Erik Wolf recants the story of his father bringing home the first Apple computer and letting him "play" with it as a kid. That early experience with a rich graphics platform gave him a head start in the creative world. Although he studied political science in college and later received an MBA in Marketing from Georgia State, Erik's real world design experience is what landed him in his first job with a local newspaper. Later, working in the marketing department of a start up company, he discovered his love for creative work and his career was launched. Erik wonders, "just how different my life might be today if my Dad had never brought home that computer."
When Erik ran the marketing communications department at a mid-size toy company, he wanted the services of a large creative agency but just couldn't afford to hire them. On the other hand, he couldn't risk the uncertainty of a freelancer either. There just wasn't something in the middle. Then came the idea for a boutique creative firm, Zero-G Creative; a firm that could and would serve small business. Erik figured out that he could create a firm with low overhead and minimal fixed cost so his minimum project size wouldn't be an issue with start-ups and small businesses.
"Most creative agencies won't even answer the phone for less than $30k, whereas Zero-G regularly quotes jobs in the $5k to $20k range." Erik explains, "Our business model is structured to allow us to deliver creative projects like logos, business cards, and websites for a fraction of the cost of our larger competitors." A lot of agility is required to be that competitive. One tool that keeps cost down is Wordpress, a free, open-source, web-enabling software package that allows Zero-G to rapidly implement a web design and then allows the client to maintain it. "When a small business only has a few thousand dollars a year to spend on their website, they need tool that can be used by a low-tech employee to maintain content - they don't want to have to call their creative agency to add a news article or change a phone number."
Zero-G customers include start-up companies, business-to-business companies, inventors, product companies and technology companies where the CEO/business owner is very serious about projecting an image in the marketplace. "You don't have to be a $50M company to look like a $50M company." Erik attributes his success and the success of Zero-G to being honest with customers and providing objective feedback. Entrepreneurs, by their very nature, have big ideas. Keeping those ideas in line with their budget is key to winning the work from these entrepreneurs. When those ideas are really big but the budget doesn't match, Erik helps the business owner focus on what is critically important and then puts a plan in place to add the other elements when the business can fund the growth.
Zero-G plans to be the "go to company" people turn to when they launch their dream. To get there, Erik continually expands the company's presence in the entrepreneur community. One of the ways they stay involved is hosting an Internet radio talk show, "gravity free radio" where they bring experts on the show to offer advice to small businesses and start-ups.
When he's not driving the creative process for a client, Erik enjoys camping and touring around north Georgia in a motor home with his family. Do you think the younger ones get to play with a Blackberry in the back seat?
Learn more about Zero-G Creative at www.zerogcreative.com
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