started on passthrough billing vs service revenue; automating the classification for payment types is just one of countless items needing attention.
What we’ve realized in this journey is that running a business isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about knowing how to learn everything. Every time a client asks for something beyond our current skill set, or we encounter a new challenge, our first thought is no longer “We can’t do that.” Instead, it’s “How do we figure it out?” Because there’s always a way. Whether it’s building a website from scratch, integrating a new digital tool, or structuring a deal in a way that protects both parties—there’s a solution out there. You just have to find it.
There’s a huge gap between what you think you know and what you have to learn when you start a business. For us, litenflame has been the best classroom. Every day, we’re learning about the things we never expected: finance, legal structures, and how to handle unexpected client requests. But more importantly, we’re learning about resilience, resourcefulness, and the ability to pivot. So, when someone asks if we can do something we’ve never done before, the response is simple: “Let us figure that out for you.”
We’re still learning to be communicators, even though it’s one of our core offerings. But, perhaps, the real education has come from building authentic relationships with clients and building trust. Endless meetings, emails, texts, slacks, while delivering high-quality work, is a constant juggling act—a journey rather than a destination. Not even AI is smart or tactful enough to navigate the complexity of human relationships. Every single client has been a pleasure to work with thus far (knock on wood) and we’re loving every step of that journey.
